KENOSHA — The 10th anniversary HarborPark Jazz & Blues Festival featuring contemporary jazz pianist and composer David Benoit will be held Saturday, Aug. 17, at Celebration Place, 56th Street and Ring Road. Benoit performs at 7 p.m.
The Kenosha Unified School District Jazz All-Stars and Chicago based Brent Kimbrough & Company will showcase their jazz and big band music beginning at 4:30 p.m. Benoit performs at 7 p.m.
Since launching his recording career in 1977, Benoit’s expansive career as a contemporary jazz pianist and composer has included more than 25 solo recordings. His 1980s releases “This Side Up,” “Freedom at Midnight” and the Grammy-nominated “Every Step of the Way” are considered influential genre classics. His prolific output since 2000 includes several prominent Charlie Brown related projects that reflect his lifelong passion for the music of original Peanuts composer Vince Guaraldi and solidify Benoit’s role as his musical heir. The pianist/composer was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the American Smooth Jazz Awards in Michigan City, Ind., in 2010.
The KUSD Jazz All Stars 20-piece ensemble will perform a broad range of big band repertoire including music from jazz legends Count Basie, Les Hooper, Matt Harris, Bob Mintzer, Gordon Goodwin and Wynton Marsalis.
Composer, pianist and three-time Grammy nominee David Benoit has made an indelible mark on contemporary jazz. He pioneered the popular smooth jazz sound in the '80s, and continues to attract fans, critical acclaim and the most coveted awards in the music industry with his recordings, his television and film scores, and his classical compositions.
In June 2003, Benoit was named Keyboardist of the Year in the 4th Annual National Smooth Jazz Awards, the third time he's claimed this top honor. One of contemporary jazz's most diverse, dynamic and prolific composers, Benoit is one of those rare artists whose unique sound and natural musical vision captures all the charm, appeal and excitement of the genre. Benoit has a style that combines his original melodic sophistication with playful R&B themes with pop meets retro-fusion ideas.
He has performed with the Rippingtons, Kenny G, Jeff Golub, Dave Grusin, Patti Austin, Boney James, Lee Ritenour and many more. He has also created music for several Charlie Brown specials, Garfield and numerous film scores. He remains one of contemporary jazz's most successful artists and puts on one of the most exciting shows in music today.
For this holiday performance, Benoit plays a collection of holiday favorites and Vince Guaraldi-penned Peanuts classics for his annual Charlie Brown Christmas show featuring an appearance by the Napa Valley Children's Chorus.
David Benoit Thursday, Dec. 22, 8 p.m. Napa Valley Opera House
Over the last quarter century, composer and pianist David Benoit (b. 1953) has been a passionate musical innovator committed to the exploration of many different art forms on the American landscape.
A five time Grammy nominee for his extraordinary and seminal contributions to contemporary jazz, Benoit has also embarked on a multi-faceted journey into the classical music world. This has led to guest pianist and conductor spots with numerous top symphonies and philharmonics, four performances at Carnegie Hall (including one with Maestro Leonard Bernstein), a performance on the steps of the Capitol Building with the National Symphony for the annual PBS July 4th event, and the creation of Kobe, a symphonic tone poem about a little girl growing up in postwar Japan.
This piece received its world debut with the Philippine Philharmonic in 2001 and will be performed in 2003 with Kent Nagano conducting the Berkeley Symphony. Benoit also recently completed his first year as Music Director of the Asia America Symphony. His first piano concerto, The Centaur and the Sphinx, will be completed next summer.
The remarkably versatile Benoit has lent his conducting talents and legendary piano performance skills to a wide variety of settings. As a conductor, he has performed the music of Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Camille Saint Saens, Mozart, Francis Poulenc and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. He has given piano performances for Claude Bolling’s Suite For Flute and Jazz Piano, Suite for Cello and Piano, and is scheduled to perform a suite for guitar and piano with Angel Romero at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s annual fundraising concert. He has performed The Peanuts Piano Concerto with several orchestras as part of his tribute to Charles Schulz and the music of Vince Guaraldi, in conjunction with his 2000 GRP tribute recording Here’s To You, Charlie Brown: 50 Great Years. He is also slated to perform as a guest soloist with Lalo Schifrin and his orchestra.
Combining his virtuosity on the piano with his conducting, Benoit has led concerts with numerous world class orchestras and symphonies: The Los Angeles Philharmonic, The San Francisco Symphony, The Atlanta Symphony, The Dresden Philharmonic, The Philippine Philharmonic, The Toledo Symphony, The New World Orchestra, The San Antonio Symphony, The San Jose Symphony, The Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, The UC Santa Barbara Orchestra and The National Symphony Orchestra.
His involvement as a guest educator with the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation has taken him to classrooms throughout the country, where he has devoted many hours to teaching children about music; in 2001, he won the foundation’s coveted “excellence in music education” award. He has also been involved with the Grammy in the Schools Foundation and was voted Music Mentor of the Year by the International Foundation of Education and Performing Arts (IFEPA). Benoit is currently Music Director and Founder for the Asia America Youth Honor Orchestra, a collection of young musicians ranging from 11 to 18 years of age.
Combining his love of many different styles of music with his immense growth as a top orchestrator, Benoit has been a popular film and television composer. His most notable film scores are The Stars Fell on Henrietta, produced by Clint Eastwood and starring Robert Duvall; and The Christmas Tree, produced by Sally Field, voted Best Score of 1996 by Film Score Magazine. His long association with Charles Schulz and the famed Peanuts realm led to over ten years of composing music for Peanuts TV specials on CBS. In addition, he has written the themes for the long running soap opera All My Children (ABC), Sisters (NBC) and scored the movies of the week Final Descent (with the late Robert Urich) and Cadillac Jack (starring Clint Black). In addition to his film and television work, Benoit is nearing completion of his first Broadway musical, Something’s Got to Give, in collaboration with lyricist Mark Winkler, about the life and times of Marilyn Monroe.
His career as a contemporary jazz pianist began in 1977 and includes 23 solo recordings over the past 25 years. Many of these, including his 1987 GRP Records debut Freedom At Midnight and its Grammy nominated 1988 follow-up Every Step Of The Way, are considered influential classics in the genre, which came to be known as Smooth Jazz. Among his other Grammy nominations are those for Best Instrumental Composition (for “Dad’s Room,” from 1999’s Professional Dreamer) and Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance (for the GRP All-Star Big Band). Combining two of the musical loves of his life, he recorded 1996’s American Landscape with The London Symphony Orchestra. He was voted Keyboardist of the Year for 2000 and 2001 by the Oasis Smooth Jazz Awards, and is currently in the Top Ten on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Chart with Fuzzy Logic, which spawned the recent #1 hit instrumental single “Snap!”
Tour March 25 20th Anniversary All-Star Jam Wyomissing, PA March 26 Berks Jazz Festival Reading, PA, with Rick Braun, Richard Elliot, Selina Albright April 10 An Evening with David Benoit and Family II, Castle Theater, Maui Arts & Cultural Center - Maui, HI, with Phil and Angela Benoit April 18 James Armstrong Theater Torrance, CA with the Asia America Symphony May 09 Carriage House / Montalvo Arts Center Saratoga, CA June 05 Aratani Japan America Theater Los Angeles, CA with the Asia America Symphony http://www.benoit.com/bio.html
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