Cuban rhythms for the soul

The Pender Harbour Music Society presents Zapato Negro this Sunday, Dec. 2 in a 2 p.m. show at the School of Music in Madeira Park.

The Pender Harbour Music Society presents Zapato Negro this Sunday, Dec. 2 in a 2 p.m. show at the School of Music in Madeira Park.

This global blend of Afro-Cuban rhythms and jazz is perfect for a winter afternoon. Featuring musicians from Canada, Cuba, Venezuela and the U.S., the band’s members have played this music at the highest level, making contributions of their own internationally to the music as a whole.
Zapato Negro has developed an eclectic and exciting concert repertoire that includes original compositions, underplayed jazz standards done in African rhythm, and classics of Latin music reworked, reharmonized or rerhythmicized in jazz. 
You will be dancing in your seats.

Read more on: http://www.coastreporter.net/article/20121130/SECHELT0501/311309999/-1/sechelt/cuban-rhythms-for-the-soul

Jazz This Week: John Pizzarelli, Kirk Whalum, Marcus Roberts, Four in One, and More

SOURCE: 

ST. LOUIS JAZZ NOTES BY DEAN MINDERMAN, 

Published: 2012-11-29
It's a busy weekend for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, and time is short, so let's skip the introduction and go straight to the highlights...

Tonight, guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli opens a four-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro. A longtime local favorite thanks to numerous previous appearances in St. Louis, Pizzarelli currently is on tour promoting both a book (the “musical memoir" World On A String) and a new album, Double Exposure.

The album features Pizzarelli doing what essentially are live mash-ups - pop songs from writers such as Lennon and McCartney, Neil Young, James Taylor, Leiber and Stoller, Tom Waits and Joni Mitchell, re-conceived using grooves, harmonies and arrangement ideas borrowed from Wes Montgomery, Billy Strayhorn, Thad Jones, John Coltrane and others. For more about Double Exposure, and some video samples of recent Pizzarelli performances, see this post from a couple of weeks ago. 

Also tonight, multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris is playing a free show at the Missouri History Museum, featuring music from hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest reworked in what's being described as an experimental jazz style.

Tomorrow night, singer Kim Fuller will be be the featured performer in “Songs of Love and Other Difficulties: Work and Protest Songs," a free concert presented by the Jazz at Holmesseries at Washington University. Also on Thursday, eclectic singer Jessica Fichot, whose work ranges from computer music to children's songs, does an early-evening show at Rue Lafayette; and guitarists Tom Byrne and Eric Slaughter will play at the new Central West End venue Troy's Jazz Gallery. UPDATE - 10:00 p.m., 11/28/12: The Byrne/Slaughter gig has been “postponed" for one week to next Thursday, December 6.

On Friday, Rue Lafayette has another early evening show featuring Victor & Penny, a Kansas City duo playing music inspired by pre-WWII pop and jazz. Later that evening, trumpeter Randy Holmes and singer Tom Heitman will play the music of Frank Sinatra atRobbie's House of Jazz; saxophonist Kendrick Smith leads a quartet at the Cigar Inn in Belleville; and the Funky Butt Brass Band takes the stage at Broadway Oyster Bar.

Saturday offers several interesting choices, too, starting with pianist Marcus Roberts and his trio performing  at the Sheldon Concert Hall. A longtime associate of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, Roberts impresses both with his technical skills and his ability to incorporate ideas derived from classic pianists like Fats Waller and James P. Johnson into a modern context. For more about Roberts and some video samples of him in action, see this post. Also, The Sheldon is offering a “buy one, get one free" discount on tickets for the show; for details on that, go here.

Also on Saturday, saxophonist Kirk Whalum brings his “Gospel According to Jazz Christmas" show to the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church. The concert also will feature pianist Keiko Matsui and singer Amber Bullock, the St. Louisan who recently won BET's Sunday Best Gospel reality show competition, as well as singers John Stoddart andKevin Whalum and the FTMBC's own choir.

