The Jazzcat

SF Collective At UCLA's Royce Hall Saturday March 27th!!

by on Mar.22, 2004, under News

 

All-Star SFJAZZ Collective in Debut Season Features

Works by Ornette Coleman at UCLA Live March 27

 

LOS ANGELES—UCLA Live presents the excitingall-star SFJAZZ Collective in their debut season, highlightingthe work oflegendary jazz maverick Ornette Coleman along with new compositions by Collective members.Performing at 8 p.m., on Saturday, March 27 in Royce Hall on the UCLA campus, the Collective is led by the gifted and charismatic Joshua Redman, tenor saxophonist and artistic director.This concert will run approximately two hours with an intermission. For tickets call       310-825-2101 or visit www.UCLALive.org.

 

The SFJAZZ Collective is the newly formed resident ensemble of SFJAZZ and the world-renowned San Francisco Jazz Festival.It features the incomparable talents of Bobby Hutcherson, on vibes and marimba; Nicholas Payton, trumpet; Miguel Zenón, alto saxophone; Josh Roseman, trombone; Renee Rosnes, piano; Robert Hurst, bass;and Brian Blade, ondrums.They perform at UCLA Live as part of the Collective’s much-anticipated worldwide premiere season. With the “crown prince of the tenor saxophone” [Associated Press], Joshua Redman at the helm, the Collective’s members represent an array of generations, styles, and cultures—including Hutcherson,the ensemble’s resident master and dean of modern jazz vibraphonists. The groupstrives to embody the message that jazz is a living, ever-changing, and ever-relevant art form. They are devoted to performing and building new audiences for jazz sounds of the recent past and present—with an eye toward the future.

 

For this UCLA Live program, the SFJAZZ Collective delves into the revolutionary sounds of Ornette Coleman by featuring compositions by the acclaimed jazz artist known as the ultimate “modernist.” Each member of the Collective was also commissioned by SFJAZZ to compose a new work to contribute to the group’s repertoire and the body of jazz in general. The second half of the performance will highlight some of these new works.

 

Ornette Coleman Works

The SFJAZZ Collective will perform six works by Coleman arranged by noted jazz arranger Gil Goldstein: “Lonely Woman,” “Una Muy Bonita,” “When Will the Blues Leave,” “Happy House,” “School Work,” and “Peace.” According to artistic director Joshua Redman, “Coleman’s music is just beautiful music. Part of Ornette’s reputation is that his music is challenging, and sophisticated, and complex—and it

is—but there’s also a great beauty to a lot of his songs. I hope that, in some small way, we can help to show what an inspiring composer he is, in addition to being a famous innovator.” Coleman’s use of a plastic white saxophone along with his frank abandonment of traditional song forms branded him as a jazz provocateur in the late 50s, but ultimately landed him in the annals of jazz history as a major innovator.

 

According to noted jazz author Francis Davis in the new book “Jazz and Its Discontents,” “When Ornette Coleman made his East Coast nightclub debut opposite the Art Farmer–Benny Golson Jazztet at the Five Spot Cafe in Greenwich Village on November 18, 1959, ‘all hell broke loose. . . .’ Coleman said. ‘Every night the club would be jammed, with some people hating what I was doing and calling me a charlatan, and other people loving it and declaring me a genius.’ Coleman was either a visionary or a fraud, and there was no middle ground between advocacy and disapprobation. This was the closest modern jazz would ever come to Beatlemania or the premiere of Le Sacre du Printemps.”

 

“In one sense,” Davis writes, “the alternative that Coleman proposed amounted to nothing more drastic than a necessary (and, in retrospect, inevitable) suppression of harmony in favor of melody and rhythm. But this amounted to heresy in 1959. . . . Ultimately, rhythm may be the area in which Coleman has made his most significant contributions to jazz. Perhaps the trick of listening to his performances lies in an ability to hear rhythm as melody, and melody as rhythm, the way he seems to, and the way jazz pioneers did.” As John Lewis, the pianist and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, stated, “Ornette Coleman is doing the only really new thing in jazz since the innovations in the mid 40s of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, and those of Thelonious Monk.”

