Vijay Ayer©Andrea Canter

Jazz composer/pianist Vijay Iyer has been awarded the $30,000 Greenfield Prize by the Hermitage Artist Retreat and the Greenfield Foundation. Iyer will receive the award at a special celebration dinner on April 1 in Sarasota, Fla. Established three years ago by Bob and Louise Greenfield of Sarasota through the Philadelphia-based Greenfield Foundation, the prize includes a commission of an original work of art, residency at the Hermitage, and collaboration with a professional arts organization to develop and promote the work. Past winners of the prize include playwrights Craig Lucas and John Guare, composer Eve Beglarian, and visual artist Sanford Biggers.  This year’s prize winner, designated for music, was selected by a jury including Linda Golding, past president of Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. music publishers and founder of the Reservoir; Jennifer Koh, solo violinist and prolific recitalist; and Limor Tomer, general manager of concerts and lectures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Vijay Iyer brings to his unique jazz modernism a background eclectic in both its cultural and musical influences. Listen to Iyer and you can hear the rhythms and harmonies of his Indian heritage as well as the formality of European classical tradition and the freedom of American rock; the shadow of his mentors—Steve Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell and George Lewis—is also ever-present. The result? Some of the most original music in 21st century jazz from a 40-year-old who Amiri Baraka described as “an oncoming phenomenon, already up to his fingers in the most advanced music of our wildly contradictory age...” 

Bill Carrothers©Andrea Canter

One of the biggest losses to the Twin Cities music community in the past decade was the death of pianist Bobby Peterson in 2002. A mentor, teacher, friend and source of inspiration to many local musicians, Bobby’s loss continues to be felt throughout the local jazz scene. In his honor, this weekend (February 10-11), the Artists Quarter hosts its 6th annual tribute featuring many of the reigning giants of local piano (Laura Caviani, Bryan Nichols, Chris Lomheim and Peter Schimke) as well as one of our locally grown, now-international stars, Bill Carrothers. This is a chance to honor one of the greats of local music and showcase our current stars. Bobby’s legacy is alive and well!  

Leigh Kamman (MPR, The Jazz Image) described Bobby Peterson as “an artist deserving much wider recognition; he was a supreme accompanist and improviser. He was really just a stunning pianist.” A prodigy who joined the Buddy Rich Orchestra at age 21, Bobby was one of Minnesota’s “First Family of Music,” the descendents of his aunt, Jeanne Arland Peterson, including brothers Russ and Tommy Peterson, and cousins Billy, Patty and Linda Peterson.  

Jeff Lorber

More than 30 years since he pioneered “jazz fusion,” prolific performer and recording artist Jeff Lorber is touring with a band that revisits his landmark melding of jazz, rock and R&B, putting some funk and Latin in to the mix. Solidifying his sound with the 2012 release Galaxy, Lorber visits the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis this week (February 8-9), in the company of trumpeter Randy Brecker, saxophonist Bob Franceschini, bassist Jimmy Haslip and drummer Gary Novak.

Further Explorations

Chick Corea’s name is listed first and he also serves as producer of Further Explorations, recorded live in spring 2010 at the Blue Note. Referencing the 50th anniversary of the release of Bill Evans’ Explorations, this 2-CD, 19-track project for Concord Jazz is, however, a true collaboration, putting Corea in the company of two Evans’ alumni, bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Paul Motian, on one of the late drummer’s last recordings. Not another tribute album, this trio celebrates the Evans repertoire as a launching pad for group “explorations,” including a handful of Evans’ compositions as well as covers of tunes recorded by Evans, along with originals from Motian, Gomez and Corea. Motian played with the first Bill Evans Trio (with bassist Scott LaFaro); Gomez covered bass for Evans for 11 years, 1966-77. Corea himself regarded Evans as a powerful influence and role model. 

Anat Cohen©Andrea Canter

The Minnesota Orchestra, facing a year of displacement during renovations, has announced an exciting U.S. Bank Pops Season for 2012-2013, featuring a Clarinet Festival with special guests Anat Cohen and Evan Christopher. Other jazzcentric highlights include the Klezmatics, the Duke Ellington Orchestra,  Tiempo Libre, Bobby McFerrin, Ann Hampton Callaway and a Gershwin tribute. All concerts will take place in the Convention Center Auditorium, a few blocks away from Orchestra Hall which will be closed until summer 2013. 

The Pops Season is directed by Sarah Hicks, who noted that “We’re thrilled to present quality, creativity and variety in our Pops season. And this is such an incredibly wide-ranging season, running the gamut from Natalie Merchant’s symphonic show to Anat Cohen debuting with our Orchestra in our first-ever Clarinet Festival. We’re looking forward to taking advantage of the overhead movie screen available to us at the Auditorium at the Convention Center, and so we’ll offer showings of West Side Story, Casablanca and The Matrix, three classic movies with fantastic scores that we’ll play live.” 

"Mr. Harrison turned out to be one of the most musicologically literate jazz players to come out in ages.” -New York Times

Donald Harrison

Alto saophonist Donald Harrison a.k.a The King of Nouveau Swing is one of the few musicians who can play it all - from traditional New Orleans, to swing, bop, post-bop, modern, smooth, avant-garde, and beyond. Yet, Harrison has developed his own personal style that traverses and synthesizes all these mediums with great success. His last release, one of the finest jazz recordings of 2011, it a post-bop tour de force called "This Is Jazz" where he performs in a trio accompanied by jazz legend Ron Cater on bass and Billy Cobham on drums.  Donald Harrison appears with his quartet at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago on Thursday, Februay 9th through Sunday, February 12th with sets at 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. with an additional 4:00 p.m. matinee on Sunday.