“Everything I do has a touch of melancholy and a touch of chaos to it. I write sad songs and then I get the musicians destroy them” – Kenny Wheeler, interviewed on BBC Radio 4, 2010

Kenny Wheeler: Master of Melancholy Chaos
16th April 2013 to 5th April 2014 

A new exhibition at the Royal Academy of Music, London turns the spotlight on the quiet genius of a much-loved jazz trumpeter and composer, Kenny Wheeler.

Now 83 years old, Wheeler remains one of the most enigmatic and original jazz voices in the world. His career spans an extraordinary breadth of styles and historical events – a titan of the European Free Jazz movement, a long-standing member of John Dankworth’s Big Band and the composer of some of the most hauntingly beautiful compositions in the genre.

Tracing Wheeler’s varied career via seven milestone albums, the exhibition draws on many previously unseen items from his musical archive acquired by the Academy in 2012. Handwritten sketches and scores illuminate his creative process, from his very early arrangement of the jazz standard ‘Stella by Starlight’ to manuscripts from his latest big band offering ‘The Long Waiting’, among many other unique exhibits.

The displays are also enriched by unprecedented access to Wheeler’s personal memorabilia and recordings of recent interviews with him. Together these give glimpses of his famously self-deprecating personality, his wry and quick wit, and his quietly determined musical ambitions. Visitors to the exhibition will have a unique opportunity to see a letter from a nineteen-year-old Wheeler seeking work experience, hear about the children’s television programme that inspired his first album, and see one of the few remaining flugelhorns that Wheeler has not damaged or given away!

Wheeler enjoys huge and heartfelt acclaim from his many friends and collaborators in the jazz world. This exhibition is complemented by an exclusive video featuring behind the scenes footage of his latest Big Band recording session, and new interviews with singer Norma Winstone, saxophonist Evan Parker and trumpeter Dave Douglas recounting their musical memories both old and new.

Follow this link for a selection of images from the exhibition.

A lively events programme of performances, talks and family events accompanies the exhibition:

Family Play Day: Gnu Jazz!
Saturday 25th May, 11.00am–12.30pm
Museum Piano Gallery

Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone and London Vocal Project: ‘Mirrors’ album launch 
Pre-Concert talk by Pete Churchill, Academy professor of Jazz Composition
Saturday 25th May, 7.00pm and 8.0pm
Kings Place

Friends of Kenny Wheeler in conversation with Alyn Shipton 
Thursday 13th June, 6.00pm
Concert Room

Share

Since its beginning in 2003, FONT has focused on the trumpet player and the realization of his or her creative vision, even when that vision is unconventional, experimental or out of the cultural mainstream. FONT continues to support bold and unique work by emerging and established trumpeters, and after ten years the festival is as vital as it ever was and its best years are yet to come.

Our Achievements

With an all-volunteer board and staff primarily of artists, The Festival of New Trumpet Music has done some amazing things:

• FONT has produced ten festivals and off-season events including concerts, panel discussions and workshops.
  Overall, FONT has produced over 300 concerts and engaged over 200 artists.
• FONT’s annual Award of Recognition has honored creative pioneers and revolutionary teachers who have
  made remarkable contributions to the field over their lives, often without receiving any recognition ever before.
• FONT has commissioned 28 composers to create new work for the trumpet, some of them established masters
  and others that had never received a commission before.

What Makes Us Unique

As a festival focused on an instrument, rather than a genre, FONT has been able to achieve a flexibility and diversity in its programming that is rare in the music world. With an equally strong tradition of great players working in the jazz and classical traditions, the instrument has had a rare history as a major part of music made in concert halls, nightclubs, dancehalls, and in the recording studios of the United States and all over the world. It has been FONT’s goal to celebrate this aspect of the instrument by creating multi-genre programs featuring trumpeters working from the broadest possible spectrum of technical and aesthetic viewpoints.

