Boston Symphony Orchestra Announces 2005 Tanglewood Jazz Festival Lineup
Featured performers include Tony Bennett, The Count Basie Orchestra, Sonny Rollins, Madeleine Peyroux, Toots Theilemans, Kenny Werner, Oscar Ccastro-Neves, Airto, Marian McPartland, Chris Botti, Yellowjackets, Skitch Henderson, Bucky Pizzarelli, Diane Schuur and the Caribbean Jazz Project, to be held September 2-4 in Lenox, mass.
(PRWEB) May 7, 2005 -- Featured performers include Tony Bennett and the Count
Basie Orchestra, Sonny Rollins, Madeleine Peyroux, Toots Thielemans, Kenny
Werner, Oscar Castro-Neves, Airto, Marian Mcpartland, Chris Botti, the
Yellowjackets, Skitch Henderson, Bucky Pizzarelli, jay Leonhart, Diane Schuur,
and the Caribbean Jazz
Project
Tickets on sale now
The Boston
Symphony Orchestra has announced the lineup for its annual Labor Day Weekend
Tanglewood Jazz Festival, to be held September 2-4 at the orchestra’s summer
home in the Berkshire hills of Lenox, Massachusetts. Jazz greats highlighting
this year’s festival include Tony Bennett in a rare performance with the Count
Basie Orchestra, saxophone legend Sonny Rollins, Madeleine Peyroux, Toots
Thielemans, Kenny Werner, Oscar Castro-Neves, Airto, Marian McPartland, Chris
Botti, the Yellowjackets, Skitch Henderson, Bucky Pizzarelli, Jay Leonhart,
Diane Schuur, and the Caribbean Jazz Project. Tickets for the 2005 Tanglewood
Jazz Festival are on sale now.
Opening the festival on
Friday, September 2, at 8 p.m. in Tanglewood’s intimate 1,200-seat Seiji Ozawa
Hall will be jazz vocalist Diane Schuur and the Caribbean Jazz Project
performing songs from their new CD, “Schuur Fire,” on Concord Picante records.
The CD was produced by and features Brazilian guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, who
will also be performing later in the evening with Toots Thielemans, Kenny
Werner, and Airto.
Toots Thielemans is the preeminent
master of the harmonica in jazz. The Belgian-born musician, who also plays
guitar and whistles, has had a career that goes back to World War II. He has
played with Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, Paul Simon, Miles Davis, Milt
Jackson, George Shearing, Nancy Wilson, Billy Joel, Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy
Jones, and many others. In 1961, Thielemans recorded his classic composition,
“Bluesette,” which remains a staple of live sets and has been recorded by scores
of artists over the years.
On Saturday, September 3,
at noon, pianist/composer Skitch Henderson will be featured in the Tanglewood
Theatre, joined by guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli and bassist Jay
Leonhart.
Later on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Ozawa Hall,
Marian McPartland returns to Tanglewood for another live taping of her popular
radio program “Piano Jazz,” this year celebrating its 27th season on National
Public Radio. McPartland’s guest this year will be vocalist Madeleine Peyroux,
whose debut 1996 recording was hailed by Time magazine as “the most exciting,
involving vocal performance by a new singer this year.” Her latest recording,
“Careless Love,” is a blend of acoustic blues, country ballads, torch songs, and
pop, featuring a diverse song list covering the music of W. C. Handy, Bob Dylan,
Hank Williams, Leonard Cohen, Elliott Smith, and Edith
Piaf.
Headlining the 2005 Tanglewood Jazz Festival –
on Saturday evening at 8 p.m. in Tanglewood’s 5,100-seat Koussevitzky Music Shed
– will be the legendary Tony Bennett, performing with the Count Basie Orchestra
in a rare reunion to celebrate their landmark 1959 Capitol recording, “Basie
& Bennett.” Bennett has sold over 50 million records worldwide and has
platinum and gold albums to his credit as well as 12 Grammy Awards and a Grammy
Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the singer’s singer and has received high
praise from his colleagues through the years, including Frank Sinatra who stated
unequivocally, “Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business.” Bennett is an
international treasure who was honored by the United Nations with its “Citizen
of the World” honor, which aptly describes the scope of his
accomplishments.
Directed by Bill Hughes, the Count
Basie Orchestra has a big stomping sound. The Basie band of the 1930’s created
what would be known forever as swing. Today, the musical joy that Count Basie
himself created lives on through the superb orchestra that bears his
name.
On Sunday, September 4, at 2 p.m. in Ozawa Hall,
“saxophone colossus” Sonny Rollins returns to Tanglewood for his first
performance there since 2001. Rollins has played for nearly a half a century and
today remains one of the few surviving icons from a golden era of jazz that will
probably never be equaled. Rollins first recorded in 1949 and today – over 50
years later – he remains the most formidable of all jazz improvisers, a living
inspiration to musicians and listeners worldwide.
The
popular hot fusion/acoustic jazz group, the Yellowjackets will perform material
from their new CD, “Altered States” from Heads Up Records, on Sunday, September
4, at 8 p.m. One of the most popular American jazz ensembles of the past 20
years, the Yellowjackets include keyboardist Russell Ferrante, saxophonist Bob
Mintzer, bassist Jimmy Haslip, and drummer Marcus Baylor.
Also appearing on the Sunday-evening program will be trumpeter Chris Botti,
a gifted composer and instrumentalist and a charismatic performer who has
created a series of recordings that have made him a virtual genre-of-one in the
realm of contemporary jazz. He toured with Sting in 2004 and was voted one of
People magazine’s “2004’s 50 Most Beautiful People.”
All programs and artists are subject to change. Tickets for the 2005
Tanglewood Jazz Festival are on sale now through SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200
or online through the BSO’s web site, www.bso.org, powered by EMC Corporation. Tickets will be
available in person at the Tanglewood Box Office in Lenox beginning on June 6 at
10 a.m. All ticket prices include a $1 Tanglewood Grounds Maintenance Fee. For
further information, please call the Boston Symphony Orchestra at
617-266-1492.
2005 Tanglewood Jazz Festival Program
Listing:
Friday, September 2, 8 p.m., Seiji Ozawa Hall
Diane Schuur
With The Caribbean Jazz Project
Toots Thielemans, Kenny Werner, Oscar
Castro-Neves, and Airto
Tickets: $55, $47, $40; lawn tickets:
$17
Saturday, September 3, 12 noon, Theatre
The Legends Trio
Featuring Skitch Henderson, Bucky Pizzarelli
Tickets: $35,
$25
Saturday, September 3, 3 p.m., Seiji Ozawa Hall
Marian
Mcpartland
Live taping for NPR’s “Piano Jazz” with special guest Madeleine
Peyroux
Tickets: $45, $37, $30; lawn tickets: $17
Saturday, September
3, 8 p.m., Koussevitzky Music Shed
Tony Bennett And The Count Basie
Orchestra
Tickets: $81, $61, $41; lawn tickets: $23
Sunday, September
4, 2 p.m., Seiji Ozawa Hall
Sonny Rollins
Tickets: $45, $37, $30 lawn
tickets: $17
Sunday, September 4, 8 p.m., Seiji Ozawa
Hall
Yellowjackets
Chris botti
Tickets: $65, $55, $42; lawn
tickets: $20
Press Contact:
Dawn Singh, Dawn Singh Publicity (e-mail
protected from spam bots)
857-544-0739
Sean
Kerrigan, Boston Symphony Orchestra Press Office (e-mail protected from spam
bots)
617-638-9286
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/5/prweb237274.htm