FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Today's date: April 3, 2013
Contact:
Shaunda Miles – Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, 412-471-1578 / miles@TrustArts.org
Diana Roth – Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, 412-471-8717 / roth@TrustArts.org
Images available at:
http://trustarts.org/press
Search name: 2013 JazzLive International Festival
For More Information: www.pittsburghjazzlive.com
3rd Annual
Pittsburgh JazzLive International Festival
June 7-9, 2013
240 jazz musicians performing 72 hours of jazz in the heart of the Cultural District
Headliners include Chaka Khan, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Marcus Miller and Pat Martino
• Outdoor performance stages and indoor performance locations within local restaurants, coffee shops and galleries.
• A free Jazz Crawl in the Cultural District, featuring 150 local and regional musicians.
• Late night club performances.
• Showcase Noir Artist Showcase: An African American Designer Market that includes pottery, paintings, jewelry, fiber works, and sculptures available for sale by some of the region’s finest artists.
“The PJLIF has expanded greatly in the last 2 years,” says Janis Burley Wilson, Vice President and Director of Jazz Programs for The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. “The Trust will present over 240 artists in 72 hours. Our headlining performers are world-renowned mainstream and contemporary jazz, R&B and blues artists. Downbeat Magazine described PJLIF as “intimate, laid back and inviting”. The JazzLive Jam Sessions after hours have become legendary amongst musicians. Pittsburgh JazzLive International Festival has something for everyone that wants to celebrate America’s classical music - Jazz.”
CONFIRMED HEADLINE ARTISTS
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| Chaka Khan |
"Queen of Funk-Soul," Chaka Khan is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the front woman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. Her career has spanned over 4 decades. Over the years, she has collaborated with many legendary performers in the industry that include but are not limited to Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder and Prince. Some of her most popular hits include "Tell Me Something Good," "Sweet Thing,” "Ain't Nobody," "I'm Every Woman," "I Feel for You" and "Through the Fire." In 1982, Khan recorded Echoes of an Era, a collection of jazz standards featuring performances from Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Stanley Clarke, Chick Corea, and Lenny White. This project provided Chaka Khan with her first Grammy Nomination for Best Female Jazz Vocalist. Born Yvette Marie Stevens, in North Chicago Illinois, Chaka received an honorary doctorate degree from Berklee College of Music in 2004. She is also active in the autism community, having family members who have been diagnosed with the condition. Her Earth Song Entertainment and Chaka Khan Foundation operate from Beverly Hills, California to raise research money for a cure. She is also the recipient of the 2006 BET Lifetime Achievement Award and has received four American Music Award nominations.
Rudresh Mahanthappa
Few musicians share the ability of saxophonist/composer Rudresh Mahanthappa to embody the expansive possibilities of his music with his culture. Time and again, Mahanthappa has eloquently displayed the capacity to absorb numerous styles and genres of music, combine them with the language of modern jazz, and emerge with a new form still recognizably jazz. What has materialized is a sound that hybridizes progressive jazz and South Indian classical music in a fluid and forward-looking form that reflects Mahanthappa’s own experience growing up a second-generation Indian-American. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and commissions from the Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund, Chamber Music America and the American Composers Forum. He has been named alto saxophonist of the year in Downbeat’s 2011 & 2012 International Critics Polls and for four years running by the Jazz Journalists’ Association (2009-2012). Rudresh has studied at Berklee College of Music and DePaul University.
Marcus Miller
Marcus Miller is a two-time Grammy-winner and the composer/producer of ten critically acclaimed and genre-defying albums. As a multi-instrumentalist, Marcus is highly proficient as a keyboardist, clarinetist/bass clarinetist and, primarily, as a world-renowned electric bassist, topping critics' and readers' polls for three decades. His résumé as an A-list player brims with over 500 recording credits as a sideman on albums across the spectrum of musical styles that include collaborations with Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Donald Fagen and Eric Clapton, David Sanborn, George Benson, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Sample, Wayne Shorter, Grover Washington, Jr., Roberta Flack, Paul Simon, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Chaka Khan, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Z.Z. Hill, Billy Idol, Al Jarreau, Dave Koz and opera sensation Kathleen Battle. As a film music pro, Miller rose from writing the go-go party classic "Da Butt" for Spike Lee's "School Daze,” to becoming the go-to composer for over 20 films including the Eddie Murphy/Halle Berry classic “Boomerang.”