Read more on: http://news.allaboutjazz.com/news.php?id=101384#.ULkXJKUlYhQ

Mark Stryker: Music Hall's rooms will host 2 different jazz concerts

James (Blood) Ulmer and his band Memphis Blood will perform Saturday night at the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts. Bassist, singer and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello will also perform. / Music Hall

Jazz

It's a big weekend at Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts with action on both the upstairs main stage and downstairs in the cozy Jazz Café.

First up is the Afro-Cuban pianist Arturo O'Farrill, a stalwart of the Latin-Jazz scene, who in September led a vivacious septet at the Detroit Jazz Festival. In recent years he has led a big band in metro Detroit on more than one occasion, once with a ballet company in tow, and has appeared as a sideman with the Latin Jazz All Stars. This time out, he's slimmed down to a sleek trio, which should shine an even brighter spotlight on his skills as an improviser.

O'Farrill's most recent recording, "The Noguchi Sessions" (Zoho), is a solo disc, so don't be surprised if he goes it alone once or twice, too. With bassist Shawn Conley and drummer Zachery O'Farrill. 8 and 10 p.m. Friday, Jazz Café at Music Hall, 350 Madison, Detroit. 313-887-8501. www.jazzcafedetroit.com. $30 advance, $40 door.

Saturday brings a promising double bill and collaboration with two artists who have spent their careers assimilating a lot of strains of African-American music into personal hybrids. Guitarist-singer James (Blood) Ulmer's roots are in avant-garde jazz, rock and funk -- he apprenticed with free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman in the '70s -- but his band Memphis Blood is about his unique take on down-home blues. Meanwhile, charismatic bassist, singer and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello, best known for helping to spearhead a contemporary neo-soul, will be paying tribute to the late Nina Simone by performing music from her latest album, "Pour une ame souveraine" ("For a sovereign soul").

Read more on: http://www.freep.com/article/20121129/COL17/311290007/1081/col

Andre Previn: Early Jazz Years

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Today, Andre Previn is viewed by many jazz fans as a jazz pretender—a dyed-in-the wool classical pianist and conductor and a prolific film composer who can manage jazz impersonation but shouldn't really be considered among jazz's piano greats.

All of which is complete nonsense if you are aware of Previn's early jazz recordings. If you aren't, it's not your fault. Most of his pre-1956 leadership sessions for RCA languish in vaults someplace, so all you probably know are his West Coast jazz sideman dates of the late '50s for labels such as Contemporary and MGM.

While it's true that Previn made his name in the movie business and that he is an accomplished classical pianist and conductor, his pre-1956 jazz chops were impeccable—as sharp and as swinging as George Shearing's and as robust and as fast as Oscar Peterson's.

Now, before you get all twisted in a knot over what I've just said, find and listen to the recordings I'm writing about today. If I had simply put up a track today and asked you to guess who was playing, I'm fairly certain few if any readers would have guessed correctly. And that's my point: Previn may be jazz's most overlooked and undiscovered piano monster.

Previn was born in Germany in 1929 or 1930 (his birth certificate was lost). He escaped Nazi Germany with his family in 1938, moving to Los Angeles the following year, where Charles Previn, a relative, was music director of Universal Studios.

For whatever reason, Previn's Wikipedia entry skips over his early jazz piano period as though it never existed, beginning instead in the mid-'50s, when he was an integral part of the emerging West Coast jazz-pop scene.

But for 10 years prior, Previn was an enormously gifted and formidable jazz talent—from a technical standpoint and from the perspective of his fluid and brashly confident improvising ideas. Except for a handful of initial recordings for the growing number of micro labels that surfaced in Los Angeles after the first musicians' union ban was completely settled in 1944, most of Previn's leadership trio dates were for RCA.

And yet in his YouTube interviews, Previn is never asked about these years nor does he talk about them. Even his website ignores this period. As for the handful of books written about Previn, I'm not sure which if any probe deep into these years, since none of the books allow you to search the contents online. As a result, this is a lost period and a tremendous shame for jazz fans. 

