Over the next year and a half, the The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' Duke Jazz Series will present eight free concerts, featuring jazz ensembles selected from the Chamber Music America’s “New Works” program. This series is part of the two-year Library for the Performing Arts project funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to present, document, and preserve jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances and related oral histories.

The first concert of the Duke Jazz Series, featuring the Dafnis Prieto Sextet, will be held September 26, 2008. Selections from the sextet’s new album, Taking the Soul for a Walk, will be performed. Dafnis Prieto, known for his explosive energy and intense style, is a Cuban drummer and composer whose range extends from Cuban rhythms to traditional jazz ensembles. In addition to the Chamber Music America award, Prieto has received numerous grants and fellowships, and was a Grammy Award nominee for his album, Absolute Quintet, as Best Jazz Album, and a Latin Grammy nominee for Best New Artist in 2007.

All concerts in the Duke Jazz Series are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Performances will be held in the Bruno Walter Auditorium, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 111 Amsterdam Ave., New York, New York, 10023. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. and performances begin at 7:30 p.m. For information, please call (212) 642-0142.