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| Highlights In Jazz Presents Saxophones Supreme at TRIBECA Performing Arts Center Jack Kleinsinger's Highlights In Jazz, New York's longest running jazz concert series, continues its 43rd season on Thursday March 19, 2015 at 8:00 PM in the Tribeca Performing Arts Center of Borough of Manhattan Community College, 199 Chambers Street, NY, 10007 with Saxophones Supreme, an exciting double bill featuring a Battle Of The Saxes with 2014 Highlights In Jazz Award winner, veteran reed man Ken Peplowski, along with young tenor titan Grant Stewart and the Anderson Twins, the versatile saxophone/clarinet wielding team of Peter and Will Anderson. Filling out the program will be NEA Jazz Master, alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson and his quartet, plus as in all Highlights In Jazz concerts, a surprise special guest. Veteran producer Jack Kleinsinger says of the program, "I'm very excited about this one because it will be a rarity … We're going to have the concert recorded, at least in part. It will be a live recording of the Battle of the Saxes with the Anderson Twins, Peter and Will, Ken Peplowski, and Grant Stewart and a very good rhythm section with pianist Ehud Asherie, the bass player Neal Miner and Aaron Kimmel, a really excellent young drummer. That's an important theme I want to get on - these young musicians." Kleinsinger notes that while the Anderson Twins, hailed by The New York Times as "virtuosos on clarinet and saxophone, " have received widespread praise for their swing era Off Broadway jazz productions Artie Shaw at 100, The Fabulous Dorseys and Le Jazz Hot, they are versatile players well versed in the whole history of jazz, as they proved with their 2014 Highlights In Jazz performance on the Brothers In Jazz program with the Heath Brothers. Veteran reed man Ken Peplowski, the winner of 2014's annual Highlights In Jazz Award, while well known for his skills as a virtuoso clarinetist is an equally talented tenor saxophonist, as he has proven on numerous recordings and in many of his eighteen appearances as a participant in past Highlights In Jazz concerts. Making his Highlights In Jazz return, Canadian tenor saxophonist Grant Stewart embodies the spirit of the series, with a swing to bop sound and technique reflecting the august lineage of his instrument, from Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young to Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. One of his generation's most important voices on the saxophone, his presence as an intelligent and incendiary improviser is sure to spark some fiery exchanges in what is sure to be an exciting show. Filling out the program will be NEA Jazz Master, saxophonist Lou Donaldson and his quartet featuring guitarist Eric Johnson, Hammond B3 organist Pat Bianchi and drummer Fukushi Tainaka. The reigning patriarch of the alto saxophone, the 88 year old Donaldson remains one of the most skilled and passionate exponents of the horn, whether playing fiery bebop in the spirit of Charlie Parker or emotional ballads and blues recalling the sound of Johnny Hodges. A natural showman, Donaldson's witty repartee has long made him a favorite with audiences around the world in a career stretching across eight decades. As in all Highlights In Jazz concerts the show will also feature a surprise guest, chosen from among the music's finest players. Some of the biggest stars in jazz who have appeared as special guests in previous years have been Eubie Blake, Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie, Ear Hines, Branford Marsalis, Carmen McRae, Gerry Mulligan and George Shearing. Jack Kleinsinger's Highlights In Jazz, continues its 43rd season on Thursday May 7, 2015 with A Salute To Wycliffe Gordon honoring the versatile trombonist/tuba player who will be the recipient of this year's Annual Highlights In Jazz Award which has been presented since 1974 to honor a singular living jazz musician for, in Kleinsinger's words, their "matchless musical achievements." The youngest artist to ever be honored with the award, Gordon, who will be performing with his working quintet featuring clarinetist/saxophonist Adrian Cunningham, trumpeter Terell Stafford, pianist Aaron Diehl, bassist Yasushi Nakamura and drummer Alvin Atkinson, as well as with frequent collaborators bassist/vocalist Jay Leonhart and pianist Ted Rosenthal, says "I feel really honored to have been selected. Especially in light of the one's that have come before me." Previous honorees have been Roy Eldridge, Lionel Hampton, Roy Haynes, Hank Jones, Maxine Sullivan, Frank Wess, Dr. Billy Taylor and many others. Kleinsinger says of the annual award, "The first year I decided that everybody else waits for people to die and then they do memorial concerts. Why not honor these people while they're still alive and playing and let them know that we love them. The first year we honored Lionel Hampton and it was a thrilling night for me as a fledgling producer. Teddy Wilson showed up and Clark Terry was there. It was just such a wonderful evening and we've done it every year since." write your comments about the article :: © 2015 Jazz News :: home page |