No one can dispute that Previn, at age 81, has had a 100 mile-per-hour career in music—jazz, pop and film, classical pianist, composer and conductor. It's all very frothy and brilliant, to be sure. But for the jazz fan, his most spectacular works remain hidden—eclipsed by his many other pursuits in music and a music industry seemingly indifferent to the genius of Previn's initial prowess. For the record, Previn began as a jazz pianist, and a spectacular one at that.

JazzWax tracks: Previn's first recordings for Hollywood's Sunset label (1945-46) are onPrevin at Sunset (Black Lion)here.

A sampling of Previn's work duringthis period can be found on Andre Previn: Hallelujah! (Avid)here.

Previn's 1955 and '56 recording can be found on Previn's Touch (Fresh Sound) here.

Used with permission by Marc Myers

CELEBRATE Brazil....

Thursday, December 6th, 7pm

Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater + the Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery

New York City (November 28, 2012) - With what is projected to be the world's 5th largest economy by the end of the year, the 2014 World Cup, and the 2016 Summer Olympics, this just might be Brazil's decade. If so, why does the culture of this Portugese-speaking, energy-charged country of 200 million people have such a low profile on the cultural radar of the Western world? CELEBRATE Brazil aims to help change that. On Thursday, December 6th, ImageNation, Acrobeat and the Film Society of Lincoln Center are partnering to present CELEBRATE BRAZIL, a music, film and fine art experience exploring to diverse cultural contributions of Brazil. CELEBRATE BRAZIL will be helda Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater and the Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery and is sponsored by AcroBeat and the Brazilian Consulate. The unique format of this event will showcase some of Brazil's leading artists across numerous fields: Music - 7pm The Walter Reade Theater stage will come alive with innovative music created by Brazilian scholar and popular musician Beatriz Azevedo who will be supported by special guests Vinícius Cantuária, Dende Macedo and Graham Haynes. The music program delves deep into Oswald de Andrade's Anthropofagia (1928), a Brazilian modernist concept that address Brazilian culture as a cannibalism of other various global culture to create the DNA of multicultural Brazil. Film - 7:45pm CELEBRATE BRAZIL will screen "5x Favela, Now by Ourselves", one of Brazil's most engaging, independent films shown at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. The film explores life in Rio's favelas from the inside out and is a result of screenplay workshops organized in several favelas and taught by high-profile filmmakers including Fernando Meirelles, Walter Salles, Nelson Pereira dos Santos and Ruy Guerra. The project "5 x Favela, Now by Ourselves" gathered over 80 young people to create a feature film consisting of five stories that reflect different facets of the daily lives of residents of these communities with the promise of escaping stereotypical representations Fine Art - 9:30 The event concludes with a two-man exhibition of artworks created by Brazilian artist Andre Cyprianoand US artist Cannon Hersey. This exhibition will mark the 10-year anniversary of Mr. Hersey's first exhibition in the Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery entitled "Mirror Visions," a two-man collaborative show with South African painter Samson Mnisi presented as part of the African Film Festival in 2002. Afterwards, the exhibition will travel from Lincoln Center to Imagenation's Raw Space on 123rd street and Adam Clayton Powell, jr. blvd.  ImageNation Cinema Foundation is a Harlem-based media arts organization, founded with the goal of establishing a chain of art-house cinemas, dedicated to progressive media by and about people of color. Through a variety of public exhibitions and programs, ImageNation fosters media equity, media literacy, solidarity, cross-cultural exchange and highlights the humanity of Pan-African people worldwide. This program has been made possible through the generous support of the Brazilian Consulate in NYC, the Rock Media Group and 623 Broadway and supported through the efforts of CrossPathCulture, Buzz Builder, Catch a Dream Entertainment, Passionate Agency and Wirelos.

