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Saturday, 20 March 2010

A Pride of Pianist: The Ellis Marsalis Quintet, The McCoy Tyner trio, and Brad Mehldau at the Greek

Written by Ronaldo Oregano
Sunday, 02 November 2008
McCoy Tyner Jazz history will be made when for the first time these renowned jazz musicians will all be performing together on one stage. On Sunday, November 16 the Greek Theater will present an evening with The Ellis Marsalis Quintet featuring Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis, The McCoy Tyner Trio featuring Gerald Cannon, Eric Kamau Gravatt and special guest Marc Ribot plus a special solo performance by Brad Mehldau. The Greek Theatre is located at 2700 North Vermont, in Griffith Park in Los Angeles.Tickets run fro $30 to $75. For tickets visit www.greektheatrela.com. Ellis Marsalis Ellis Marsalis is regarded by many as the premier modern jazz pianist in New Orleans. Born on November 14, 1934, he began formal music studies at the Xavier University junior school of music at age eleven. After high school Marsalis enrolled in Dillard University (New Orleans) as a clarinet major. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education in 1955. Marsalis spent the next year working as an assistant manager in his fathers motel business. The following year Marsalis then joined the U.S. Marine Corps and while stationed in southern California began honing his skills as a pianist on a television show entitled "Dress Blues" and a radio show called "Leatherneck Songbook". Both shows were sponsored by the Marine Corps. After completing a stint in the Marine Corps Marsalis returned to New Orleans and married Dolores Ferdinand, a New Orleanian, who bore him six sons; Branford, Wynton, Ellis III, Delfeayo, Miboya and Jason. Ellis Marsalis In 1964 Marsalis moved his wife and family of, at at time, four sons to the small rural Louisiana town of Breux Bridge where he became a school band and choral director at Carver high school for two years. Returning to New Orleans he began to freelance once again on the local music scene. Between 1966 and 1974 Marsalis would perform at the Playboy Club (New Orleans), in the Al Hirt night club, Lu and Charles night club and enter the teaching profession again as an adjunct professor at Xavier University(New Orleans). While the family continued to grow Marsalis decided to return to school in the early summer session of 1974 working towards a Masters Degree at Loyola University(New Orleans). Marsalis would also interview for a teaching position at a new Magnet school for the arts. his interview was successful and he was hired in the Fall semester at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts(1974) high school. He would spend the next twelve years at NOCCA as an instrumental music teacher with a Jazz studies emphasis. Delfeayo Marsailis © Andrea Canter In 1986 Marsalis accepted the position of Commonwealth Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. He would spend two of the three years as coordinator of Jazz Studies before returning to New Orleans and the University of New Orleans to become the first occupant of the CocaCola endowed chair of Jazz Studies as the director. Marsalis has been the recipient of Honorary Doctorate degrees from his alma mater Dillard University, (1989) and Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana(1997). Marsalis has been a guest on several network television shows. He has appeared on NBC's "TODAY" with host Bryant Gumbel; the "TONITE" show with both Johnny Carson and Jay Leno as hosts; the Arsenio Hall show with pianist Marcus Roberts; The Charlie Rose show; Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood; ABC's GOOD MORNING AMERICA with Spencer Christian and several local and regional television shows. In 1984 Marsalis and New Orleans singer/actress Joanne "Lady BJ" Creighton shared honors at the Ace Awards ceremony for the best single music program on cable television. Marsalis continues to be active as a performing pianist leading his own group and has several recordings on the CBS-SONY label. He is currently developing his own recording label, ELM RECORDS, with his wife Dolores and son Jason. On August 10, 2001 Marsalis officially retired from the University of New Orleans after twelve years as the first occupant of the CocaCola Jazz Chair and the Director of the Jass Studies Division. McCoyTyner McCoy Tyner is one of the most influential of all post-bop piano players. His aggressive, percussive, and broad style of piano playing, influenced by African and Asian modes, has been greatly influential on succeeding generations. McCoy first began to attract widespread public attention as a member of the great John Coltrane Quartet. Though that tint is cited as his most memorable affiliation, since then McCoy Tyner has been one of the most consistently innovative bandleaders and pianists of the last thirty years. His work with Coltrane, and on numerous Blue Note recording sessions in the 1960s, spawned a whole school of pianists to follow. McCoy Tyner’s music studies began at age 13 at the Granoff School of Music, where so many Philadelphia musicians began their music education. McCoy’s first professional affiliation of note was with the Jazztet in 1959. That band was co-led by trumpeter Art Farmer and saxophonist Benny Golson. McCoy made his first recording on the Jazztet’s debut, Meet The Jazztet, in February, 1960. When John Coltrane was plotting his departure from the Miles Davis Quintet, he tried several musicians for his new band. Eventually he made the wise decision to hire McCoy Tyner, and the rest is musical history. Eric Kamau Gravatt © Andrea Canter Along with McCoy, the other members of the famed Coltrane Quartet included drummer Elvin Jones and either bassists Jimmy Garrison or Reggie Workman. Together they made some of the most compelling music of the 20th century. Soon McCoy Tyner was an in-demand session