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| Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra and Bobby Sanabria pay tribute to the Masters The multi-Latin Grammy-nominated Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra conducted by Bobby Sanabria will perform Music of the Masters For the Masters on Wednesday, October 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the School's BordenAuditorium.Please see the program below that features music composed for masters including, Dave Brubeck, Jerry Gonzalez, Hermeto Pascoal, Don Ellis, Frank Zappa, Wes Montgomery and Freddie Hubbard. A world premiere and a New York premiere will also be featured – Jeremy Fletcher's "for fathers everywhere" will receive its world premiere and Andrew Neesley's Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite will be heard in New York for the first time. Program: El Vito en el Congo Miguel Blanco, for Jerry Gonzalez Quién Sabe? Scott Ninmer, for Hermeto Pascoal Strange Meadow Lark Dave Brubeck, arranged by Jeremy Fletcher for Dave The Griot's Tale Eugene Marlow, for Frank Zappa and Don Ellis Niños Jeremy Fletcher, for fathers everywhere (World premiere) Mi Cosa Alyssa Mehnert, for Wes Montgomery A Smile for Everyone Eugene Marlow, for everyone Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite Andrew Neesley, for Freddie Hubbard (New York premiere) ABOUT THE CONCERT The concert opens with Miguel Blanco's El Vito en el Congo composed for Jerry Gonzalez, a Nuyorican trumpeter, and conguero. This work utilizes a rhythm with roots from Nigeria with the Yoruba people and brought to Cuba during the colonial period – bembé. It features the beaded hollowed-out gourds known as shekeres, which are the domain of Ochun, the Yoruba Goddess of beauty and rivers. A combination of a giant maraca and drum, their rhythms speak to us with messages from the orishas (Gods) who manipulate the divine force known as aché. Bobby Sanabria Quién Sabe? follows, composed by MSM graduate and trombonist Scott Ninmer, who was also a former member of the MSM Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. This work pays homage to Hermeto Pascoal and evokes several Northern Brazilian rhythms (maxixe and baion) combined with a touch of samba from Rio in a transitional section for soloists. Jerry Fletcher says about his composition, Strange Meadow Lark for Dave Brubeck, "Two events contributed to the creation of this arrangement of Dave Brubeck's Strange Meadow Lark. First, Chick Corea and Gary Burton released a CD of duos entitled Hot House in 2012 that included a version of Strange Meadow Lark. After listening to this, I was reminded of what a great song it was, and that it was not just a B-side sandwiched between Blue Rondo a la Turk and Take Five on the 1959 album Time Out. Second, on December 5, 2012, Brubeck passed away at the age of 92. Rather than ask a pianist to imitate his style or vainly attempt to fill Brubeck's shoes, the arrangement is structured so that each phrase of the melody is passed from section to section or soloist to soloist, inviting the full band to eventually weigh in on the legacy and timeless beauty of Brubeck's composition. The pianist is one of the last to state the response to the main motif, finally uncovering Brubeck's spirit which has imbued the song throughout. " Eugene Marlow composed The Griot's Tale for the MSM Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. The piece incorporates a variety of rhythms, including a 13/4 meter phrase against underlying Afro-Cuban, rock rhythms with transitions to swing, and a hint of funk. The work's title refers to the West African tribal storyteller/master musician and pays tribute to Frank Zappa and Don Ellis. "I have three children, the most recent born on September 24, 2013. I love them. They challenge me every day. Niños tries to capture the playful spirit of being a kid through both the child's and the parent's points of view." Jeremy Fletcher writes about his work dedicated to fathers everywhere. John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (1923 – 1968) is considered a guitar god amongst fellow guitarists and jazz fans. He became known for "the Naptown Sound, " the use of octaves (playing the same note on two strings usually one octave apart), as well as for the use of block chords in his solos. He was also known for a technique that he developed that used the fleshy part of the thumb to pluck the strings with, instead of a guitar pick. This enabled him to get a mellow, expressive tone from the guitar. Mi Cosa was composed by Alyssa Mehnert for Wes Montgomery. Eugene Marlow's A Smile for Everyone was composed originally in 2001 and first performed by the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop and was also the first big band chart that Marlow composed while studying with Michael Abene. Eugene Marlow says about this work, "This piece should provide a smile for everyone regardless of musical taste. In the hands of Maestro Sanabria and the young tiger players in the MSM AFCJO, this should certainly be the case." Andrew Neesley (trumpeter and MSM alumnus, and a member of Bobby Sanabria's Multiverse big band), composed his