For More Info Contact: Amelia Moore at Buzz Builder: thebuzzbuilder@gmail.com                                        Dell Chess at the Rock Media Group: dell@therockmedia.com                                       Cannon Hersey: cannon@cannonhersey.com

Read more on: http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=dqft8oeab&v=001KdaRoZmLBVwh7NHbQlfiK-mH-VH0fiTe4_ns1vBU137fnp66Od0wTZqwWqVFGjcxbUREQO9iS3_XXA0d_nCXh7JWGxK0XQ91roN9XhNJE6tk6526suIPbxXy3-ZByC0V7fV-e2eIdj1CFAmPTvuTDTvVjG7pMsqglN4s_ChhySxTe9jBCnWCNuG71iOjoMgibNSCO28jdJ7OZ2T5LURzx9-_OdCEeuEqsh6OAWy6eec%3D

JAZZ: Cape Town International Jazz Festival

By Gwen Ansell

MUSIC, like all creative industries, is driven by innovation. But innovation does not mean the same in every genre. In pop, success often hinges on a gimmick: catchy chorus words; a flavour appropriated unacknowledged from another tradition; Jack Parow’s giant baseball cap.

In jazz, things are different. An inspired improviser can tackle familiar material — the "standards" — and yet create something magically innovative at every performance. So although Tuesday’s first artist announcement for the 2013 Cape Town International Jazz Festival (April 5-6) contains repeat visitors, this does not mean predictable music.

The doyen of drummers, Jack de Johnette, has visited before, but not in this combination, celebrating the music of John Coltrane. De Johnette’s mind has been on Coltrane a lot recently (as in his current collaboration with McCoy Tyner at the Lincoln Centre) and work with the master’s saxophonist son, Ravi, and bassist Matt Garrison (son of Jimmy) will bring deep emotions as well as fresh visions to the stage.

When pianist Robert Glasper last visited he was an impressive newbie. Since then, he has grown as a player and sustained his fierce instrumental technique while reaching new audiences through collaborations with hip hop.

The South African fare is so far dominated by guitarists: Jimmy Dludlu, Errol Dyers and Reza Khota. Veteran bassist Victor Ntoni reappears in a revival of pianist Hilton Schilder’s exciting group Iconoclast, with Kaya Mahlangu.

There are some wholly new names: including Spanish pianist Chano Dominguez (allaboutjazz’s Ned Sublette said he incarnated "a music that, were its story told, would provide an entire parallel narrative to that of ‘classical’ music or ‘jazz’: words that are almost irrelevant to the living fact of music" ) and singer Gregory Porter. Given the audience enthusiasm for Kevin Mahogany last year, Porter will make a splash; his vision of the US male vocal tradition is rather edgier. The UK Guardian’s John Fordham credits him with "the spontaneous suppleness of a bebop improviser" and he composes too.

Yet the conservatism and nostalgia (acid jazzers the Brand New Heavies are billed) that can characterise the festival’s programming persists.

There’s no sign of exciting young local players such as trumpeters Lwanda Gogwana or Mandla Mlangeni. Women instrumentalists and composers, from our own Siya Makuzeni and Shannon Mowday to the US’s Nicole Mitchell are conspicuous by their absence.

The Blue Notes Tribute Orkestra, whose big, bold revisionings of Chris McGregor, Johnny Dyani and Dudu Pukwana demand exposure on a festival stage, remain unacknowledged. Glasper’s back, but we have still never heard five-category Downbeat award-winning pianist Vijay Iyer. We are due another artist announcement in January; fingers should be crossed but breath probably not held.

Read more on: http://za.news.yahoo.com/jazz-cape-town-international-jazz-festival-043236992--finance.html

Carol in 9th Place, Down Beat 2012 Jazz Readers’ Poll

by Josey Bartlett, Editor

Astoria resident Carol Sudhalter placed ninth in the 2012 jazz readers’ poll by DownBeat magazine, the genre’s go-to bible of all things jazz, in the category of International Best Flutist.

“It feels like a birthday gift for a big birthday coming up in January,” Sudhalter said. “It feels great to get this kind of recognition after a life of working reasonably hard on my craft.”

Sudhalter began playing the piano at age 7 and then picked up the flute her senior year of university as a biology major at Smith College, which she later dropped to become the first student at the college to graduate with a major in jazz. And as if two instruments were just not enough she learned the saxophone when she was 32.

She played alongside the late Tito Puente, the Latin jazz star and salsa musician, in the first all-female Latin band, Latin Fever, at the 1978 Salsa Festival at Madison Square Garden. She often tours in Italy and has released albums under an Italian label.

