WHO: Aruan Ortiz (piano), Francisco Mora Catlett (drums), special guests Henry Grimes (upright bass, violin) and Don Byron (saxophone, clarinet)
WHAT: concert (jazz / Latin jazz / avant-garde jazz)
WHEN: Thursday, July 25th, 2013, 8-10 p.m.
WHERE: The Zinc Bar, 82 West 3rd St. betw. Thompson & Sullivan St's., Manhattan (NYC), (212) 477-9462, (212) 505-9462, http://www.zincbar.com, http://zincbar.com/all_upcoming_events, mailto:[email protected]
TICKETS: $15
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: Take the A/ B/ C/ D/ E/ F/ V train to West 4th St. and use West 3rd St. exit, or take the #6 train Lexington Ave. local to Bleecker St., or take the M21 bus across Houston St. to Sullivan St.
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ARUAN ORTIZ is a critically acclaimed Cuban pianist, award-winning composer, and solid producer and educator, not only in New York City but internationally as well. Designated “the latest Cuban wunderkind to arrive in the U.S.” by BET Jazz, this classically trained violist and pianist from Santiago de Cuba portrays his music as an architectural structure of sounds, incorporating contemporary classical music, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and improvisation as primary material for his compositions. He has received a number of awards, such as Latin Jazz Corner’s Arranger of the Year (2011), Best Jazz Interpreter, Festival de Jazz in Vic, Spain, and semi-finalist, piano solo competition, Montreux, Switzerland. Since arriving in New York in 2008 to play with the Wallace Roney Quintet, Aruán has made five recordings, all very well received by the critics. On his latest CD, "Banned in London" (Whirlwind Recordings 2012), Aruán co-leads a powerful Cuban/US collaboration featuring saxophonist Greg Osby, and this CD received five stars on BBC Jazz Radio, four stars in the Jazz Journal, Jazzwise Magazine, Financial Times, and The Guardian in the UK, where it was also at the top of the list of best jazz albums of 2012. As a composer, Ortiz has received commissions from the Woodwind Quintet Ensemble (Santiago de Cuba); Música de Camara Orchestra (NYC); Oyu Oro Folkloric Dance Company (NYC); YOUME & Milena Zullo Ballet (Rome); José Mateo Ballet Theater (Cambridge, MA); and University of Albany Symphony Orchestra (upstate New York). Aruán Ortiz has also played, toured or recorded with Cindy Blackman-Santana, Don Byron, Terri Lyne Carrington, Joe Lovano, the Mingus Big Band, Greg Osby, Wallace Roney, Esperanza Spalding, and Lenny White, among others. Presently he also curates the Music and Architecture concert series on Thursdays at the Zinc Bar in New York City. aruan-ortiz.com.
FRANCISCO MORA CATLETT, born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Mexico, has merged Cuban rhythm, techno-funk, Mexican surrealism, African mysticism, Caribbean colors, and avant-garde jazz to formulate what is uniquely a new voice in jazz. The son of world-famous sculptor and justice activist Elizabeth Catlett of Cuernavaca, Francisco began his training at UNAM’s School of Music while at the same time recording for Capitol Records in Mexico. In Boston, his musical education was furthered by Alan Dawson at Berklee, who helped Francisco learn classical jazz technique, and Babatunde Olatunji, who helped bring his inherent African awareness to the surface. Thereon, Francisco Mora Catlett embarked on a journey through space, time, and sound with Master Sun Ra and the Arkestra (1973-80), later disembarking to found his own Pa’Lante Productions, rooted in Detroit and devoted to the spread of the African presence in the music of the Americas. His first release, “MORA," with Detroit musicians including Marcus Belgrave and Kenny Cox, marked the breaking of ground for future creations. With a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1986, Francisco came to New York City to study with Max Roach and appeared on two Blue Moon CDs with Max Roach's M'Boom, "To the Max", and "Live at S.O.B.'s New York." In 1993 Francisco became a Visiting Minority Associate Professor in the School of Music at Michigan State University, and starting in 1996, he worked with Carl Craig’s Innerzone Orchestra, a world-touring ensemble for presenters of electronic music. Based back in New York City since 2000, Francisco leads several projects, including the Outerzone Band (featured in the North Sea Jazz Festival), Freedom Jazz Trio, and The Afro Horn. He is co-founder and music coordinator for Oyu Oro Afro-Cuban Experimental Dance Ensemble. In recent years, Francisco Mora Catlett he has released several outstanding recordings under his own name. Francisco is a master drummer who brings alive the circle of African heritage in his music and art. franciscomoracatlett.com.