 

The SFJAZZ Collective is part of SFJAZZ, one of the leading non-profit jazz organizations on the West Coast and the 6th largest performing arts organization in the Bay Area. Dedicated to encouraging the growth of jazz and jazz audiences in San Francisco and beyond, SFJAZZ presents a wealth of year-round programs, including the internationally acclaimed San Francisco Jazz Festival. All SFJAZZ programs reflect a spirit of artistic exploration, embracing the full breadth of jazz and its related music; emphasize thematic programming, with tributes to jazz masters and celebrations of particular musical instruments, trends or styles; and strive to instill enthusiasm for jazz among wider audiences. For more information visit www.sfjazz.org or call 415-398-5655.

 

Tickets to the SFJAZZ Collective are available for $45 $35 and $25 at the UCLA Central Ticket Office at the southwest corner of the James West Alumni Center, online at www.UCLAlive.org and at all Ticketmaster outlets. For more information or to charge by phone, please call 310-825-2101. UCLA students may purchase tickets in advance for $20. Student rush tickets at the same price are offered to all students with a valid i.d. one hour prior to show time. 

 

Supported by the Henry Mancini Tribute Fund at UCLA.

UCLA Liveis an internationally acclaimed presenter of music, dance, theater and spoken word, bringing hundreds of outstanding and provocative artists to Los Angeles each year, including a lively mix of distinguished masters and innovators from around the world.

 

THE SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE ARTISTS

 

BOBBY HUTCHERSON (Vibes/Marimba): Easily one of jazz’s greatest vibraphonists, Bobby Hutcherson epitomized his instrument in relation to the era in which he came of age the way Lionel Hampton did with swing or Milt Jackson with bop. Along with Gary Burton, the other seminal vibraphone talent of the 60s, Hutcherson helped modernize his instrument by redefining what could be done with it—sonically, technically, melodically, and emotionally. In the process, he became one of the defining voices in the so-called “new thing” portion of Blue Note’s glorious 60s roster. Hutcherson gradually moved into a more mainstream, modal post-bop style that still maintained his reputation as one of the most advanced masters of his instrument. Adding the marimba to his repertoire, Hutcherson remained active throughout the 80s as both a sideman and leader, recording most often for Landmark in a modern-mainstream bop mode. He spent much of the 90s touring rather than leading sessions; in 1993, he teamed with McCoy Tyner for the duet album “Manhattan Moods.” Toward the end of the decade, Hutcherson signed on with Verve, for whom he debuted in 1999 with the well-received “Skyline.”

 

JOSHUA REDMAN (Artistic Director/Saxophones): A native of the Bay Area, composer and saxophonist Joshua Redman began his musical career in 1991. Having just graduated from Harvard with plans to pursue a law degree, he instead went on tour and recorded with his father, the legendary saxophonist Dewey Redman, as well as with other noted musicians including Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette, Elvin Jones, and Paul Motian. The younger Redman created a sensation by taking first prize in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz saxophone competition that fall and landed a record deal with Warner Bros. To date, he has recorded nine albums for the label, including 2002’s “Elastic,” showcasing the 21st-century grooves of his sax-keyboard-drums trio. Redman has garnered numerous honors in his career, including multiple first-place finishes in the Rolling Stone Critics’ Poll, the Jazziz Readers’ Poll, and Down Beat’s Critics and Readers’ Polls.

NICHOLAS PAYTON (Trumpet): One of the brightest new trumpet stars to emerge in the 1990s, Nicholas Payton combines references to his New Orleans heritage with the Young Lions’ brand of hard bop and a warm sound. His father, Walter Payton, a top bassist, and his mother (a classical pianist) encouraged his interest in music and he received his first trumpet when he was four. One day when Payton was 12, Wynton Marsalis called to speak to his father; Nicholas spontaneously played his trumpet over the phone, impressing Marsalis who in the future would recommend him to other bandleaders. A highly regarded leader in his own right for the past decade, he has built up an impressively eclectic discography, from the classic New Orleans sound of the Armstrong centennial tribute “Dear Louis”to the newly released “Sonic Trance,” a genre-crossing voyage into jazz, funk, hip-hop, and beyond.

 

RENEE ROSNES (Piano): plays in an advanced and flexible hard bop style. A native of Canada, she began piano lessons at age three and violin when she was five. She worked throughout Canada, performing on CBC Jazz Radio Canada shows, gigging with her trio regularly at a hotel, and playing on the S.S. Rotterdam Cruise Liner. Rosnes moved to New York in 1985, and has played and/or recorded with a wide variety of artists, including Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, J.J. Johnson, Jon Faddis, James Moody, the group Out of the Blue, Gary Thomas, and Robin Eubanks. In addition, Rosnes has recorded many excellent sessions for Blue Note as a leader. “Renee Rosnes: Life On Earth” was chosen by Don Heckman of the Los Angeles Times as one of the Top 10 most compelling CDs of 2002. It was also #3 on the Top 10 list of the best CDs of 2002 by JazzTimes critic Ken Franckling.

