Highland Jazz Presents its 29th Concert Series
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The Reunion Concert With Marty Ballou (bass) and Les Harris, Jr. (drums) our 29th season kicks off with a special reunion concert by Rebecca Parris and Paul Broadnax, two of the greats of jazz. Legends of the New England jazz scene, Paris and Broadnax are longtime friends who share a rich musical history. Born in Newton to a family of musicians and educators, Paris has been performing since the age of six. She began her professional career singing with top 40s bands across the Northeast before discovering her passion in jazz. Since then she has toured the world, singing with her own groups and performing with jazz legends including Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Terry Gibbs, David “Fathead” Newman, Norman Simmons and Nat Pierce. Broadnax, the son of influential classical musicians from Boston (his mother was a legendary teacher of piano and voice) who also has been immersed in music since childhood. While studying for his engineering degree at Northeastern University, he arranged tunes for the Sabby Lewis Band and performed with the Tom Kennedy and Buster Daniels bands, as a singer, saxophonist and pianist. His career flourished, and in 1981 Broadnax formed a trio with bassist Dave Trefethen and drummer Les Harris, Jr. and the rest is history. |
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Rhapsody in G Laszlo Gardony (piano/composer/arranger) with Stan Strickland (sax, flute, vocals, kalimba), Yoron Israel (drums) and John Lockwood (bass) Hungarian-born Laszlo Gardony is a critically acclaimed pianist who has brought his soulful improvisations and compositions to audiences in 23 countries. His new CD, “Signature Time” (Sunnyside) features John Lockwood and Yoron Israel – his trio of nine years – along with multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Stan Strickland. The musical influences unfurled on “Signature Time,” Gardony’s ninth recording, are proof that jazz transcends national origins. In calling attention to the African source of the music, Gardony asserts how an authentic jazz musician is a citizen only of the world. By drawing upon African, gospel, New Orleans, R&B and swing elements as channeled through Gardony’s use of challenging time signatures, innovative song forms and advanced harmonic approach, “Signature Time” pays heartfelt tribute to the very source of the music itself. Winner of the Great American Jazz Piano Competition, Gardony has been called “a pianist worthy of praise within the highest pantheon of performers” by Jazz Review.com and “a great pianist” by Dave Brubeck. The New York Times noted the musician’s “fluid pianism,” while Jazz Times called him “one of contemporary music‘s truly original voices.” He is a professor of piano at Berklee College of Music. |
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Amazin' Grace Grace Kelly (alto saxophone/vocals) with |
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Global Warming The internationally acclaimed Berklee Rainbow Band, directed by world-renowned trombonist and Berklee Professor Phil Wilson, features some of the college’s top instrumentalists from around the world. Wilson formed the student group that would become the Berklee Rainbow Band during his first year at Berklee. Since then, the band has appeared on national television, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, at numerous festivals, and on tour in Latin America, the Caribbean, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica. The Rainbow band includes a host of famous Berklee alums including Cyrus Chestnut, Marshall Wood, Makoto Ozone, Tiger Okoshi, Dennis Wilson, Bill Pierce and Greg Abate. For his part, Wilson made a spectacular entrance into the jazz world in the 1960s with his famous solo on “It’s a Lonesome Old Town” with the Woody Herman Band. Wilson cut nine albums with Herman and 12 under his own name. Wilson also has played with the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, Louis Armstrong, Louis Bellson, Clark Terry, Buddy Rich, and Herbie Hancock. In 1969, Wilson won a Grammy Award nomination for his arrangement of “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” recorded by the Buddy Rich Big Band.
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