In the late ‘50s and throughout the ‘60s, after receiving his music education at the Mastbaum School in Philadelphia and at Juilliard, HENRY GRIMES (upright bass, violin, poetry) played acoustic bass with many master jazz musicians of that era, including Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Haynes, Steve Lacy, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, and McCoy Tyner. Sadly, a trip to the West Coast to work with Al Jarreau and Jon Hendricks went awry, leaving Henry in downtown Los Angeles at the end of the '60s with a broken bass he couldn't pay to repair, so he sold it for a small sum and faded away from the music world. Without a bass, a vehicle, or a telephone, he was truly lost. He survived by doing manual labor and redirecting his creative powers into writing poetry. He was discovered there by a Georgia social worker and fan in 2002, was given a bass by William Parker, and very soon afterwards made a triumphant return to New York City in May, '03 to play in the Vision Festival. Since then, Henry Grimes has played more than 500 concerts (including many festivals), touring throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, playing and recording with many of this era's music heroes, such as Rashied Ali, Marshall Allen, Fred Anderson, Marilyn Crispell, Andrew Cyrille, Bill Dixon, Edward "Kidd" Jordan, Roscoe Mitchell, David Murray, William Parker, Marc Ribot, Wadada Leo Smith, and again, Cecil Taylor. Henry made his professional debut on a second instrument (the violin) at Lincoln Center at the age of 70, has seen the publication of the first volume of his poetry, "Signs Along the Road," and creates illustrations to accompany his new recordings and publications. He has received many honors in recent years, including four Meet the Composer grants, and has also held a number of recent residencies and offered master classes at Berklee College of Music, CalArts (with Wadada Leo Smith), Hamilton College of Performing Arts (with Rashied Ali), Humber College, Mills College (with Roscoe Mitchell), New England Conservatory, the University of Gloucestershire at Cheltenham, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, etc. Henry can be heard on 87 recordings, including a dozen recent ones, on various labels. henrygrimes.com.
For over two decades, DON BYRON has been a singular voice in an astounding range of musical contexts, exploring widely divergent traditions while continually striving for "a sound above genre." As clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and social critic, he redefines every genre of music he plays, be it classical, salsa, hip-hop, funk, rhythm & blues, klezmer, or any jazz style from swing and bop to cutting-edge downtown improvisation. Born and raised in the Bronx, Don's father played bass in calypso bands, and his mother was a pianist. Don studied classical clarinet with Joe Allard while playing and arranging salsa numbers for high-school bands on the side. Don later studied with George Russell in the Third Stream Department of the New England Conservatory of Music, while also performing with Latin and jazz ensembles. Mr. Byron's artistic collaborators over the years have included Geri Allen, Mario Bauza, Hamiet Bluiett, Anthony Braxton, Steve Coleman, Marilyn Crispell, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Bill Frisell, John Hicks, Leroy Jenkins, Carole King, Steve Lacy, Living Colour, David Murray, Meshell Ndegeocello, Marc Ribot, Brandon Ross, Hal Willner, Cassandra Wilson, Reggie Workman, and many more. Don Byron has released a diverse array of recordings with a wide range of groups; his most recent CD release is "Love, Peace, and Soul," the debut album of his New Gospel Quintet for Savoy Jazz. Don is also a gifted teacher who has led residencies at the University of California, University of Nevada, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Columbia University. From 2005-9, he was Visiting Associate Professor at The State University of New York at Albany, where he taught theory, saxophone, improvisation, and composition. In 2007-8, he taught at MIT as Martin Luther King Visiting Professor. In 2007, Don Byron was awarded both a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Prudential Fellowship, in 2009 he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for composition for his "7 Etudes for Piano," and he won The Samuel Barber Rome Prize for Composition, along with a one-year residency at the American Academy in Rome, where he began work on his first opera. And in April 2012, joining the first class of Doris Duke artists, Don Byron received the Duke Performing Artist Award. donbyron.com.
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WE HOPE YOU'LL JOIN US !
ALL CONTACTS:
Aruan Ortiz, Curator, Music & Architecture series, Thursdays, Zinc Bar, NYC,
cell (617) 833-5499, mailto:[email protected].
Margaret Grimes, Publicist, (212) 841-0899, mailto:[email protected].
Zinc Bar, (212) 477-9462, (212) 505-9462, http://www.zincbar.com, http://zincbar.com/all_upcoming_events, mailto:[email protected].
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