From: | Mary C. |
Sent on: | Monday, April 12, 2010, 4:32 PM |
Aardvark
Jazz Orchestra
with
special guests Geri Allen, pianist
and
Father Peter F. O’Brien,
narrator
Mary Lou Williams Centennial Celebration:
From Swing to Sacred Music, a Journey of Faith
Sunday, May 9, 2010 at 8:00 pm
MBTA: Green Line, B-Branch,
Parking nearby
Admission: $20, $15 Advance Purchase (by April 30, 2010)
Box Office: [masked]
Information: [masked]
“Mary Lou Williams is perpetually
contemporary.
Her music retains a standard of quality that is timeless.
She is like Soul on Soul.”
(Duke Ellington)
The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra (music
director Mark Harvey) will
celebrate the centennial of American jazz great Mary Lou Williams [masked]) in a concert May 9, 2010 at 8:00
PM at
The May 9 concert is the only major Mary Lou Williams
centennial tribute currently planned in
Pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams
is one of our great American composers, an African American who rose to prominence
in the pre-Civil Rights / pre-Women Rights era when female big band
composer-arrangers were rare. Called The First Lady of Jazz, Williams
wrote for and performed with Andy Kirk's Twelve
Clouds of Joy (one of the leading Territory Bands of the 1920s and
30s), and she composed for illustrious orchestras including Duke
Ellington, Benny Goodman and Dizzy Gillespie. She gave the premiere of
her masterwork, the twelve-movement Zodiac
Suite, in Carnegie Hall. Following a spiritual crisis in the
1950s, Ms. Williams became a Roman Catholic in 1957 and began to compose sacred
music, including Black Christ of the Andes, in honor of St. Martin de
Porres, and three complete masses, the most famous being Mary Lou's Mass, performed at the Vatican.
In 1976, Aardvark director Mark Harvey presented Mary Lou Williams in concert
at
The May 9 concert at Boston College will
showcase the full range of Williams’ creative genius across
five decades of composing, including swing-era classics like Roll ‘Em (made famous by Benny
Goodman), rarities written for Duke Ellington, the seldom-heard Scorpio from Zodiac Suite, and
sacred music including Geri Allen's arrangement of Praise the Lord from Mary Lou's Mass. As narrator for the
evening, Fr. Peter O’Brien will share reminiscences of the life and work
of Mary Lou Williams, drawing on his almost 20-year association with the
legendary artist.
Geri Allen,
pianist and composer, has toured the U.S., Europe, Australia, New Zealand,
South Africa and elsewhere, collaborating with artists as diverse as Ornette
Coleman, Dave Holland, Ron Carter, Ravi Coltrane, Dr. Billy Taylor, Ruth Brown,
Wayne Shorter, Betty Carter, Charlie Haden and Paul Motion, Clark Terry, and
Carmen Lundy. Ms. Allen played
the role of Mary Lou Williams in Robert Altman’s film
Founded in 1973, the Aardvark Jazz
Orchestra specializes in original exploratory works by founder and
music director Mark Harvey, together with wide-ranging repertory spanning the
jazz and American music spectrum. Winner of the 2000 Independent Music
Awards, Aardvark has premiered more than 100 works for jazz orchestra and has
released 10 CDs including 5 discs on the prestigious Leo Records label.
Jazz Review (UK) touted Aardvark's "imagination,
exuberance and sheer brio," while Jazz Improv praised “an unapologetic creative edge…all the soloists
play with passion and conviction.” The band's latest CD, American Agonistes (Leo
Records) has been called "a stunning
hour of music that is, in turn, beautiful, poignant and raucous"
(billboard.com).
Mark Harvey has performed as trumpeter
in the U.S., Mexico and Europe; has recorded with George Russell and Baird
Hersey; and performed with Gil Evans, Claudio Roditi, Howard McGhee, Sam
Rivers, and others. A composer with over 120 works in his catalogue, he
has received awards and commissions from ASCAP, the National Endowment for the
Humanities, the 15th
Annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert, the Organization of American Kodaly
Educators, and Meet-the-Composer-Lila Wallace/Reader’s
Digest Commissioning Program, among others. An ordained Methodist
minister, Dr. Harvey has given lectures and workshops on music, religion, and
culture throughout the
THE AARDVARK JAZZ ORCHESTRA
is managed exclusively by AMERICAS MUSICWORKS
Rebecca DeLamotte, managing director,[masked], [address removed]
www.americasmusicworks.com
www.aardvarkjazz.com
--submitted by marycurtinproductions [on behalf of Aardvark
Jazz Orchestra & Americas Musicworks]
c/o Mary Curtin
[masked],
[masked] (cell), [address removed]
"dedicated to staging insightful entertainment, particularly in
non-traditional venues"
www.marycurtinproductions.com
www.facebook.com/marycurtin
http://twitter.com/marycurtin
www.myspace.com/marycurtin
This email message originally included an attachment.