multi-movement work, the Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite, and dedicated it to trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. The work pays homage from one trumpeter to another, featuring some of the tunes Hubbard was most associated with, all framed by a series of different Afro-Cuban rhythms: mambo, son montuno, bolero, bembé, rumba abierta, and even swing. BIOGRAPHIES: BOBBY SANABRIA, a seven-time Grammy nominee, as a leader and on numerous other projects as a sideman - drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, conductor, producer, educator, film-maker, bandleader, and multi-cultural warrior, Bobby Sanabria has performed and recorded with such legends as Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaría, Paquito D’Rivera, Ray Barretto, Candido, Henry Threadgill, Larry Harlow, an Afro-Cuban jazz Godfather, Mario Bauzá. His first big band recording, Live & In Clave!!! was nominated for a mainstream Grammy in 2001. In 2003 he was nominated for a Latin Grammy for, "50 Years of Mambo", A Tribute to Damaso Perez Prado. DRUM! Magazine named him Percussionist of the Year in 2005. Grammy nominations followed for Big Band Urban Folktales (2008) which also won Best Latin Jazz Award from the Jazz Journalists Association, Kenya Revisited Live!!! conducting the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra (2009), Tito Puente Masterworks Live!!! conducting the MSM ACJO (2011) and the recent double Grammy nominated Multiverse (2013). This South Bronx native of Puerto Rican parentage is a 2006 inductee into the Bronx Walk of Fame where he has a street named after him. He holds a BM from the Berklee College of Music as is on the faculty of the New School and the Manhattan School of Music where he conducts Afro-Cuban Jazz Big Bands at both schools. He is associate producer of the TV documentaries “The Palladium: Where Mambo Was King” shown on BRAVO, winner of the IMAGINE award for best TV documentary of 2003 and “From Mambo to Hip Hop”, ALMA award, best documentary for TV shown on PBS in 2007. He is the author of the acclaimed video series, Getting Started on Congas and he is a featured performer on the DVD, Modern Drummer Festival 2006, from Hudson Music. Mr. Sanabria is featured in the 4 hour documentary, LATIN MUSIC USA, which aired on PBS in 2009. 2011 saw him garnering the Percussionist of the Year Award from the Jazz Journalists Association. In 2012 Mr. Sanabria spearheaded a successful campaign to re-instate the Latin Jazz category in the Grammys after it was unjustly cut in 2011 filing a landmark lawsuit against the Grammys along with fellow plaintiffs Eugene Marlow, Ben Lapidus and Mark Levine which caused the Academy to re-instate the category in 2012. His current CD, Multiverse, was recently nominated for two Grammys Best Latin Jazz CD and Best Instrumental Arrangement (2013) MIGUEL BLANCO Composer, arranger, and bassist Miguel Blanco was born in Barcelona, Spain. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music, he is largely experienced in arranging, producing and conducting in a wide range of environments—from vocal bands, symphonic orchestras, pop bands, jazz Big Bands, to folkloric forms. Having always been involved with Latin music, he has worked with renowned Cuban artists like Paquito D’Rivera, Omara Portuondo, Olga Guillot, Mexican bolero composer Armando Manzanero, as well as New York City artists Jerry Gonzalez and recently Arturo O’Farrill. He has also been working with Spanish, jazz, and rock artists like Miguel Ríos, Charlie García, Fito Páez, Ariel Rot, La Unión, and M-Clan, among others. For seven years he has been leading the Latin jazz septet La Calle Caliente, having recorded three critically acclaimed CDs. He is currently composing and arranging for his own big band, Afrodisian Orchestra, which has released three CDs: Music for Big Band, Featuring Jerry Gonzalez (Universal Music 2006), Mediterraciones (Barco 2009), and Satierismos: A tribute to Erik Satie (Youkalimusic 2011). Miguel has won several awards for his compositions, including the Spanish award in jazz composition (1992 and 1995), the Ibero-American award (1998, Havana), among others. He is currently the arranging teacher at Musikene (Conservatory of Basque Country) in Spain. JEREMY FLETCHER Jeremy Fletcher is an accomplished performer, educator, and composer. He received his BFA in Saxophone Performance in 1997 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. After graduation he taught in the area’s public schools and was active as a performer. He moved to New York to study at MSM, where he received his MM in 2004 and was awarded the Manny Albam Prize for jazz composition. He pursued his DMA as well, and completed his degree in 2008. Jeremy has written commissions for the New York City All City High School Jazz Band, the College of New Jersey Big Band, and Manhattan School of Music’s 90th anniversary. He contributed one original piece and one arrangement to Bobby Sanabria’s Grammy- nominated album Big Band Urban Folktales. His composition D Train was also licensed by the Bose Corporation f write your comments about the article :: © 2013 Jazz News :: home page |