Here in Queens she founded the Astoria Big Band, for which she plays baritone saxophone and has received over 25 grants.

Read more on: http://www.qchron.com/editions/western/carol-sudhalter-gets-downbeat-readers-poll-honor/article_47cb65d1-8fc0-5dca-927a-4ba11763e349.html

Up Jumped Spring by Freddie Hubbard.
Carol Sudhalter (flute),
Lysle Atkinson (bass),
Frank Owens (piano),
Earl Williams (drums).
Shirley Stewart Farmer's 'Salon Fun', Ethical Culture Society, September 2010

Jazz artists assert their identities in upcoming collaborations

BY JOE KLOPUS

Jazz is a music of individualism, but some are much more individual than others. Fortunately, we have some truly one-of-a-kind jazz individuals coming through our area this week.

First up is flutist Holly Hofmann, a strong advocate for her instrument as a commanding voice in jazz, who comes to the Blue Room on Saturday. To mix a metaphor, the flute is frequently second fiddle to the saxophone in this music. More often than not the flutist in a jazz band is a saxophonist doubling on the smaller instrument. As a result, a lot of jazz flute sounds like a player giving their second-best. Not so with Hofmann, a flute specialist through and through, a passionate defender of the flute as the equal of any horn.

Hofmann brings along her husband, pianist Mike Wofford, a first-call West Coast player who’s been relied on by people including Ella Fitzgerald, June Christy, Shelly Manne, Benny Carter and Chet Baker. He fits in well with the jazz mainstream, but just listen closely — those are truly individual ideas coming through his hands, presented with the taste of someone whose experience gives him an unerring sense of what’s real and what’s jive. No jive is allowed when Wofford plays.

Holly Hofmann and Mike Wofford

Hofmann and Wofford have been friends with KC’s Bobby Watson for a long time, even including one of his songs on their recent CD. So the alto saxophonist will be joining them. Think on this for a minute: Watson is another one of those real individualists, one of the remarkably few altoists to establish a really personal identity on the horn after Charlie Parker. So a Hofmann-Wofford-Watson group is really a summit of jazz thinkers.

A second promising collaborative show in the coming days involves guitarist John Stowell, an individual whose playing speaks loudly by speaking softly. He teams up with one of Kansas City’s most outstanding players, tenor saxophonist Matt Otto, whose horn also speaks quietly but eloquently, for an intimate concert at the Westport Coffee House Theater, 4010 Pennsylvania Ave., at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Stowell doesn’t dazzle with chops, though he certainly has them — he lets his inventions flow like a stream, though it’s a stream with rapids, undertows and sharp twists. He made a deep impression with a show here in 2008. And he and Otto have teamed up before, but not in these parts — so this occasion should be an evening to remember.

Read more on: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/27/3936560/jazz-artists-assert-their-identities.html

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/27/3936560/jazz-artists-assert-their-identities.html#storylink=cpy

Bryan Ferry Announces 2013 Tour

ROBIN MURRAY

Bryan Ferry has announced a series of UK tour dates, focussing on his recent album 'The Jazz Age'.

The Jazz Age remains both immediately familiar and tantalisingly out of reach. Unlike most other decades in popular culture, the innovators and stars of the time are not able to join the Golden Oldies circuit, rendering the music of the time contagious and quite alien.

Bryan Ferry recently chose to indulge his inner Gatsby with new album 'The Jazz Age'. A curious experiment, it has seen the legendary lounge lizard re-work some of his finest hits with a lavish orchestra informed by music current to the 20s and 30s.

Watch out for an interview with Bryan Ferry on the site later this year, with the singer today announcing plans for a lavish tour. Taking place in 2012, the singer will be joined by the Bryan Ferry Orchestra for the nationwide shows, some of which re-trace earlier steps from his career.

Opening in Manchester on October 26th, the tour focusses on concert halls and other historic venues. Bryan Ferry returns to the New Theatre in Oxford where he first performed there with Roxy Music in July 1972 and to the Brighton Dome and the De Montford Theatre in Leicester, 2 venues Roxy Music performed at during the 'For Your Pleasure' and 'Stranded' tours in 1973.