FONT has also made a real commitment to celebrating not only the instrument, but the player as well. The Festival attempts break down racial and gender barriers in the music world by supporting women and people of color in its concerts and commissions, and to bring together well-known trumpeters in the primes of their careers with emerging artists. Our audience has responded to these efforts, and a community of listeners with similar diversity have shown its support for the festival over its history.

FONT’s Lifetime Achievement Award honors creative pioneers and veterans of the instrument who have made significant contributions to the field. In a world where recognition is rare for most musicians, FONT attempts to seek out some of the most significant trumpeters who have inspired entire generations of players and to give them a platform to continue their creativity through the later stages of their careers. By embracing an entire field of musicians, FONT has helped to nurture what is now an incredibly vibrant trumpet music scene.

Plans for the Future

The 2012 festival delivered on its promise to continue the excellent, genre-breaking programming for which FONT has become known. We opened the 10th Anniversary with Stephanie Richards’ Carousel Music, featuring 12 brass players performing new music by Richards at Jane’s Carousel at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Carousel Music was FONT’s first-ever outdoor, free event in a public space. The festival also included concerts by Dave Douglas, Taylor Ho Bynum, Douglas Detrick, Rob Mazurek, Adam O’Farrill, CJ Camerieri, and more. The fall festival was the centerpiece of FONT’s work in 2012, but efforts are already underway to expand FONT into a bigger and better organization.

FONT is working to expand its organizational resources. Recent new projects include the Villagers and Trumpet concert series, a partnership with the Village Zendo and co-curated by Aaron Shragge and Douglas Detrick. FONT also plans a mentorship program, an expanded offering of collaborative artist services and more vigorous fundraising in order to expand FONT’s capacity to bring more music to audiences in New York and elsewhere.

See you in 2013!

Share

“Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus” is one of the recordings that changed my life. That 1960 album combined the technical virtuosity of bebop, the raw expressiveness of the blues, and the exploratory wonder of the nascent free jazz scene into one potent mix. I was in college when I first heard the record, and was leading a quartet with the same instrumentation (trumpet, alto sax, bass, and drums). It was both slightly devastating and deeply inspiring to realize everything I wanted to accomplish musically at the time had been done to near perfection thirty-five years earlier.

Trumpeter Ted Curson, the last surviving member of that quartet (with Eric Dolphy on reeds and Danny Richmond on drums, alongside the leader’s propulsive bass), passed away November 4th at the age of 77. Most remembrances (this one included) will start with his time with Mingus; too many will end there. Curson sometimes bristled at being identified only with Mingus, it was only one year of a six decade career. At the same time, he was part of one of the music’s classic ensembles, and of that he remained justly proud. (One of jazz’s many ongoing tensions: an improvised music that fetishizes recordings, where the evolution of an artist may be ignored through the celebration of a fixed remnant of his/her past.)

Because it is not just what Mingus brought to Ted Curson, but what Ted Curson brought to Mingus (and all the other music he made). He first emerged during a period where everything was in flux, where the idiomatic boundaries were wholly permeable, and that aesthetic openness fueled his whole life. His playing displayed his Philadelphia roots in hard bop (where he grew up alongside Lee Morgan), while maintaining the flexibility to work with avant-gardists like Cecil Taylor and the New York Contemporary Five (where he and Don Cherry split duties in the trumpet chair). He co-led a criminally neglected small ensemble throughout the sixties with tenor saxophonist Bill Barron; that group combined harmonic sophistication with innovative structures and impassioned playing in a way that rendered irrelevant the binary arguments between form and freedom.

Like many jazz musicians, he found more work abroad and split his time between Europe and New York. He cultivated musical communities in different corners of the globe, from a 40-plus year residency at the annual Pori Jazz Festival in Finland, to an eight-year stint leading a late night jam session at the Blue Note club in New York City, mentoring scores of musicians along the way. (He also cultivated an impressive handlebar moustache in recent years, giving him the look of a mystic wizard.) The only time I saw him live was at one of those Blue Note jam sessions. I was too shy to try and sit in, I just sat in the corner and marveled at the personality of his playing, still fresh and still evolving, four decades after the recording that first etched him in history.

