Please visit our new Special Projects section for several exciting and unusual concert programs, including silent films with Laurel & Hardy and from the former Soviet Union!
ARTIST NEWS:
Don Byron
DON BYRON’S 50th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
November 13-16, 2008
The Jazz Standard 116 East 27th Street
New York, NY 10016
t. 212-576-2232 www.jazzstandard.net
For almost two decades, Don Byron has been a singular voice in an astounding range of musical contexts, exploring widely divergent traditions while continually striving for what he calls "a sound above genre." As clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and social critic, he redefines every genre of music he plays, be it classical, salsa, hip-hop, funk, klezmer, rhythm & blues, or any jazz style from swing and bop to cutting-edge downtown improvisation.
Don Byron’s 50th Birthday in November presents a perfect opportunity to showcase his diversity by featuring, over four nights, four distinctively different bands comprised of longtime Byron collaborators.
Thursday, November 13, 7:30/9:30pm, $25 +tax Don Byron Plays the Music of Mickey Katz
Don Byron, clarinet
Ralph Alessi, trumpet
JD Parran, saxophones, clarinet
Alan Ferber, trombone
Todd Reynolds, violin
Uri Caine, piano
Kenny Davis, bass
Ben Wittman, drums
Jack Falk, vocal
A re-formation of the groundbreaking and virtuosic klezmer ensemble that recorded Byron’s eponymous Nonesuch album and spearheaded the klezmer revival in the 1990s. Dedicated to the music of the great Mickey Katz, clarinetist, humorist, and musical director for Spike Jones in the fifties and sixties.
Friday, November 14, 7:30/9:30/11:30pm $30 +tax Bug Music Sextet
Don Byron, clarinet
Rob DeBellis, saxophones
Ralph Alessi, trumpet
Uri Caine, piano
Mark Helias, bass
Ben Wittman, drums
Named after Byron’s best-selling 1996 album Bug Music, this stellar sextet performs razor-sharp arrangements of works by three great composers of the Swing Era – Duke Ellington, Raymond Scott, and John Kirby.
Saturday, November 15, 7:30/9:30/11:30pm $30 +tax Don Byron Quartet
Don Byron, clarinet, tenor saxophone
Edward Simon, piano
Kenny Davis, bass
Eric Harland, drums
Evolved from his acclaimed Ivey-Divey Trio, Byron’s new quartet continues to mine the work of Lester Young and Eddie Harris for inspiration. The repertoire also includes Byron’s Lester Young-inspired compositions recently commissioned by Chamber Music America and other new original works influenced by these giants of the tenor saxophone.
Sunday, November 16, 7:30/9:30pm, $25 +tax Music for Six Musicians
Don Byron, clarinet
James Zollar, trumpet
Edward Simon, piano
Leo Traversa, bass
Milton Cardona, congas
Ben Wittman, drums
Reflecting Byron’s Latin and Afro-Carribean heritage, Music for Six Musicians highlights mostly original compositions in “hothouse arrangements” (Spin Magazine). Featured on a self-titled 1995 disc and on 2001’s You Are #6, this is simultaneously Byron’s longest-running band and one of his most innovative, validating the past while establishing new frontiers.
Iva Bittová
Bittová’s collaboration with bass virtuoso George Mraz is documented on the new CD “Moravian Gems” (Cube-Metier), a crystalline set of Czech folks songs arranged and interpreted with a jazz sensibility for a quartet featuring pianist Laco Tropp, pianist Emil Viklicky and Bittová’s breathtaking vocals. Another collaboration paired her with the Wendy Osserman Dance Company for “Out of Place,” a piece that premiered in March at the Hudson Guild Theatre featuring Osserman’s choreography for her company and Bittová’s violin, vocals and dancing.