Tickets go on sale at 10am on Friday (November 30th).

Bryan Ferry has confirmed the following shows:

October
26 Manchester Salford Lowry Theatre
28 Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
29 Ipswich Regent Theatre
31 Cambridge Corn Exchange

November
1 Leicester De Montford Hall
3 Oxford New Theatre
4 London Royal Albert Hall
6 Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
7 Sheffield City Hall
9 Gateshead Sage
12 Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
13 Edinburgh Usher Hall
14 York Barbican
16 Bristol Colston Hall
17 Southend Cliffs Pavilion
19 Birmingham Symphony Hall
20 Cardiff St David’s Hall
22 Brighton Dome
23 Plymouth Pavilions

From: http://www.clashmusic.com/news/bryan-ferry-announces-2013-tour

'Tis The Season ... Special Holiday Historic House Tours from Dec. 4 through Dec. 30, 2102, featuring rare at-home recordings of Louis Armstrong!

Join us for holiday cheer this season at Louis’s house! In keeping with Louis and Lucille's tradition, the house will be brightly decorated for the holidays.  Our Holiday Historic House Tours will feature rare audio clips from Louis's personal recordings of himself and family celebrations at home.

The Historic Holiday House Tour is a 40-minute, guided interpretive tour of the only preserved home of a jazz legend in the world. Louis Armstrong House is a National Historic landmark and New York City landmark. Trained docents lead the Historic House Tours. All of the furnishings are original giving the feeling that Louis and Lucille just stepped out for a minute since no one has lived in the house since Louis and Lucille Armstrong.

Unique Holiday Gifts

The Louis Armstrong House Museum Store is the perfect destination for unique holiday gifts to jazz up the holiday season. One treasure is the Louis Armstrong Ambassador Series CDs from Sweden, which contain rare and previously unreleased recordings. The Ambassador CDs feature Louis Armstrong on the radio, Louis live at Carnegie Hall, Louis with Benny Goodman's sextet, Louis jamming with Fats Waller and much more. The Museum is the world’s exclusive distributor of Ambassador CDs -- they are not sold in any other store or online.

The Museum Store’s CD collection also includes: Satchmo at Symphony Hall 65th Anniversary: The Complete Performances, a legendary concert issued in complete form for the very first time thanks to the Museum’s Gösta Hägglöf Collection, and Louis Armstrong - The OKeh, Columbia and RCA Victor Recordings 1925-1933, a 10-CD set featuring Armstrong's most famous early recordings in one box.

The Museum Store features many one-of-a-kind gifts including Armstrong T-shirts, caps, tote bags, and a “West End Blues” Frisbee that looks like a 78-record. Books, children’s books, CDs, and DVDs provide one-stop shopping for “everything Armstrong.” Foodies will be delighted to learn that the Museum is the northeast’s exclusive distributor of “Jazzmen Rice” (an aromatic jasmine rice grown in Louisiana), which displays a picture of Armstrong on the front of the bag.

From: http://louisarmstronghouse.org/news/article.php?Tis-The-Season-...-Special-Holiday-Historic-House-Tours-from-Dec.-4-through-Dec.-30-2102-featuring-rare-at-home-recordings-of-Louis-Armstrong-113

Listen: The Music of a Human Brain

By Brandon KeimEmail Author

• 
  Musical score based on the neurological activity of a 31-year-old woman. Image: Lu et al./PLoS One
  Researchers have turned human mental activity into music, and it sounds uncannily like free-form jazz piano.
  The new brain-to-sound method translates a brain’s electrical fluctuations to pitch and blood flows to intensity. With more sophisticated scores and trained ears, a mind might be heard as a cognitive symphony.
  “We hope the on-going progresses of the brain signals-based music will properly unravel part of the truth in the brain,” wrote neuroscientists led by Jing Lu and Dezhong Yao of China’s University of Electronic Science and Technology in a study Nov. 14 in the online journal PLoS One.

