Arts & Lectures
2001-2002 Performing Arts Season News Release
For Immediate Release

February 5, 2002
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu

Newport Jazz® 2002 brings today’s jazz luminaries
to perform at UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

Seven exciting jazz stars, touring as Newport Jazz® 2002, will present a scintillating evening of music on Sunday, March 10 at 7 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. Ever since America’s first all-jazz festival was held in Newport, Rhode Island in 1954, the name Newport Jazz® has signified the best the jazz world has to offer. Now, famed impresario George Wein, founder of the original Newport Festival, has assembled a group of leading artists including Terence Blanchard on trumpet, Joe Lovano on saxophone, Cedar Walton on piano, Howard Alden on guitar, Justo Almario on saxophone, Idris Muhammad on drums and Peter Washington on bass to tour under the theme Jazz Today. The Los Angeles Times called a previous Newport Jazz® Tour “the essence of jazz,” insisting the tour allowed “generations of musicians to come together in a single band and to make hot, beautiful music together.”

Terence Blanchard

Fresh from being voted “Artist of the Year” in Down Beat’s 2000 poll, jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard embarked on a nationwide tour, performing selections from his Sony Classical release, Let’s Get Lost, recorded with Diana Krall, Jane Monheit, Dianne Reeves and Cassandra Wilson. The release of Let’s Get Lost follows the success of Wandering Moon (Sony Classical), featuring Blanchard performing his own compositions. The album won him a Grammy nomination as well as “Album of the Year” in Down Beat’s annual poll, which also named him “Artist and Trumpeter of the Year.” Also for Sony Classical, Jazz in Film featured Blanchard in an exploration of the influence of jazz in classic movie scores, including Duke Ellington’s Anatomy of Murder, Quincy Jones’ The Pawn Broker and Jerry Goldsmith’s Chinatown.

An accomplished composer, Blanchard began his film scoring career in the late 1980s working with Spike Lee on films such as Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X and the Academy Award nominated 1997 documentary Four Little Girls. The most recent Blanchard/Lee collaboration was the critically acclaimed 2000 release Bamboozled.

An alumnus of the New Orleans Center of Creative Arts, Blanchard recently accepted an appointment to the University of Southern California (USC) as the Artistic Director for the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance.

Joe Lovano

Joe Lovano’s Down Beat Critics’ Poll and Readers’ Poll awards include the 2001 Down Beat Readers Poll “Jazz Musician of the Year,” “Tenor Saxophonist of the Year,” “Jazz Album of the Year ” and “Musician of the Year”; “Jazz Artist of the Year” 1995 & 1996; “Tenor Player of the Year” 2000 and 1995; “Album of the Year” 1995 and 1996. His Grammy nominations include Best Instrumental Performance for Celebrating Sinatra 1997, Best Jazz Small Group Album for Tenor Legacy 1994, Best Large Ensemble for Rush Hour 1995, Best Jazz Small Group Album and Jazz Solo for Quartets Live at the Village Vanguard 1996. In 2001, Lovano won a Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble for 52nd Street Themes.

Joe Lovano was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1952, and began playing alto sax as a child. His father, tenor saxophonist Tony “Big T” Lovano, schooled Joe not only in the basics but in dynamics and interpretation, and regularly exposed him to jazz artists traveling through such as Sonny Stitt, James Moody, Dizzy Gillespie, Gene Ammons and Rasaahn Roland Kirk. Upon graduation from high school, he attended the famed Berklee School of Music in Boston. In 1994 Lovano was given the prestigious “Distinguished Alumni Award” from Berklee and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1998. Berklee also awarded him the first “Gary Burton Chair for Jazz Performance” in 2001. As the Village Voice proclaimed, “Move over Pavarotti, the great Italian tenor around today isn’t Luciano, but Lovano.”

Cedar Walton

Over the past four decades, Cedar Walton has become a virtuosic instrumentalist with a unique style and voice, influencing a growing number of today’s young musicians. In a February 2000 review in the Los Angeles Times, Don Heckman wrote, “Walton’s solos were virtual instant compositions, spontaneously assembled into coherent musical structures, driven with an urgent sense of swing, and colorfully sprinkled with often whimsical quotes from other tunes.”

Born in Dallas, Texas, Cedar Walton came to New York in 1955 and was soon playing with Sonny Rollins, Kenny Dorham and J. J. Johnson. He anchored the famous Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet from 1960-61. From 1961-1965, he was a member of Art Blakey’s influential The Jazz Messengers, with Freddie Hubbard and Wayne Shorter.

