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| Jazzmobile Presents First Annual Jazzy Awards Celebration, Jazzmobile, Inc., the Harlem-based organization that pioneered the concept of bringing jazz into the community and creating new audiences with mobile jazz performances, hosts its first annual Jazzy Awards Celebration: In Honor of Dr. Billy Taylor's 90th Birthday (1921-2010) featuring a concert with special performances by Dianne Reeves, Frank Wess, Jimmy Heath, Wycliffe Gordon and the Jazzmobile Big Band conducted by Cecil Bridgewater on Monday, October 10, 7:00 pm, at the Hudson Theatre, 145 West 44th Street in New York City. In addition to the performances, legendary Jazz Impresario, George Wein and JPMorgan Chase Foundation will be honored for their significant contributions to Jazz and their continuous support of Jazzmobile. Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director for Jazz at Lincoln Center, will present the Jazzy Award to Chase while Dick Cashin, Managing Director of One Equity Partners and a Board Member of the Newport Festivals Foundation, will make the presentation to Wein. Marsalis also will present an award created from a work by renowned artist Leroy Neiman to Theodora Taylor in recognition of what would have been Dr. Taylor's 90th Birthday and for his many contributions to Jazz including the founding of Jazzmobile. The Honorable H. Carl McCall is the Committee Chair for the Jazzy Awards Celebration. Honorary Chairmen are Spike Lee and Wynton Marsalis, with Kathleen Battle, Ruby Dee, Honorable David Dinkins, Joyce Dinkins, Danny Simmons and Theodora Taylor serving as Honorary Committee Members. The Steering Committee includes Eileen A. Frank, H. Sidney Holmes III, and Kim Taylor-Thompson. * * * About Jazzmobile, Inc. Jazzmobile, Inc., America's oldest not-for-profit arts organization created just for Jazz, was founded in 1964 by NEA Jazz Master Dr. Billy Taylor and Daphne Arnstein. Its mission is to present, preserve, promote, and propagate Jazz – "America's classical music." This mission is implemented through quality jazz education and performance programs, workshops, master classes, lecture demonstrations, arts enrichment programs, as well as out-of-doors mobile Jazz performances and those in clubs and major concert halls here and abroad. Jazzmobile serves approximately 100, 000 people in New York City and its outlying areas each year. About the Artists One of Jazz's pre-eminent vocalists, multiple Grammy winner Dianne Reeves is a powerful storyteller. With her unique R&B and Jazz stylings, she has captured a huge following and tremendous critical acclaim throughout the world. She has been featured frequently with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and at Carnegie Hall with Sir Simon Rattle and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. Earlier this year, Reeves performed at Carnegie Hall's 120th anniversary celebration and is touring internationally with Sing the Truth!, a production honoring the music and spirit of great female artists including Odetta, Abbey Lincoln and Miriam Makeba. Her award-winning recordings include When You Know, A Little Moonlight, The Calling and In the Moment - Live in Concert. Prior to moving to New York in 1964 to lead his own groups, NEA Jazz Master Frank Wess performed with the Count Basie Orchestra for 11 years. He used the popularity of the Basie band to introduce the flute as an independent voice to jazz audiences, becoming one of its first major soloists. A mainstay on the New York Jazz scene and in local studios, Wess played in various shows all over the city and held a contract with ABC for 10 years performing for "Saturday Night Live, " the Dick Cavett Show, the Sammy Davis Show and others. For almost 20 years, he performed in a quintet called "Two Franks" with Frank Foster, his colleague from the Basie days. In the late 80s and early 90s, Wess led a stellar Basie-style big band, which recorded the critically-acclaimed albums "Dear Mr. Basie" and "Entre Nous." Soon to celebrate his own 90th birthday (January 4), Frank Wess continues to travel around the world as a soloist and band leader. NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath has long been recognized as a brilliant instrumentalist and a magnificent composer and arranger. He is the middle brother of the legendary Heath Brothers (Percy/bass and Tootie/drums), and is the father of Mtume. He has performed with nearly all the jazz greats of the last 50 years, from Howard McGhee, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis to Wynton Marsalis. One of Heath's earliest big bands (1947-1948) in Philadelphia included John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Specs Wright, Cal Massey, Johnny Coles, Ray Bryant, and Nelson Boyd; Charlie Parker and Max Roach sat in on one occasion. During his career, Heath has performed on more than 100 record albums including seven with The Heath Brothers and a dozen as a leader. He also has written more than 125 compositions, many of which have become jazz standards and have been recorded by other artists including Art Farmer, Cannonball Adderley, Clark Terry, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, James Moody, Milt Jackson, Ahmad Jamal, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie J.J Johnson and Dexter Gordon. His autobiography, I Walked with Giants, is reaping rave reviews worldwide and was named 2011 Best Book of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. Renowned trombonist, composer and arranger Wycliffe Gordon has performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Tommy Flanagan, Shirley Horn, Joe Henderson, Eric Reed, Randy Sandke and Branford Marsalis, plus many top players from the swing and traditional jazz world. A continued supporter of Jazzmobile, he recently premiered a Jazzmobile commission, Within Our Gates, a composition to an Oscar Micheaux silent film. His work with young musicians and audiences from elementary schools to universities all over the world is extensive, and includes master classes, clinics, workshops, children's concerts and lectures — powerful evidence of his unique ability to relate musically to people of all ages. Cecil Bridgewater is a trumpeter who realizes the lineage of his instrument and has an appreciation for its place in contemporary music. Throughout his more than 30 years as a performer, composer, arranger, record producer and educator, he has worked with Max Roach, Horace Silver, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, Count Basie Orchestra, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Heath, Sir Roland Hanna, Wynton Marsalis and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, among others. At the Jazzy Awards Celebration, Bridgewater will conduct the Jazzmobile Big Band featuring some of New York's top musicians and ongoing Jazzmobile supporters. write your comments about the article :: © 2011 Jazz News :: home page |