Share

Share

JAZZMOBILE PRESENTS JEREMY PELT AT BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 21ST
FREE CONCERT ON PIER 1’S HARBOR VIEW LAWN

Brooklyn Bridge Park is happy to announce that it will be hosting its 2nd annual Jazzmobile program, featuring one of the great jazz trumpeters on the scene today, Jeremy Pelt. The concert will take place at 7 pm on August 21st at the Harbor View Lawn at Pier 1.

“I am thrilled to welcome Jazzmobile back for its second season at Brooklyn Bridge Park,” said Regina Myer, President of Brooklyn Bridge Park. “Jazzmobile presents fantastic outdoor summer concerts around the city and we are proud to be hosting acclaimed jazz trumpeter Jeremy Pelt as their offering this year.”

Brooklyn Bridge Park on Facebook

Brooklyn Bridge Park on the web

Jeremy Pelt

Robin Bell-Stevens, President and CEO of Jazzmobile, Inc. stated “We are pleased to have been once again invited by Brooklyn Bridge Park Board Member and artist, Danny Simmons, to bring our annual Summerfest to this magnificent park. The setting is idyllic and the audience of Brooklynites and other New Yorkers demonstrate that Jazz music is enjoyed by everyone! We look forward to a long partnership.”

Pelt is a California native, but came to New York in 1998 after graduating from Berklee College of Music with a B.A. in professional music. Since then he has played with numerous top jazz artists from Ravi Coltrane to The Duke Ellington Big Band and was named the Rising Star on the Trumpet five years in a row. He is also an instructor at the renowned Jazzmobile Saturday Jazz Workshop.

Currently touring with his own group, the “Jeremy Pelt Quintet”, he also plays in the “Lewis Nash Septet” and the “Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band” featuring Louis Hayes. Pelt has recorded several albums throughout his career, including his most recent, “Soul.”
___
Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, known as Brooklyn Bridge Park, is the not-for-profit entity responsible for the planning, construction, maintenance and operation of Brooklyn Bridge Park, an 85-acre sustainable waterfront park stretching 1.3 miles along Brooklyn’s East River shoreline. The park was designed by the award-winning firm of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. More information is available on the park’s website: www.brooklynbridgeparknyc.org.

Jazzmobile is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) art and culture organization whose mission is to present, preserve, promote and propagate jazz, America’s classical music. Since 1964, Jazzmobile has been presenting free outdoor summer mobile concerts. As the pioneer mobile music organization, Jazzmobile has brought the great jazz artists of our time directly to the public throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Essex County, New Jersey, Westchester County, and several cities in upstate New York.

Concerts are funded in part by CHASE Bank, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, Con Edison, NYC & Company Foundation, City of New York Parks and Recreation, City Parks Foundation, and Governor Andrew Cuomo, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, The Council of the City of New York Manhattan Delegation, NYC Council Members: The Hon. Gale Brewer, Hon, Inez E. Dickens, Hon. Robert Jackson, Hon. Darlene Mealy.

To download a PDF of the press release, click here.

Share

FONT Music Presents: The 10th Anniversary

The Festival of New Trumpet Music

September 8 through October 7, 2012 – in NYC and Brooklyn – The Festival of New Trumpet Music, directed by Dave Douglas, presents its 10th Anniversary Festival, a multi-genre, multi-venue celebration of new trumpet music by the instrument’s most creative players and composers. Hailed as “a grand highlight of the musical season” by The New Yorker and “a cross-stylistic extravaganza” by The New York Times, FONT Music reaffirms its status as one of the most adventurous and consistently innovative music festivals in the New York scene.