  
  Read more on: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/brain-music/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Fgadgets+%28Wired%3A+%28Section%29+Gadgets%29

ShamRock School of Music in Pompton Plains is the perfect place for all musicians

Whether you're old or young, a veteran or beginner, or just simply love music, ShamRock School of Music in Pompton Plains is the place for all musicians to hone and showcase their skills. Located on 595 Newark-Pompton Turnpike, ShamRock offers a wide array of private and group lessons along with jazz and rock band programs for both kids and adults.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF D. DONATACCI

Jack Stanley performs with Vince Genella and Friends at Bardi's Grill.Radio Silence performs at Will Rock 4 Food in Wayne on Nov. 16. with (left-to-right) Joe Sochalec, Claire Traynor, Ryan Donatacci, Ben Shamber and Sean Demarest.

ShamRock has 10 instructors on its staff and offers lessons on guitar, drums, piano, voice and all school band instruments. The school's head instructor Vince Genella has 25 years of experience in the music industry and specializes on guitar. His lessons are held in the Purple Haze studio where the room is decked out in purple with various pictures of guitar great Jimi Hendrix. ShamRock is equipped with six brightly colored rock-themed music rooms. Each room also has a window so that the student's lesson can be observed by the parent at anytime.

"Our mission is to not only have our students learn to play their instrument," said Randy Shamber, president of ShamRock, "but to teach them about the history of rock."

"ShamRock filled a needed niche for children and adults who want to develop their musical talent," says Cindy Sochalec, whose son Joe has been attending the school since 2009.

ShamRock's private lesson program comes with a lot of extras including a written evaluation at the end of the semester, weekly parent consultations with the instructors, free healthy snacks and drinks, plus a free T-shirt. Their lounge is comfortable and features free Wi-Fi and a flat-screen television. Also included is the ability for any student to perform at their open-mic nights hosted by Vince Genella.

ShamRock also offers a number of programs in addition to private lessons including Group Guitar and Group Keyboard lessons for beginners ages 7-12. Critically-acclaimed programs such as their Summer Rock Camps, Reality Rock Band and Rascal Rockers program are conducted by Genella and Roy Van Tassel, who has been teaching drums for 15 years. Students rehearse for 10-15 hours and then perform live everything from Led Zeppelin to Adele.

For people 25 and older, ShamRock offers an Adult Rock Shop program. They meet Thursday nights at 9 for rehearsals before they are ready to hit the stage.

Read more on: http://www.northjersey.com/news/180790551_ShamRock_School_of_Music_in_Pompton_Plains_is_the_perfect_place_for_all_musicians.html

Music Review: Slow start, fab end with Lee Ritenour and Dave Grusin

BY AYA YUSON November 26, 2012
Mystery solved.

This is not to say that last Friday's jazz as played by keyboardist Dave Grusin, guitarist Lee Ritenour, bassist Abraham Laboriel and  drummer Chris Coleman was jazz at its worst. It was, however, mostly declawed, saccharine, non-threatening stuff and was, for the concert's first half, a tad boring.

It wasn't until Dave Grusin played a solo rendition of his It Might Be You that ears perked up and there was a sigh in recognition of satisfying music. This tune truly is a beautiful song, and as played by its composer, a master musician, it stood shoulder to shoulder with pithy masterworks like Body and Soul and The Very Thought of You.

After It Might Be You, the band went into Grusin's Mountain Dance, which was mightily applauded by the audience. No fireworks from the band, but this tune exhibited fine, stellar musicianship, especially from Laboriel, who turned in the finest solo of anyone onstage.

Taking their cue from Laboriel, Grusin and Ritenour turned the heat up a notch or two and they, in turn, performed at a higher level. It was a transformative moment as their earlier halfhearted efforts were banished, and from this tune onwards, they both sounded fully present and committed.

Next up, Laboriel played a solo bass rendition of Pasko Na, Sinta Ko. He sang the first few lines, then asked the audience to sing the rest, which they gladly obliged. It was a beautiful, magical moment. Goosebumps! This tune alone was worth the price of admission -- a beautiful song played beautifully and sung wholeheartedly by a ham audience. Because, truthfully, is there a single Pinoy who's not a closet ham at heart?

