Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Jazz Orchestra
Performs at 74th Annual Carmel Bach Festival, July 24, 2011
Big Band Bach Features Renowned National High School
All-Star Big Band, Joe Lovano, and Alice Kirwan Murray
Bach Festival Performance Kicks Off NGJO’s 11-Day West Coast Tour to Carmel,
San Francisco, Seattle and Port Townsend, Washington; Monmouth, Oregon;
San Diego, and Los Angeles, July 23 – August 2, 2011
June 30, 2011; Monterey, CA; The Monterey Jazz Festival® and the Carmel Bach Festival are proud to announce their first-ever collaboration with a special performance called Big Band Bach at the Sunset Center in Carmel on Sunday, July 24 at 8:30pm. The Monterey Jazz Festival’s National High School All-Star Big Band, the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, will perform alongside the renowned tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano, and vocalist Alice Kirwan Murray.
The Next Generation Jazz Orchestra will perform material from their upcoming tour. Big band arrangements of Bach’s Two-Part Invention in D Minor and Fugue in C minor and an original composition based on a Bach Passacaglia by San Jose-based composer Aaron Lington will feature GRAMMY®-winning tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano as a featured soloist. Carmel Bach Festival Chorale member, Alice Kirwan Murray, will also perform jazz standards with the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra.
“When the Carmel Bach Festival engaged jazz great Joe Lovano to perform Turnage’s A Man Descending for tenor sax and chamber orchestra for our 2011 Festival, I knew we had the critical link to develop our first historic collaboration with the Monterey Jazz Festival,” said Camille Kolles, Executive Director of the Carmel Bach Festival. “Then, when we learned from [Monterey Jazz Festival Education Director] Rob Klevan that the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra would make a rare stop in Monterey before their West Coast tour during the exact week Joe was in town, it was clear this was meant to be. With this coming together as a first in their 54-year history and our 74-year history, we hope it’s the start of many more musical collaborations.”
“Bringing together two iconic Monterey Peninsula music organizations, both with rich musical histories, to showcase our Next Generation Jazz Orchestra and our old friend Joe Lovano truly demonstrates the value of community partnership” said Tim Jackson, Artistic Director of the Monterey Jazz Festival.
The Big Band Bach performance at the Sunset Center on July 24 kicks off the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra’s 2011 summer tour of the West Coast. Other performances include stops in San Francisco (Yoshi’s, July 25); Seattle (Jazz Alley, July 26-27), Port Townsend, Washington (Centrum Jazz Festival, July 29-30); Monmouth, Oregon (Mel Brown Jazz Camp, July 31); San Diego (The Neurosciences Institute, presented by the La Jolla Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, with special guest Gilbert Castellanos, August 1); and Los Angeles (Vitello’s Jazz Club, August 2).
The Next Generation Jazz Orchestra will also make their traditional Sunday appearance at the 54th Monterey Jazz Festival on September 18, 2011, with former band alumni and 2011 Artist-In-Residence Joshua Redman, Benny Green and Donny McCaslin sitting as special guests.
Tickets for Big Band Bach on July 24 at the Sunset Center are available at www.bachfestival.org or by calling 831.624.1521.
Tickets for the 54th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival September 16 – 18 in Monterey, California are available by phone at 925.275.9255 and online at montereyjazzfestival.org.
Major support of the 2011 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra comes from the Hearst Foundations, and from the Joseph Drown Foundation.
About the Artists
Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2011, the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra features the best and brightest high school jazz musicians in the country. This year’s group features twenty-one high school musicians from California, Florida, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Toronto. Former members of the Orchestra include jazz luminaries Benny Green, Joshua Redman, Dave Koz, Ambrose Akinmusire, and many more. Currently under the leadership of Paul Contos, the renowned saxophonist and flautist who serves as the director of the Orchestra, the ensemble is dedicated to the study and performance of the most challenging big band literature available. To read the biographies of the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra members, please click here.