pianist as well. His commanding presence at the piano found a home on numerous great recordings. McCoy became a virtual “house pianist” for the Blue Note label, recording with a who’s who of great jazz, including sessions with Donald Byrd, Grant Green, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Elvin Jones, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Stanley Turrentine.... the list is auspicious. In 1962 McCoy made his debut as a leader with Inception for the Impulse! label. After leaving the Coltrane quartet in 1965, McCoy found work in several different situations. Then in 1967 he cut The Real McCoy album for Blue Note, launching his career as a bandleader and occasional all-star sideman. What followed were six stellar recordings for Blue Note and performances with his own bands, ranging from trio to nonet. His recordings also included explorations with string quartet and voice. McCoy signed with the Milestone label in 1971, beginning yet another rich recording period. In the years since that time he has toured and recorded with numerous bands under his leadership, including his occasional big band, a powerful ensemble guaranteed to raise the roof. Always welcome on any bandstand, McCoy Tyner has continued to evolve one of the most original piano styles of the last 40 years. Brad Mehldau Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau has recorded and performed extensively since the early 1990s. Mehldau’s most consistent output over the years has taken place in the trio format. Starting in 1996, his group released a series of five records on Warner Bros. entitled The Art of the Trio. Mehldau also has a solo piano recording entitled Elegiac Cycle, and a record called Places that includes both solo piano and trio songs. Elegiac Cycle and Places might be called “concept” albums. They are made up exclusively of original material and have central themes that hover over the compositions. Other Mehldau recordings include Largo, a collaborative effort with the innovative musician and producer Jon Brion, and Anything Goes—a trio outing with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy. His first record for Nonesuch, Brad Mehldau Live in Tokyo, was released in September 2004. After ten rewarding years with Rossy playing in Mehldau’s regular trio, drummer Jeff Ballard joined the band in 2005. The label released its first album from the Brad Mehldau Trio—Day is Done—on September 27, 2005. The critically acclaimed double live trio recording entitled Brad Mehldau Trio Live was released on March 25th, 2008 (Nonesuch). Mehldau’s musical personality forms a dichotomy. He is first and foremost an improviser, and greatly cherishes the surprise and wonder that can occur from a spontaneous musical idea that is expressed directly, in real time. But he also has a deep fascination for the formal architecture of music, and it informs everything he plays. In his most inspired playing, the actual structure of his musical thought serves as an expressive device. As he plays, he listens to how ideas unwind, and the order in which they reveal themselves. Each tune has a strongly felt narrative arch, whether it expresses itself in a beginning, an end, or something left intentionally open-ended. The two sides of Mehldau’s personality—the improviser and the formalist—play off each other, and the effect is often something like controlled chaos. Brad Mehldau Mehldau has performed around the world at a steady pace since the mid-1990s, with his trio and as a solo pianist. His performances convey a wide range of expression. There is often an intellectual rigor to the continuous process of abstraction that may take place on a given tune, and a certain density of information. That could be followed by a stripped down, emotionally direct ballad. Mehldau favors juxtaposing extremes. He has attracted a sizeable following over the years, one that has grown to expect a singular, intense experience in his performance. In addition to his trio and solo projects, Mehldau has worked with a number of great jazz musicians, including a rewarding gig with saxophonist Joshua Redman’s band for two years, recordings and concerts with Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden and Lee Konitz, and recording as a sideman with the likes of the late Michael Brecker, Wayne Shorter, John Scofield, and Charles Lloyd. For more than a decade, he has collaborated with several musicians and peers whom he respects greatly, including the guitarists Peter Bernstein and Kurt Rosenwinkel and tenor saxophonist Mark Turner. Mehldau also has played on a number of recordings outside of the jazz idiom, like Willie Nelson’s Teatro and singer-songwriter Joe Henry’s Scar. His music has appeared in several movies, including Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and Wim Wender’s Million Dollar Hotel. He also composed an original soundtrack for the French film, Ma Femme Est Une Actrice. Mehldau recently composed two new works commissioned by Carnegie Hall for voice and piano, The Blue Estuaries and The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, which were performed in the spring of 2005 with the acclaimed classical soprano, Renee Fleming. These songs were recorded with Fleming and released in 2006 on the Love Sublime record; simultaneously, Nonesuch released an album of Mehldau’s jazz compositions for trio entitled House on Hill. In March 2007 Mehldau debuted the piano concerto "The Brady Bunch Variations for piano and orchestra" at Theatre du Chatelet in Paris with Orchestre national d'Ile-de-France. In early 2008 London's Wigmore Hall announced that Brad Mehldau will curate an annual four-concert jazz series at the prestigious hall during its 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons, with Mehldau appearing in at least two of the four annual concerts. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites

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