Mardi Gras Celebration Honoring Music & Musicians of New Orleans
Join a Mardi Gras celebration with New Orleans musicians who have been dislocated due to Hurricane Katrina at the February 10-11, 2006, Swinging Jazz Concerts presented by the Summit Jazz Foundation at the Seawell Ballroom in the Denver Performing Arts Complex at 7:00 p.m. each evening. Admission is $44 with special rates for first-time attendees, students and groups. Reservations and information at 303-670-8471 or www.summitjazz.org.
This two night set of Swinging Jazz Concerts will feature and honor the music and musicians of New Orleans, five of whom have been dislocated due to the recent hurricane. Artists are Topsy Chapman (vocals), Evan Christopher (clarinet), Duke Heitger (trumpet), John Sheridan (piano), Richard Moten (bass) and Doug Belote (drums). This sextet will perform various styles of jazz music from blues and traditional to mainstream and swing drawing from their individual and collective years of performance and musical endeavors. Venue has cabaret style seating with two dance floors, and food and drink for purchase.
Topsy Chapman was one of the original cast members of the Broadway hit "One Mo' Time" that played New York's Village Gate, London's West End and toured most of Europe. She constructed the vocal harmony arrangements for the show and the cast album was nominated for a Grammy. Topsy has toured Europe, Asia, Australia, the Americas and Canada performing gospel and traditional jazz and has appeared several times on "A Prairie Home Companion" and "Riverwalk, Live from the Landing". Her trio includes Richard Moten and Doug Belote both of whom normally perform extensively in the New Orleans area and nationally plus studio work.
Duke Heitger moved to New Orleans in the early 1990's and has a rich history in traditional jazz as a sideman, leader and allstar artist performing locally and internationally. Likewise, Evan Christopher is much in demand as an allstar artist who moved to New Orleans in 2000 after a four-year stint with The Jim Cullum Jazz Band in San Antonio. John Sheridan lives in San Antonio and is also a former member of The Jim Cullum Jazz Band. He has performed worldwide, recorded several CDs both as leader and sideman plus serving as an arranger for other artists.
Doors open at 6:15 p.m. each evening with music at 7:00 p.m. Reserved cabaret seating. Walk-ins welcome. More information by visiting www.summitjazz.org or calling 303-670-8471.
DAVE VALENTIN RETURNS TO COLORADO SPRINGS
Grammy-award winning jazz flutist Dave Valentin returns to Colorado Springs in 2006 in a performance that will benefit Pikes Peak Community Foundation’s Fund for the Arts, FutureSelf, and the Colorado Springs Conservatory. The Fund for the Arts, The Colorado Springs Conservatory, and FutureSelf, in conjunction with whitacre WORKS, are presenting the concert, which will be held at the Antlers Hilton Hotel, 4 Cascade Ave., Saturday, January 28, at 8 p.m. Tickets are available through Pikes Peak Community Foundation, www.ppcf.org or 389-1253 ext. 110. The “Meet the Artist Reception” at 6:30 p.m. is $50 and includes the 8:00 p.m. concert. Tickets for the 8:00 p.m. concert can be purchased separately for $25.Valentin’s top selling albums have won him critical acclaim, while his electrifying performances with the flute have won acclaim from fans in reader’s surveys conducted by major jazz enthusiasts’ publications. The recent history of contemporary jazz and Latin music has produced few instrumentalists as singularly talented, artistically accomplished, or as popular as this remarkable musician, composer, arranger and bandleader. For almost two decades, the native New Yorker has defined the role of the flute in Latin jazz. Valentin’s distinctive style moves from traditional jazz to full-our fusion in Latin and traditional jazz forms.Valentin has received several Grammy nominations, and in 2002, he won a Grammy for his work on “The Gathering,” as part of the Caribbean Jazz Project. Valentin’s latest work entitled, “World on a String”, was released this year.Valentin was born in the South Bronx in 1952 to Puerto Rican parents from the city of Mayaguez. Valentin studied percussion at New York City’s High School of Music and art before taking up the flute at the age of 16, when he began private lessons with master jazz and classical flutist, Hubert Laws. His early training and professional work with the leading bands of the day quickly established the young musician as a rising star.The three organizations benefiting from the performance are non-profit organizations that focus on the arts within the region. FutureSelf is dedicated to working with at risk youth through art. The Colorado Springs Conservatory seeks to provide aspiring young performing artists with the skills and acute perception necessary to sustain a career in the arts. The Fund for the Arts of the Pikes Peak Community Foundation fosters sustainability and growth for arts organizations and artists in the Pikes Peak Region by increasing financial support and building awareness of the significance of the arts and artists in the community.
