Dizzy Gillespie News

Birdland Jazz Club has announced their line-up of talent for March 3-9. Birdland will kick-off their excellent week of programming with the following acts:

When the Harlem Renaissance was in vogue at the dawn of the 20th Century, the jazz clubs around Jungle Alley, between Lenox and Seventh Avenue - The Savoy Ballroom, Small's Paradise, Minton's Playhouse, Clark Monroe's Uptown House, The Ubangi Club, Park Palace, Connie's Inn, and others - were the place to be. These immortal nightclubs, concert halls, cabarets, speakeasies and ballrooms, will be channeled and showcased May 4 - 10 at the Fourth Annual Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival.

General Director & President David B. Devan and Music Director Corrado Rovaris are pleased to announce Opera Philadelphia's 40th Anniversary Season, featuring a stellar cast of international opera stars in five new productions at the Academy of Music and the Perelman Theater.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced their sensational line-up of incredible talent for February 24 - March 2, including: Quest: With Dave Liebman, Richie Beirach, Ron McClure & Billy Hart, Broadway Belts, David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band, Arturo O'Farrill Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, and more. Details below!

Birdland Jazz Club's March 2014 schedule will feature Quest: with Dave Liebman, Richie Beirach, Ron McClure & Billy Hart, Billy Hart Quartet, Kevin Mahogany, Cheyenne Jackson; Now This: with Gary Peacock, Marc Copland & Joey Baron, Bill Charlap Trio, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, Billy Stritch; and more! Check out full details below!

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College continues its 2013-14 season with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra's A Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, featuring vocalist Deloris King Williams,on Sunday, April 27, 2014 at 3:00pm. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased by phone at 718-951-4500 (Tues-Sat, 1pm-6pm) or online at BrooklynCenterOnline.org.

Electric Youth (EY) 2014, the international touring ensemble of talented singer-dancers trained at the Franklin School for the Performing Arts (FSPA), will debut at Showcase Live, Patriot Place, in Foxboro on Friday, February 28 at 7:30 p.m. Backed by the eight-piece Boston Show Band, Electric Youth delivers a fun, energetic evening of high-powered family entertainment. EY's show features an extensive range of contemporary pop and classic rock hits fully choreographed to delight audiences of all ages. Hear the best of Aerosmith, The Beatles, Kelly Clarkson, Michael Jackson, Bruno Mars, Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and more.

'The best jazz repertory band in the country' (The New Yorker) honors The First Lady of Song-Ella Fitzgerald-by seizing a special moment in American history. Pulling original, little played arrangements done for Ella in the '40s and '50s-charts penned by superstar arrangers such as Billy May, Count Basie, Billy Strayhorn and Benny Carter- Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and the ever-elegant Kim Nazarian will join together in an evening at Harris Center for the Arts of 'fascinating rarities...each played with as much skill as authenticity' (Chicago Tribune).

Birdland Jazz Club announces its February 2014 schedule, featuring: 4 Generations of Miles with Jimmy Cobb, Mike Stern, Buster Williams & Sonny Fortune; Reflections of Monk with Tom Harrell, Greg Osby, Melissa Aldana, Aaron Goldberg, Ben Allison & Matt Wilson; Quest with Dave Liebman, Richie Beirach, Ron McClure & Billy Hart; Joey DeFrancesco Organ Trio; Cyrille Aimee; Barbara Carroll; Christina Bianco's Birthday Bash; Jay Leonhart Duo; Tim Rosser and Charlie Sohne; Anne Tofflemire; Jim Caruso's Cast Party, and more!

Birdland Jazz Club's schedule for February 10-16 includes Cyrille Aimee, Christina Bianco's Birthday Bash, Rotem Sivan Trio, Arturo O'Farrill, David Ostwald, Barbara Carroll Duo with Jay Leonhart, Jim Caruso's cast party, and MORE!