GRAMMY-winning saxophonist Joe Lovano has recorded and toured with the major jazz musicians of the late 20th century, including Gunther Schuller, Herbie Hancock, Elvin Jones, Charlie Haden, Carla Bley, Bobby Hutcherson, Dave Brubeck, Billy Higgins, Dave Holland, Ed Blackwell, Michel Petrucciani, Lee Konitz, Abbey Lincoln, Tom Harrell, McCoy Tyner, Jim Hall, and Bob Brookmeyer, among many others. A Blue Note recording artist for 20 years, Mr. Lovano has led his own groups and has released twenty-five recordings as a leader, and has becoming one of the great jazz artists of our time. He has appeared twice at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the most recent time was in 2009, when he acted as Showcase Artist. To read more about Joe Lovano, please click here.
Vocalist Alice Kirwan Murray sings regularly as both ensemble member and soloist with the GRAMMY Award-winning Los Angeles Chamber Singers & Cappella and the L.A. Master Chorale. In the 2010/2011 season, she performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Bramwell Tovey, Charles Dutoit, Esa-Pekka Solonen and Gustavo Dudamel. Alice has also performed with Musica Angelica, Long Beach Opera and the Jacaranda Festival. To read more about Alica Kirwan Murray, please click here.
About the Monterey Jazz Festival
The Monterey Jazz Festival celebrates the legacy of jazz and expands the boundaries of and opportunities to experience jazz through the creative production of performances and educational programs.
About the Carmel Bach Festival
The Carmel Bach Festival, now in its 74th year, is a 15-day, world-class celebration of music and ideas inspired by the historical and ongoing influence of Johann Sebastian Bach in the world. The Festival offers a compelling array of rich musical experiences featuring national and international artists in a variety of settings enjoyed by 24,000 attendees each year coming from local, regional, national, and international locales.
2011 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra West Coast Tour Dates:
July 24: Carmel, CA / Carmel Bach Festival at the Sunset Center
with special guest, Joe Lovano
July 25: San Francisco, CA / Yoshi’s
July 26: Seattle, WA / Jazz Alley
July 27: Seattle, WA / Jazz Alley
July 29: Pt. Townsend, WA / Centrum Jazz Festival
July 30: Pt. Townsend, WA / Centrum Jazz Festival
July 31: Monmouth, OR / Mel Brown Jazz Camp
August 1: San Diego, CA / The Neurosciences Institute, presented by the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
with special guest Gilbert Castellanos
August 2: Los Angeles, CA / Vitello’s Jazz Club
September 18: 54th Monterey Jazz Festival, Jimmy Lyons Stage, 1:00pm
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For more information, bios, and high-resolution pictures, please contact:
Timothy Orr
Monterey Jazz Festival
Direct Line: 510.652.1122
Monterey Office: 831.373.3366
timorr@montereyjazzfestival.org
www.montereyjazzfestival.org
Or:
Dana Werdmuller
Carmel Bach Festival
831.624.1521 x16
Dana@bachfestival.org
www.bachfestival.org
The 54th Monterey Jazz Festival partners include Verizon, Yamaha Instruments, Remo, Gallien-Krueger, Inns of Monterey, Carmel Road Winery, North Coast Brewing Company, DownBeat Magazine, KGO Newstalk 810 AM, and the San Jose Mercury News.
Monterey Jazz Festival also receives support for the Festival and its Jazz Education Programs from the Hearst Foundations, National Endowment for the Arts, Verizon, AT&T, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, David & Lucile Packard Foundation, Quest Foundation, D’Addario Music Foundation, Joseph Drown Foundation, Harden Foundation, William McCaskey Chapman & Adaline Dinsmore Chapman Foundation, Dunspaugh-Dalton Foundation, Inc., Monterey Peninsula Foundation, Pebble Beach Company Foundation, Rotary International, Nancy Buck Ransom Foundation, Robert & Audrey Talbott Foundation, and generous individual contributors.