Cedar Walton has had an extensive career as a recording artist, including the releases Cedar! (1967) with Kenny Dorham, Junior Cook, Leroy Vinnegar and Billy Higgins for the Original Jazz Classics label; Eastern Rebellion (1975) with George Coleman, Sam Jones and Billy Higgins for Timeless Records; Cedar Walton - Ron Carter - Jack DeJonette (1983) for the Limetree label; My Funny Valentine (1991) with Ron Carter and Billy Higgins for Evidence Music; and Composer, which marks his debut for Astor Place Recordings.

Howard Alden

George Kanzler of the Newark Star-Ledger proclaims that Howard Alden is “the most impressive and creative member of a new generation of jazz guitarists.” Alden was voted “Best Emerging Talent - Guitar” in the first annual Jazz Times critics’ poll, 1990, and “Talent Deserving Wider Recognition” in the 1996, 1995, 1993, and 1992 Down Beat’s critics’ poll.

Born in Newport Beach, California in 1958, Alden began playing at age ten; soon he was working professionally around Los Angeles. He has been a Concord Jazz recording artist since the late 1980s. One of the many highlights in Alden’s fruitful association with Concord came in 1991 when he recorded with one of his all-time heroes, seven-string guitar master George Van Eps on the album Thirteen Strings. As a result of his association with—and inspiration from—George Van Eps, Alden has been playing the seven-string guitar exclusively since 1992.

Alden’s most recent recording Take Your Pick serves to underline his wide scope of knowledge of jazz. He also played the guitar solos for Sean Penn’s jazzman character in Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown in 1999.

Justo Almario

Saxophone, flute and clarinet player Justo Almario was born in the Caribbean town of Sincelejo, Colombia, the son of a local musician. After moving to the United States, he worked in Florida and then was awarded a scholarship to study at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. His big break came in the early ‘70s when he was hired by percussionist Mongo Santamarša as musical director for his band. He performed with them in a famous concert at New York’s Yankee stadium alongside Joe Madrid. Almario began his own recording career shortly thereafter.

In 1982, Almario moved to Los Angeles. There he formed the group Tolú, a very important ensemble in modern Latin Jazz. With Tolú, Almario has explored the fusion of jazz with Colombian folklore, jumping all the limits and becoming what critics have called the “Coltrane of Latin Jazz.” Almario has played in many different styles, from New Age music to studio sessions with popular Latin-American singers and musicians. He has become increasingly involved in religion and has recorded with members of his church. In his thirty-year career, Almario has played or recorded with masters like Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Tito Puente, Cachao López and Paquito D’Rivera.

Idris Muhammad

Born Leo Morris in New Orleans, Idris Muhammad began his musical journey with Art Neville and the Hawkettes (later to become the Neville Brothers). He quickly absorbed and incorporated the deep sounds of the city and found himself recording with local talents such as Fats Domino, Lee Dorsey and Joe Jones. In New York City, Muhammad has worked as the house drummer for both the Apollo Theater and the Blue Note jazz club. He has become one of New York’s most sought-after session players, performing with Roberta Flack, Ron Carter, Johnny Griffin, Herbie Hancock and others. Muhammad’s funky style would usher in acid or funk jazz, which has evolved into the fusion music of today.

Muhammad has recorded fourteen albums as a bandleader. He is presently working and touring with John Scofield, Ahmad Jamal, Sonny Rollins, Joe Lovano, Michael Brecker and other artists. His recordings include “Blueberry Hill” with Fats Domino, “Chain Gang” with Sam Cook, “People Get Ready” with the Impressions, “Feel Like Making Love” with Roberta Flack, and the Hair Original Soundtrack album. As leader, he has recorded the albums Power of Soul, House of the Rising Sun and Kabsha.

Peter Washington

Peter Washington was born in Los Angeles on August 28, 1964. He attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in English Literature, performed with the U.C. Symphony for three seasons, and was a member of the San Francisco Youth Symphony for two seasons. At Berkeley he developed an interest in jazz. After a three-year stint with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Washington went on to freelance work, touring and recording extensively with Milt Jackson, Dizzy Gillespie, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Kenny Burrell and many others. He can be heard most regularly with the Tommy Flannagan Trio and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. Peter Washington’s recordings as a sideman number over 100, including To Diz with Love with Dizzy Gillespie (Telarc Jazz) Dance of Passion (Verve) with Johnny Griffin, Mostly Ballads (Music Masters) with Lionel Hampton, Live at Sweet Basil (Sweet Basil) with Gil Evans Big Band, and My Appreciation (Verve) with Bill Cosby.

A Pre-Concert Discussion led by Jon Nathan, UCSB Department of Music, will be held at 6 pm for ticket holders only.

This performance by Newport Jazz® 2002 is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by KCBX Public Radio. This residency is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment of the Arts, a federal agency. Tickets are $35 and $30 for the general public and $19 and $16 for UCSB students.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.

©2002 UCSB Arts & Lectures, University of California, Santa Barbara