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Dizzy's presents Flora Purim and Airto Moreira, July 22-27 |
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Written by Ronaldo Oregano
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Saturday, 19 July 2008 |
 Flora Purim and Airto Moreira
Brazilian Jazz giants Flora Purim and Airto Moreira will perform at Dizzy's on Tuesday, July 22 through Sunday, July 27th.lora Purim's cas made significant conributions to both Latin and American jazz music for over 25 years. Her once-in-a-generation six-octave voice has earned her two Grammy nominations for Best Female Jazz Performance and Downbeat magazines Best Female Singer accolade on four occasions. Her musical partners have included Gil Evans, Stan Getz, Chick Corea, Dizzy Gillespie and Airto Moreira, with whom she has collaborated on over 30 albums since moving with him from her native Rio to New York in 1967. Airto Moreira impact on jazz was so powerful that Downbeat magazine added the category of percussion to its readers and critic’s polls, which he has won over twenty times since 1973. The ensemble will feature Flora Purim on vocals, Airto Moreira, drums, percussion and vocals; with Toninho Horta, guitar; Kenny Werner, piano; Mark Egan, bass.
 Flora Purim
Blue Note artist Duke Pearson was the first American musician to invite Flora to sing alongside him on stage and on record. She then toured with Gil Evans about whom she says, this guy has changed my life. He gave us a lot of support to do the craziest stuff. This was the beginning for me. Her reputation as an outstanding performer gained her work with Chick Corea and Stan Getz as part of the New Jazz movement that also contained the nurturing influence of sax man Cannonball Adderley.
Shortly after, Flora started in earnest to re-educate discriminating musical minds, after linking up with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Joe Farrell to form "Return To Forever" in late 1971. Her first solo album in the US, Butterfly Dreams was released in 1973, which put her right away to the Top Five Jazz Singers on the Downbeat Magazine Fame Jazz Poll. Flora went on to contribute to some of the greatest recording of the seventies - Carlos Santana, Hermeto Pascoal, Gil Evans, Chick Corea and Mickey Hart all benefiting from her vocal and arranging skills. In the mid-Eighties, Flora and Airto resumed their musical partnership to record two albums for Concord - "Humble People" and "The Magicians" for which she received Grammy nominations. In 1992 she went one better by singing on two Grammy winning albums - "Planet Drum" with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart (Best World Music Album) and the Dizzy Gillespie "United Nations Orchestra" (Best Jazz Album).
The launch of the highly combustive Latin jazz band Fourth World in 1991 with Airto, new guitar hero Jose Neto and keyboards and reeds supreme Gary Meek, marked a new era in Flora's career. The band signed to new UK-based jazz label B&W Music - and Flora consciously set out to win over the next wave of listeners.
 Airto Moreira
In 1965 he met the singer Flora Purim in Rio de Janeiro. Flora moved to the USA in 1967 and Airto followed her shortly after. When in New York Airto began playing with musicians such as Reggie Workman, JJ Johnson, Cedar Walton, Cannonball Adderley, Lee Morgan, Paul Desmond and Joe Zawinul, to name a few. Zawignul recommended Airto to Miles Davis for a recording session in 1970 for the “Bitches Brew” album. Davis then invited Airto to join his group, and he appears on such releases as “Live/Evil”, “Live at the Fillmore”, “On the Corner”, “The Isle of Wight”, “Bitches Brew” and later releases including the “Fillmore Sessions”.
Following his stint with Miles Davis, Airto was invited to form the original Weather Report with Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Miroslav Vitous and Alphonse Mouzon with whom he recorded “The Weather Report”. Soon after, he joined Chick Corea’s original Return to Forever group with Flora Purim, Joe Farrell and Stanley Clarke and they recorded the albums, “Return to Forever” and “Light as a Feather”.
In 1974 Airto formed his first band in the U.S., “Fingers” with Flora Purim. Since then they have performed constantly all over the world and recorded their own album for major record companies in Europe and America. Airto remains one of popular music’s most in demand percussionists. His collection of instruments, along with his knack for playing the right sound at the right moment, has made him the first choice of many producers and bandleaders.