From Dave Douglas: “For our tenth festival we decided to go back to the full month model—a blowout of creative music that spans generations and genres that is our biggest festival since the early days when we had residency at Tonic. We’re book-ending the festival with two great free events: Stephanie Richards’ Rotations Rotations and Claudio Roditi with the West Point Jazz Knights. In between we’ve commissioned creative pioneers like Charles Tolliver, Tom Harrell, and Jack Walrath, and emerging talents like Adam O’Farrill, Alicia Rau, Bruce Harris, and Douglas Detrick. We’re really excited to co-curate with yMusic at Rockwood Music Hall, bringing up the NO BS! Brass Band from Virginia. I am also proud to present my own new project featuring singer Aoife O’Donovan on music from Be Still. I hope you will join us for this exciting and varied program! I am proud to be part of the group of ambitious musician/curators who have worked hard to support and expand the field through this festival’s programming.”

2012 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

Saturday, September 8, 6:30-7pm -  Brooklyn Bridge Park, Jane’s Carousel – DUMBO, between the Brooklyn & Manhattan Bridges. FREE!

FONT’S 10th Anniversary Celebration and Grand Opening – Rotations, Rotations by Stephanie Richards Rotations, Rotations is a site-specific performance composed and directed by Stephanie Richards, who will be joined by nine moving brass and percussion players performing with the nostalgic sounds of the carousel’s “mechanical band”. Personnel includes Kirk Knuffke and Ben Holmes on trumpet, Brian Drye and Jen Baker on trombone, and Andrew Munsey, Nick Jenkins and Kenny Wollesen on percussion.   Wardrobe stylist  Sarah Maiorino and movement direction by Mark DeChiazza.

September 13-15 – The Jazz Gallery all concerts 9 & 10:30pm, 290 Hudson St, NYC. Thursday 9/13 1st set: $15.00 | $10.00 for Members, 2nd set: $10.00 | $5.00 for Members. Friday and Saturday 9/14-5 both sets $20.00 | $10.00 for Members.

Thursday, September 13 - Douglas Detrick’s AnyWhen Ensemble - Pre-Concert Talk at 7:30pm. Chamber-Jazz quintet Douglas Detrick’s AnyWhen Ensemble gives the world premiere of its Chamber Music America-commissioned The Bright and Rushing World: Suite for Five Musicians. (The Bright and Rushing World: Suite for Five Musicians has been made possible with support from Chamber Music America’s 2011 New Jazz Works: Commissioning and Ensemble Development program funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.)

Friday, September 14 – Adam O’Farrill Trumpeter Adam O’Farrill performs new music with Luis Perdomo, piano; and Burniss Traviss, bass and Nasheet Waits, drums, and will be joined by a special guest on trumpet.

Saturday, September 15 – Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet performing new, “thoughtfully tumultuous” (Nate Chinen, The New York Times) music for his sextet.

Wednesday, September 19 – The Checkout: Live from 92YTribeca featuring Dave Douglas Quintet with special guest Aoife O’Donovan. 92YTribeca, 8pm, 200 Hudson St, $12.00, The Checkout Live from 92YTribeca Co-produced by The Checkout-WBGO & NPR

Dave Douglas Quintet with special guest Aoife O’Donovan – CD Release Concert - Dave Douglas describes the title of his new release, Be Still, as “aspirational.” The continually evolving trumpeter and composer settles down for a ballad-like set that presents a series of hymns and folk songs with an intensely personal connection. Be Still brings out the most lyrical side of Douglas, and introduces both a newly configured Quintet, and an important new collaborator, vocalist and guitarist Aoife O’Donovan.

Thursday and Friday, September 20 and 21 – Speyer Hall, University Settlement – 8pm, 184 Eldridge St, NYC.

September 20 – The Spaces In Between with Sao Paulo Underground - Cornetist Rob Mazurek and choreographer/artist Marianne Kim’s FONT-commissioned collaboration grown out of the meditative environments of Mazurek’s solo performances at the Rothko Chapel, in Houston, TX and at the Abbaye Royale de Fontevrau, France.