TOP OF BILLBOARD'S JAZZ CHARTS PETER CINCOTTI COMES TO DENVER
3/4 Swing Journal's 2004's "Best New Star" Peter Cincotti performs at 7:30 pm on Saturday, January 21, at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts. A free Behind the Curtain lecture will be held at 6:30 pm. Called "prodigiously talented," by The New York Times, Cincotti performs from the great American songbook and his own compositions. He became one of the hottest pop and jazz sensations to hit the scene in 2003, when his self-titled, critically acclaimed debut CD hit the top of the Billboard charts. Tickets ($25-$55) are on sale at the Newman Center Box Office and all Ticketmaster outlets.
In September 2004, Concord Records released Peter's second CD On The Moon, which debuted at #2 on Billboard's Jazz Charts. He has spent the last year touring the world: from two sold out shows at New York's Rose Hall to London's Royal Festival Hall to the esteemed Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. He recently sold out the 2500 seat Grand Rex in Paris, where he received his first gold record in France.
Performance tickets may be purchased Monday-Friday at the Newman Center (corner of University & Iliff), 10 am-4 pm and Ritchie Center Box Offices (2240 E. Buchtel Blvd.) 10am-6pm, and at all Ticketmaster outlets during posted hours. Charge by phone at 303.357.2787 or order online at ticketmaster.com. For more information or to request accommodations for persons with disabilities, call 303.871.7720, Option 2.
About Peter Cincotti
On The Moon showcases Cincotti's contemporary, unique and undeniably infectious twist on such classic pop and jazz standards as "I Love Paris," "St. Louis Blues" and "Some Kind of Wonderful," as well as his own originals, including "On The Moon" and "I'd Rather Be With You." Critics across the country gave the album rave reviews; USA Today declared Peter "a prodigiously gifted pianist and an interpretive singer of considerable charm."
Born July 11, 1983 in New York City, Peter Cincotti (pr. Sin-KOTTEE) started tinkling the keys of a toy piano when he was three years old. It was love at first C chord. "A year later I was taking lessons," Cincotti recalls. "My mother asked the teacher to let me play whatever I wanted. I was so young at the time that she didn't want me to get turned off. So I'd have a lesson and bring in what I liked – everything from movie songs to The Phantom of the Opera to the theme of Jeopardy." His tastes expanded further as he got older. "The first music that really hit me was Jerry Lee Lewis. I loved boogie-woogie piano playing when I was about five years old.
But I was always exposed to all kinds of music. Being born and raised in Manhattan, there was so much around. My sister and I were taken to hear everything from rock concerts at Madison Square Garden to jazz clubs to Broadway shows. I always went through different musical phases through the years and had many influences. I am still experiencing this development which I hope continues for the rest of my life." This easy style-hopping infuses On The Moon with a variety that's missing from so much contemporary music. Of his eclectic approach, Cincotti comments, "I had so many different ideas and so many different kinds of sounds that I wanted to convey on this record. I look at each song as a story that I want to tell, or an emotion or feeling that I want to represent." There certainly is a heady mix of feelings on display, from the downtown sophisto-funk of "St. Louis Blues" and the relentlessly groovy retooling of "I Love Paris," to the crooning serenade of "Some Kind of Wonderful" and the fleet-fingered workout of "Cherokee."
While Cincotti bends the Great American Songbook into new and interesting shapes, what really gives On the Moon its creative thrust is his burgeoning talent as a songwriter. "I wanted my original songs to lead the way in choosing outside material," he says. "After I made my first record, I started writing my own lyrics, which changed the entire process of songwriting for me. The marriage between the music and the lyrics changed, and the songs became more personal. When you're writing both music and lyrics, nothing stands in between you and your creation. You sit with your instrument and you start from nothing. What you create is completely your own, and you're not using any kind of third party to express yourself. You're saying what you want to say completely."
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