 

BRIAN BLADE (Drums): Brian Blade grew up in Shreveport, then New Orleans, where he distilled the unique drumming styles and musical heritage of the nation's spiritual underbelly into a powerfully swinging percussive trademark. Nurtured under the watchful eyes of Ellis Marsalis and New Orleans Dixie-drum masters Johnny Vidacovich and Herlin Riley, he learned to find his “knit in the blanket” of sounds and styles. As the leader of his own ensemble, the Brian Blade Fellowship, he has shown that he is not only a master percussionist, but also a composer of great expansiveness and originality. His drumming has also powered the ensembles of talents as diverse as Joshua Redman, Kenny Garrett, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell.

 

ROBERT HURST (Bass): A four-time Grammy-winner, Robert Hurst is a highly respected young composer, bassist, bandleader, educator, and recording artist. To this already impressive list of skills, he has recently added “company executive” as the founder of his own recording label, BeBob Music, Inc. To date, Hurst has released a trio album, “Unrehurst 1,” on the new label, soon to be followed by “Family Album, Volume I,” a culture-spanning gathering of nursery rhymes and original compositions. His discography also includes two earlier, acclaimed CDs on the Columbia/DIW label. Hurst has performed extensively on major motion picture and television soundtracks, along with more than eight years of nightly performing, directing, arranging, and composing for NBC's “Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” His sideman credits include performances and recordings with Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Tony Williams, Branford Marsalis, “The Tonight Show Band,” Nicholas Payton, Sting, and others.

 

JOSH ROSEMAN (Trombone):New York-basedJosh Rosemanis a fast-rising trombonist, composer, bandleader, and producer on the national scene. At the helm of the Josh Roseman Unit, he has released two discs, “Cherry” and the recent “Treats for the Nightwalker,” that cover great stretches of musical territory—from pre-reggae roots mysticism à la Don Drummond to Ellingtonian era lyricism to evolutionary expressionism. Roseman was a co-founder of jam band pioneers the Groove Collective and the Brooklyn Funk Essentials, and has frequently been heard live and on recordings (more than 50 to date) with artists like Soulive, Charlie Hunter, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, MMW, Cibo Matto and the Skatalites. His playing has garnered multiple “Talent Deserving Wider Recognition” honors in Down Beat’s annual International Critics’ Poll.

 

MIGUEL ZENÓN (Alto Saxophone): A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Miguel Zenón comes to the Collective on the heels of his second CD as a leader, “Ceremonial,” on Marsalis Music. The young altoist got his start at the famed Escuela Libre de Musica, an institution that boasts such distinguished alumni as tenor saxophonist David Sánchez and percussionist Richie Flores. Zenón later studied jazz at Boston’s prestigious Berklee School of Music, and also became active in the Boston area jazz scene, playing with drummer Bob Moses’ Mozamba and the Either/Orchestra. He later gained widespread acclaim as a member of Sánchez’s ensembles before releasing his own debut disc, the aptly titled “Looking Forward”—the #1 CD on The New York Times’ “alternative” list of the 10 best albums of 2002.

 

GIL GOLDSTEIN (Arranger): A 2004 Grammy-winner for an arrangement on Michael Brecker’s CD “Wide Angles,” Gil Goldstein is one of the most talented and in-demand arrangers in jazz today. His extensive credits include charts for Miles Davis, Quincy Jones, Pat Metheny, Jim Hall, Milton Nascimento, James Moody, The New York Voices, and numerous other renowned artists. He has also contributed orchestrations to film scores by Metheny (“A Map of the World”), Ryuichi Sakamoto (including “Little Buddha” and “Wild Palms”), and other composers. Goldstein’s production credits include CDs by Metheny, Hall, Brecker, Bobby McFerrin, and Mike Stern. Also an accomplished instrumentalist in his own right, he has recorded or performed with the likes of Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Joe Lovano, and the Gil Evans Orchestra. His own recordings as a leader include “Zebracoast,” “City of Dreams,” and (with saxophonist Dave Liebman) “West Side Story (Today).”


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