September 21 – TILT Brass performs music by Dave Ballou, the latest installment of Nate Wooley’s 7-Storey Mountain, and the New York premiere of Louis Andreissen’s De Volharding for brass sextet and a cast of special guests. Tickets available HERE

Sunday, September 23 – The Village Zendo – 7pm, 588 Broadway, NYC, Suite 1108. $20 Suggested Donation, www.villagezendo.org

Villagers and Trumpet: FONT Music at the Village Zendo – Natsuki Tamura and Josh Deutsch each present duo sets of their music in an intimate and diverse concert at the beautiful Village Zendo

September 26-27 – Smalls Jazz Club – Sets at 7:30, 9 and 10:30pm, 183 West 10th St, NYC, $20, www.smallsjazzclub.com

Wednesday, September 26 – Dave Chisholm’s Calligraphy, Jean Caze Group, Jon Crowley’s Heart of Darkness

Thursday, September 27 – Alicia Rau’s aRAUz, John Raymond Group, David Weiss Group

September 30 – Rockwood Music Hall - Doors 6:30pm, 196 Allen St, NYC, $12, Rockwood Music Hall

Sunday, September 30 – 7 pm – yMusic – 8pm – No BS! Brass Hailed by NPR’s Fred Child as “one of the groups that has really helped to shape the future of classical music,” yMusic is a sextet of young performers equally comfortable in the overlapping classical and pop music worlds. yMusic will be premiering a FONT-Commissioned work by Andrew Norman. No BS! Brass Band is a powerful brass band that embraces the spirit of New Orleans into its original East Coast modern funk.

October 4-7 – Jazz Standard - Showtimes 7:30 and 9:30 with an 11:30 set on October 5 and 6, 116 East 27th St, NYC. Jack Walrath, Charles Tolliver and Tom Harrell all perform new music commissioned by FONT Music.

October 4 – Jack Walrath

October 5 – RETROFORWARD ™, Charles Tolliver & Music Inc/Continuum

October 6 – Tom Harrell

October 7 – West Point Jazz Knights featuring Claudio Roditi - The exciting, post-bop oriented trumpeter Claudio Roditi joins the West Point Jazz Knights in a concert of new music by Roditi. FREE!

Share

Jordan McLean

Share

Hosted by Matt Lavelle, this new monthly series will present trumpeters from all walks of life. This month, Amir El Saffar will be presenting a clinic on “Trumpet Micro Tones and learning the Maqam”. Amir ElSaffar (born near Chicago, Illinois, United States) is an Iraqi-American trumpeter and vocalist. In addition to being a classical and jazz trumpeter, he is also a skilled interpreter of Iraqi maqam, which he sings and plays on santur. In 2002 he began studying the maqam tradition in Baghdad and London, with Hamid al-Saadi, one of the most renowned maqamsingers in Iraq. He has released a CD of this music and also applied maqam techniques to his trumpet playing. ElSaffan has performed with Cecil Taylor, Simon Shaheen, Randy Brecker, Miya Masaoka, Rudresh Mahanthappa, and Samir Chatterjee.

Share

In celebration of its 25th season, Meridian Arts Ensemble has released a live concert DVD of performances from 1997 (Germany) and 2004 (Washington DC). The DVD demonstrates the groups’s breadth of repertoire and performance versatility with music from Renaissance to Rock.

Check it out here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/meridinartsensemble

Share

The Reveille Trumpet Collective has announced their second annual Composition Prize. This year’s Prize is for Trumpet and Percussion

Here’s the basics. More info is available HERE

The Grand Prize winner will receive:

• $1500 (CAD)
• At least two performances by members of Reveille during the 2012-13 concert season
• A short video presentation promoting the winning piece
• A contract with new music publisher qPress

If a Runner-Up is chosen, the composer will receive:

• $500 (CAD)
• A contract with new music publisher qPress (At the discretion of the jury, more prizes may be awarded.)

Share