Airto is member of the “Planet Drum” percussion ensemble, with Mickey Hart, and master conga player Giovanni Hidalgo and tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, along with Flora Purim, Babatunde Olatunji, Sikiru Adepoju and Vikku Vinayakram. Planet Drum won a Grammy Award in 1991 for World Music. Airto also contributed to another Grammy Award winning ensemble, “Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra", which received the award for Best Live Jazz Album. In the past few years he was voted number one percussionist by Jazz Times, Modern Drummer, Drum Magazine, Jazzizz Magazine, Jazz Central Station’s Global Jazz Poll on the Internet, as well as in many European, Latin American and Asian publications.
 Toninho Horta
His beautiful compositions and original guitar playing has influenced a whole generation of musicians in Brazil. Pat Metheny, who considers him to be “one of the world’s great ‘composers’ on nylon-string guitar (named violão in Brazil)”, comments, “He (Toninho) plays such great voicings with such a cool time feel… I’ve often described him to other musicians as the Herbie Hancock of Bossa-Nova guitarists ….. In short, Toninho Horta is an incredible musician, the rare guitarist who understands harmony in its most intimate ways…” (Pat Metheny's words on the booklet of Toninho’s “Diamond Land”). Pat’s strong admiration for Toninho’s music can be heard on many of his own compositions.
 Kenny Werner © Andrea Canter
In 1993 he was awarded another grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to present a concert in tribute to Mel Lewis, featuring some of Werner's original compositions. That same year he also won the Distinguished Artist Award for Composition from the New Jersey Council of the Arts for a piece entitled "Kandinsky" from his CD Paintings. And, in 1995, recognizing a talent in composition that rivals Werner's phenomenal talents as a pianist, the NEA awarded Werner yet another grant, this one for the purpose of composing a piano concerto dedicated to Duke Ellington, performed in February 1996 by the Cologne Radio Orchestra. The early '90s also found Werner making his first appearance on the Concord Jazz label with his Maybeck Recital Hall Series, Vol. 34 solo piano recording. Released in September 1994, the recording was met with much-deserved accolades from the jazz press.
In 1997, Werner began recording for BMG/RCA with a new trio featuring bassist Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette entitled A Delicate Balance. In 1999 he released Beauty Secrets, also for BMG/RCA with another trio, featuring a longtime collaboration with Billy Hart and newer-friend, Drew Gress. The CD Beauty Secrets features different groups and sounds that make up Werner's world, including duets with as diverse forces as Joe Lovano and Betty Buckley. Perhaps no tune on the album exemplifies Werner's renegade spirit and independent thought as his duet with Betty Buckley on Stephen Sondheim's "Send In the Clowns". Another notable event on this album is one composition featuring a quintet of (at the time of this writing) younger spirits. The rhythm section of Ari Hoenig on drums and Johannes Weidenmueller on bass constitute what would become his next trio.
Mark Egan is considered to be one of the most respected and in-demand electric bassists on the music scene today. His unique fretless bass sound and style is both distinctive and versatile and his musical contributions incomparable. With three platinum & three gold albums to his credit, Mark has recorded with the likes of the Pat Metheny Group, Sting, Arcadia, Roger Daltry and Joan Osborne; performed with the Gil Evans Orchestra, Marianne Faithful, David Sanborn, John McGlaughlin and Sophie B. Hawkins and has added his musical prowess to such movies and television shows as; Aladdin, The Color Of Money, A Chorus Line, NBC Sports, ABC’s All My Children, CNN/Headline News and numerous award winning television commercials.
Dizzy's is located at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center Broadway at 60th Street, on the 5th Floor. For Reservations Call: 212 258-9595 or -9795. Seating is available on a first-come first-served basis either at tables or at the bar. For more information, visit: www.jalc.org/dccc
Jazz at Lincoln Center is a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to jazz. With the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and a comprehensive array of guest artists, Jazz at Lincoln Center advances a unique vision for the continued development of the art of jazz by producing a year-round schedule of performance, education and broadcast events for audiences of all ages.
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 Monday, 01 December 2008
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