For most of the evening, Ritenour showed all and sundry why for decades he's been considered the creme de la creme of L.A.'s session scene. His technique is impeccable, his execution flawless, his musical choices faceless. Someone once said that if you don't make mistakes, you aren't taking risks. Perhaps this may be said of Ritenour.

Much of his music is virtuosic, flawless vanilla. It could use a bit of garlic. It’s a taste thing, so take it with a grain of salt.
Read more on: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/283795/lifestyle/reviews/music-review-slow-start-fab-end-with-lee-ritenour-and-dave-grusin

Manhattan School of Music's Jazz Program Celebrates Its 30th Year

By Aidan Levy
Pianist Christian Sands has toured with Christian McBride’s Inside Straight, performed with vibraphonist Stefon Harris and collaborated with McBride on the soundtrack for The Contradictions of Fair Hope, a documentary narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. But first and foremost, he’s a master’s student in the Jazz Arts program at Manhattan School of Music. Sands met Harris, a 1997 graduate, when Harris returned to the school to conduct a master class, where Sands made a strong enough musical impression to launch a performing career at the top of the game. Nevertheless, he decided to hold on to his mortarboard and stay on.

“I figured it would be a great opportunity to just continue with the family that I grew up with,” says Sands, who is going into his second and final year of the master’s program. Even though at 23 his accomplishments would qualify him to teach in his own right, there are still a few people out there who can show him some tricks. In the past through Manhattan School, he studied with Jason Moran and Billy Taylor, and he’s currently studying with Vijay Iyer. “Every week, my mind was blown,” he says. “I would have lessons on Wednesday and I would tweet, ‘Just left his house. My mind is oozing out of my ears.’”

As Sands enters his valedictory year as a student before finally leaving the nest, Manhattan School of Music’s jazz program is growing as it initiates new blood into the flock and marks its 30th anniversary. The milestone will be celebrated with a series of special events, starting Sept. 21 with an evening dedicated to composer Tadd Dameron featuring the Manhattan School of Music Concert Jazz Band, led by program chair and percussionist Justin DiCioccio. On Oct. 19, DiCioccio conducts the MSM Jazz Philharmonic in a program of Ellington works arranged for full orchestra. On Oct. 26, as part of the Harlem Nights series, the Grammy-nominated MSM Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, led by percussionist Bobby Sanabria, performs a program in honor of the Apollo, Savoy, Woodside, Park Palace and other venues that presented Afro-Cuban jazz.

On Dec. 4, the MSM Chamber Jazz Ensemble, also directed by DiCioccio, presents a full recreation of Oliver Nelson’s seminal album, The Blues and the Abstract Truth. Other events include concerts featuring artist-in-residence saxophonist Dave Liebman and trumpeter Jon Faddis, and the fifth annual Charles Mingus High School Competition. Festivities culminate in a program at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola from April 2 to 7, featuring the Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, a night of emerging artists with MSM alumni, combo performances featuring guest artists culled from the faculty, and a tribute to Gil Evans in honor of the Evans centennial. This year’s master class offerings include Christian McBride, Fred Hersch and Maria Schneider.

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The program began in 1982 when the institution created a jazz department, one of the first in New York, and by 1984, courses toward a master’s degree were offered. In 1987, the school launched its undergraduate program. Manhattan School of Music had already established its classical pedigree, which attracted jazz luminaries Max Roach, John Lewis, Ron Carter and Donald Byrd, all of whom had some success before enrolling, but it ironically took years for the concept of a university jazz program to migrate to New York.

“No one really knew exactly where it was going to go, so I think the first couple years were hit or miss,” says bassist Harvie S, a faculty member since 1984, who counts Drew Gress and Todd Coolman among his first students. “Over the years, because of the great musicians that have been there, it’s snowballed into being quite a major program.” After current chair DiCioccio took the reins in 1999, the program expanded its stylistic range beyond straight-ahead jazz, S says. “Justin completely opened it up to all styles—contemporary styles and avant-garde, but traditional also. He’s gone to great lengths to get the classical musicians involved in the jazz program.”

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