David B. Devan, General Director and President of Opera Philadelphia, today announced the commissioning of a new opera based on the life of legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker (1920-1955), one of the most influential soloists in the history of jazz and a central figure in the development of bebop. American tenor Lawrence Brownlee will star as Parker in a work written for him by composer Daniel Schnyder, with a libretto by poet and playwright Bridgette A. Wimberly. Soprano Angela Brownwill costar as Charlie's mother, Addie Parker. The opera is being developed in partnership with Gotham Chamber Opera.

Company C Contemporary Ballet opens its 12th season with a program featuring two premieres by Susan Jaffe and Charles Anderson, as well as works by Yuri Zhukov and Charles Moulton in six performances today, January 30 through February 16, 2014, in Walnut Creek and San Francisco. In addition, a gala performance, cocktail party, dinner and auction to benefit Company C will be given Saturday, February 15.

Internationally known biologist and writer Dr. Ana Isabel Ordonez is constantly embarking on new projects. Educated in Europe and a self-taught Victorian patchwork maker since the early 90s, Ordonez has presented her work in France and Luxembourg. As a scientist she holds Masters and PhDs in Genetics, Forestry and Animal Biology and has lectured extensively throughout Europe, Africa, Japan, China, New Zealand and South America on insect-plant pathology and biological control research. She has also written several articles on the value of nature. Ordonez, however, has not confined her interests to the world of science. A true Renaissance woman, she is also a reputed jazz editor, independent filmmaker, music/art promoter and producer. In 2012 she contributed tirelessly to the Dizzy Gillespie Memorial tribute with Christopher Kennedy Lawford, because she believes in her heart that true valuable art of any kind must never be forgotten. Five years earlier, in 2005 with trumpeter Herb Robertson she had founded Ruby Flower Records with the plan to produce avant-garde music, exclusively for connoisseurs and purist audiophiles with the slogan 'Creatively speaking...Where the talents blossom'. Only recently she decided to expand the company's offerings to also include poetry and literature for children. Her children's books have been so popular, she has written a new one, continuing the joy of her Musical Forest. Her nephew Geronimo is doing the rest of the illustrations, but Ana still paints every day. The book will be available on Amazon.com in about a month. It will be distributed worldwide.

Company C Contemporary Ballet founder and Artistic Director Charles Anderson has announced that his 12-year-old Company will undertake a strategic shift its public performance model from a two-program winter and spring season at venues in San Francisco and the East Bay to one driven by artistic projects effective at the close of the current 2014 season in May. The transition has been inspired by Anderson's desire to pursue a variety of artistic and choreographic projects, performances and collaborations without being tied to specific seasonal dates, venues and their attendant requirements. Prior to the discussions of the Company's future direction, founding Executive Director Elizabeth Reed had announced her retirement to the Board effective June 30, 2014 in order to devote more time to her family, and has now made her retirement public. The Company's 2014 season runs January 30 through May 11 in San Francisco and Walnut Creek. For more information about Company C Contemporary Ballet, visitwww.companycballet.org .

The SOURCE Theatre Company will stage the company created musical production 'The Five Points Wrapped Around My Soul' in February.

Philip Roger Roy & Dana Matthow present the National Touring Company of the smash-hit comedy sensation, MY MOTHER'S ITALIAN, MY FATHER'S JEWISH AND I'M IN THERAPY!, written by Steve Solomon, directed by Andy Rogow and starring Peter J. Fogel. MY MOTHER'S ITALIAN, MY FATHER'S JEWISH AND I'M IN THERAPY! plays April 23 through May 18.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced their exciting line-up of exciting talent for February 3-9, including: 4 Generations of Miles: with Jimmy Cobb, Mike Stern, Buster Williams and Sonny Fortune, Tim Rossmer and Charlie Sohne in Tim and Charlie Go Solo, David Ostwald, The Mike Bono Group, Barbara Carroll Duo with Jay Leonhart, Arturo O'Farrill, Jim Caruso's Cast Party and more.

Segerstrom Center's Off Center Festival returns for its third consecutive year today, January 23 - February 2. This year's festival will showcase an entirely new lineup of wonderfully creative and innovative contemporary performance companies and artists.