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Prez Fest 2011- March 13 2011 – Celebrating Gil Evans

February 10, 2011

  To: Listings/Critics/Features
From: Jazz Promo Services
http://jazzpromoservices.com/

The Jazz Committee, Midtown Arts Common
at Saint Peter’s Church
Presents
Prez Fest 2011 — Celebrating Gil Evans:
NEA Jazz Master, Legendary Composer, Arranger, Band Leader and Pianist

  Featuring Phil Woods, Andy Bey and Frank Kimbrough with
The Eastman School of Music Chamber Jazz Ensemble conducted by Ryan Truesdell
and other festival participants:  
Maria Schneider, Steve Wilson, Helen Merrill, Howard Johnson, Stephanie Crease   
Sunday, March 13, 2011
at
619 Lexington (at 54th Street), New York City

  New York, NY – The Jazz Committee, Midtown Arts Common at Saint Peter’s Church, will present “Prez Fest 2011 – Celebrating Gil Evans.” The festival takes place on Sunday, March 13 with a panel discussion on Gil Evans at 3:30 PM, Jazz Vespers at 5 PM and Concert at 7 PM; The program features Evans’ arrangements for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra – some rare, some performed here for the first time – and classic Evans’ charts from the album, New Bottle, Old Wine (1958).

  Gil Evans (1912 – 1988), was an alchemist — a master of color and texture who could orchestrate a feeling, haunting or joyful, and weave in elements from all music. His work as an arranger, composer, and bandleader foreshadowed the changing sounds of jazz in the 20th century, always reaching ahead. He fine-tuned his scores for the many “sound innovators” he worked with —Miles Davis, Steve Lacy, and Wayne Shorter, among them — and matched their artistry with his own.

  “[Gil] never wasted a melody, he never wasted a phrase. Students will discover him. They’ll have to take his music apart layer by layer. That’s how they’ll know what kind of genius he was.”

— Miles Davis

Stephanie Crease, author of Gil Evans: Out of the Cool, will moderate the panel Gil Evans: In and Out of the Cool – The Man and His Music at 3 PM.  Panelists include Maria Schneider, Helen Merrill, Howard Johnson, all of whom worked with Evans in different periods of his life, and Ryan Truesdell, composer and arranger in his own right.  Jazz Vespers at 5 PM will include solos by Helen Merrill, Steve Wilson, Howard Johnson and Frank Kimbrough. At 7 PM, Ryan Truesdell will conduct the Eastman School of Music Chamber Jazz Ensemble performing the music Gil Evans arranged for Claude Thornhill, featuring vocalist Andy Bey and pianist Frank Kimbrough.  Saxophonist Phil Woods will be featured on the music from Gil Evans’ album, New Bottle, Old Wine.

This concert will consist of music Evans wrote during two essential periods of exploration and growth in his career as a composer and arranger. Evans approached the Thornhill Orchestra as more of a “workshop,” feverishly writing arrangements and experimenting with different uses of orchestration, harmony and melding the boundaries of jazz, classical and world music. The music for the second half of the concert gave Evans the opportunity to further explore his Thornhill discoveries, using a different orchestration and more modern musicians such as Cannonball Adderley and Steve Lacy. It’s going to be an exciting night of discovery as we explore some newly-discovered, never before heard works as well as some rarely-performed music of Gil’s.                                                 —Ryan Truesdell, Artistic Director

“Prez Fest” is an annual jazz festival that showcases the talents of jazz legends who are no longer with us and about whom people should learn more.  Over the past several years Billie Holiday, Billy Strayhorn and Art Blakey have been celebrated.  The name “Prez Fest” blossomed out of “To Prez with Love,” an annual tribute to Lester Young which was held at Saint Peter’s for more than 30 years.

The Jazz Committee, Midtown Arts Common at Saint Peter’s Church, produces Prez Fest.  Other events produced by The Jazz Committee include All Nite Soul, Jazz on the Plaza (free Thursday concerts at midday, May through the end of August at 53rd and Lexington), and First Tuesdays, (a free professional development seminar series for musicians) in collaboration with Chamber Music America.

Prez Fest 2011 is made possible in part with public funds from the Fund for Creative Communities, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Prez Fest 2011 – Celebrating Gil Evans takes place on Sunday, March 13 at Saint Peter’s Church at 619 Lexington Avenue (at 54th Street.) 3:30 PM: Gil Evans: In and Out of the Cool – The Man and His Music, a panel moderated by Evans biographer Stephanie Crease with Maria Schneider, Helen Merrill, Howard Johnson, and Ryan Truesdell. Free  5 PM: Jazz Vespers — with the music of Gil Evans and solos by Helen Merrill, Steve Wilson, Frank Kimbrough, and Howard Johnson. Free Will Offering  7 PM:  Concert — Phil Woods, Andy Bey, and Frank Kimbrough featured with the Eastman School of Music Chamber Jazz Ensemble performing the music of Gil Evans arranged for Claude Thornhill and for the Evans’ album, New Bottle, Old Wine.  $25 Suggested Donation for tickets available at the door. $10 student suggested donation with student ID.  $20 tickets available in advance at www.saintpeters.org <http://www.saintpeters.org/> /jazz   212 935 2200. “E” train to Lexington Avenue or “# 6” to 51st Street.

Contacts:
Co-Chair Jazz Committee: Lynne Mueller 917 207 4953
Artistic Director for Prez Fest 2011: Ryan Truesdell 646 707 3883  ryan@ryantruesdell.com   
Director of Music for the Jazz Ministry: Ike Sturm 212 935 2200    ike@ikesturm.com

    


            

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