Pat Martino
Philadelphia native, Pat Martino, began playing professionally at age 15 after moving to New York City. Martino has been recognized as one of the most exciting and virtuosic guitarists in jazz. With a distinctive, fat sound and gut-wrenching performances, he represents the best not just in jazz, but also in music. He embodies thoughtful energy and soul and has performed with a wide variety of artists including Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Jimmy Smith, Chick Corea, Jack McDuff, and Stanley Clark. The Grammy nominated virtuoso has been selected as the Guitar Player of the Year, Downbeat Magazine's 2004 Reader's Poll and has taught at several prestigious universities including Duquesne, New York University, Pennsylvania University, Stanford University. He’s also been a recording artist for Blue Note, Prestige, Vanguard and Warner Brothers Records.
Returning to the Festival stage is Artist-in-Residence for the Sound and Spirit initiative, Sean Jonesand the Sean Jones Quartet. Sean Jones is a trumpeter, composer and educator. He was formerly the lead trumpet player with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra directed by Wynton Marsalis. Jones is currently a professor of Jazz Studies at Duquesne University and has eight critically acclaimed jazz albums to his credit. The multi-Grammy Award nominee is particularly adept at plumbing complex emotional plateaus through his trumpet playing and composing. Most recently, he’s toured with Herbie Hancock, Marcus Miller and Wayne Shorter in Europe with a project that celebrated the Miles Davis legacy. Jones’ heart stopping quartet consists of Philadelphia-based pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Luques Curtis, and Miami-born drummer Obed Calvaire. No matter what angle they take on the subject, Jones and company’s blazing interactions reveals what any jazz fan knows is the greatest love of all: that between an artist and his music. As Jones says, “I like to play from the heart and not the head.”
Other outstanding artists participating in the Festival include Gregory Porter, Latin legend Eddie Palmieri and his Salsa Orchestra, the Orrin Evans Trio, young vocalist and composer of Haitian descent Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Cyrille Aimee & Diego Figueiredo, Ralph Peterson, Gerald Clayton,Roger Humphries, and Allison Miller, an up and coming New York folk jazz drummer. Pittsburgh native musicians Allan Harris/David Budway will pay tribute to the music of jazz masters Billy Eckstine and Billy Strayhorn in an intimate jazz session entitled Billy Squared².
ANCILLARY EVENTS
MACY’S In Store Pre-Festival Sessions
Before the Crawl begins, MACY’S will celebrate the Festival with a series of in store events.
Saturday, June 1, 2-4pm: South Hills Village
Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra Junior Jam Session
*This program is part of the PNC Grow Up Great initiative.
Saturday, June 1, 2-4pm: Ross Park Mall
Max Leake featuring Maureen Budway
Saturday, June 1, 2-4pm: Mall at Robinson
Thomas Wendt
Saturday, June 1, 2-4pm: Monroeville Mall
Dennis Garner Band
Thursday, June 6, 5-7pm: Downtown Pittsburgh
Official Kick-off Party
Enjoy shopping, sales, giveaways and live entertainment.
Featuring: Cecil Brooks III, David Budway and Dwayne Dolphin
Al Bright : Abstract Jazz Works
During this year’s Festival, join internationally renowned abstract expressionist artist Al Bright as he creates paintings before audiences to live jazz music. Over his career, he has collaborated with world famous musicians Art Blakey, Wynton Marsalis, Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, Jimmy Owens, James Williams, Billy Pierce, and Robin Eubanks. His paintings are held in museums, corporate and private collections throughout the United States and abroad. Al Bright is currently Professor Emeritus of Art at Youngstown State University where he has taught painting for over 40 years.
Exhibit Location: 709 Gallery, 709 Penn Avenue, Downtown Pittsburgh
Exhibition Dates: May 31-June 30
Opening Reception: May 31, 6pm-8pm
PARTNERS & SPONSORS
The Pittsburgh JazzLive International Festival is made possible through the generous support of RK Mellon, UPMC, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, MACY’S. This year, the Festival is proud to announce megabus.com as the official Pittsburgh Jazz Festival Bus Transportation Sponsor. The company brings approximately 35,000 customers to Pittsburgh per month providing an affordable, convenient and fun way to travel. The Festival is also supported by numerous collaborators, in-kind and media sponsors.
All artists and show times are subject to change. For updates, a full list of artist biographies, sponsors and more information please visit, www.pittsburghjazzlive.com
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