A brief US tour with the Skampa Quartet from Prague followed in April, featuring Leos Janacek’s “Folk Poetry” song cycle and including performances at the Library of Congress in DC and at Carnegie/Zankel Hall in New York (see also “Video of the Month,” from a performance in Slovakia)
She also recently collaborated with clarinetist Don Byron, performing with him in various dynamic trios – with drummer Hamid Drake in France, with guitarist Marc Ribot in Saratoga, California, and with pianist Lisa Moore at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut.
Currently on tour with Bang On A Can All-Stars, Iva will perform a solo concert at Duke University in Durham, NC on October 25th.
Dafnis Prieto
The release of Dafnis Prieto’s new, third album “Taking The Soul for a Walk” in May also signifies the launch of his own label, Dafnison Music. Extending his previous quintets to a sextet, Prieto gives himself a larger canvas and palette for his compositional strokes and penchant for beautiful counterpoint melodies over a multitude of polyrhythms. The compositions grew out of a commission by Chamber Music America. The CD features saxophonists Peter Apfelbaum and Yosvany Terry, trumpeter Avishai Cohen, pianist Manuel Varela, bassist Yunior Terrry, and guest flutist Itai Kriss. The CD release was celebrated during a 4-night run at the Jazz Standard from June 19-22. Stellar reviews of the CD can be found in the press section of this site. Dafnis was featured on the cover of the August issue of MODERN DRUMMER Magazine. His sextet played a series of concerts in October at the Modern Drummer Festival (see video clip), at the New York Public Library, and at Duke University. His quartet will play several dates in Northern California from October 30-November 3 (see performances for details).
Ron Miles
Ron Miles has played an essential role in guitarist Bill Frisell’s expansive musical universe for more than a decade (including Frisell’s brand new album “History, Mystery”) almost as long as the trumpeter has made ingenious use of Frisell’s marvelously elastic sonic palette. The trumpeter’s latest collaboration with Frisell is a new quartet featuring bassist Reginald Veal, best known for his extensive work with Wynton Marsalis, and drummer Matt Wilson, a highly creative bandleader in his own right. The band debuted in 2007 at the University of Colorado Boulder with a repertoire of Miles originals and classic compositions by the likes of Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and Duke Ellington. The quartet, which showcases the potent emotional chemistry between Miles and Frisell, is available for select performances in 2009.
Edward Simon
Edward Simon presented his Ensemble Venezuela in June at the San Francisco Jazz Festival Spring Season’s “Fiesta Venezuela.” He performed as a member of a Latin All-Star group led by flutist Orlando “Maraca” Valle at the Monterey Jazz Festival on September 19&20. He is the subject of a cover story in the current issue of Chamber Music Magazine, together with his brother, drummer Marlon Simon.
Tin Hat
After a long break from touring, Tin Hat recently debuted a program of new material at recent concerts in Berkeley and at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga. They performed music from the Tin Hat Trio album “The Rodeo Eroded” live with choreographer Lawrence Goldhuber’s “Big Man Arts” company at Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA, on August 23rd.
After gaining attention with his scores for the feature film “Sweetland” and the award-winning documentaries “The Real Dirt On Farmer John” and “Orthodox Stance,” Tin Hat guitarist Mark Orton was hired to compose the music for “The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond,” a new film based on a long-lost screenplay by Tennessee Williams, to be released this fall.
Tin Hat violinist Carla Kihlstedt premiered her ambitious evening-length multimedia theatrical production “Necessary Monsters” in February at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, which co-commissioned the piece in partnership with Alverno Presents and the National Performance Network Creation Fund. 2 Foot Yard, Kihlstedt’s band with cellist Marika Hughes and percussionist/guitarists Shahzad Ismaily, released its second album “Borrowed Arms.”
Tin Hat clarinetist Ben Goldberg recorded two new projects, both featuring trumpeter Ron Miles: a quintet with saxophonist Joshua Redman and the extraordinary rhythm team of bassist Devin Hoff and drummer Ches Smith (also know for their duo “Good for Cows”), and a quartet with guitarist Charlie Hunter and drummer Scott Amendola (see also Special Projects). CD release details TBA soon.
