Mary Lou Williams News

The Cleveland Orchestra announced the name of its groundbreaking citywide festival, Censored: Art & Power, scheduled for spring 2020. The festival is centered around the Orchestra's performances of Alban Berg's opera Lulu in May 2020, and seeks to spur discussion about the role of art in society, government censorship, and prejudice, taking as a starting point the Degenerate Art & Music movement in Nazi Germany. As a major focal point of the Orchestra's 2019-20 season, the festival will feature a variety of collaborative presentations surrounding and leading up to the opera performances (May 16, 19, and 22).

A six-time JazzTimes Readers Poll winner, the 62nd Monterey Jazz Festival, September 27-29, will feature another a?oejaw-dropping line-upa?? of nearly 130 performances from iconic and emerging jazz artists, educational events, conversations, films, and exhibits on eight stages. MJF62 tickets are available at www.montereyjazzfestival.org.

On Monday, August 26 at 7:00pm, the Harlem School of the Arts (HSA), in partnership with The National Jazz Museum in Harlem (NJMH), and the Catskill Jazz Factory (CJF) will present a special concert performance of The Spirit of Harlem, a celebratory homage to the most iconic moments of Harlem's musical past, and the jazz renaissance currently taking place in New York City. Free to the public, the concert will be held at the HSA Theater, located at 649 St. Nicholas Avenue.

Season 5 Opens with 'A Night of Female Composers' featuring works by Clara Schumann, Ellen Reid, Emma O'Halloran, Mary Lou Williams, Missy Mazzoli, Meredith Monk, and Paola Prestini Lara Downes' 'Holes in the Sky' concert marks the 200th birthday of Clara Schumann with a tribute to influential female composers

This summer, US and international performances by Carnegie Hall's three acclaimed national youth ensembles—the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), NYO2, and NYO Jazz will be broadcast and webcast to audiences around the globe, extending their music making to a wide international audience.

For its landmark fifth anniversary, National Sawdust a?" the performing arts institution in Williamsburg, Brooklyn a?" Takes Root by celebrating the artistic process, from incubation to dissemination, while honoring the local and global artistic community it serves. 

From Duke Ellington's rocking rhythms, Thelonious Monk's melodious thunks to Mary Lou Williams' spiritual swing and Michel Camilo's island improvisations, the Newport Jazz Festival has been the premier showcase for pianists for decades. This year's edition features a wide variety of keyboardists, shaping the state of jazz to come.

Fancy a bit of Mendelssohn? (Fanny Mendelssohn, that is.) How about Lady Gaga? Or jazzy Mary Lou Williams? Let's drop a few more names - Tori Amos, Alicia Keys, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Diana Krall, Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler. Who?

This summer, Carnegie Hall's national youth jazz orchestra NYO Jazz—returns for its second year after a triumphant Carnegie Hall debut and inaugural international tour in 2018. The critically-acclaimed ensemble features 23 outstanding young American jazz musicians (ages 16-19) selected from across the United States who will come together for an extraordinary summer of music making, performing at Carnegie Hall in New York City (Saturday, July 27), culminating with the group's first-ever tour to Asia from July 29-August 9.

Carnegie Hall continues its summertime tradition, shining a spotlight on extraordinary teen musicians from across the country with concerts by the Hall's three acclaimed national youth ensembles-the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, NYO2, and NYO Jazz. Each ensemble, collaborating with some of the world's leading artists, takes to the famed stage over the course of one week, performing in Stern AuditoriumPerelman Stage from July 27-August 3.

This July, Carnegie Hall will bring together more than 200 of the finest teen musicians from across the country to perform as part of its three acclaimed national youth ensembles: the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), NYO2, and NYO Jazz. All three ensembles will take part in an intensive training residency at Purchase College, SUNY before performing at Carnegie Hall and embarking on tours across the country and around the world, serving as America's dynamic musical ambassadors. In total, 222 musicians will take part in this year's program, representing 39 US states plus Puerto Rico.

Celebrating 15 years as the only citywide jazz festival in the Mid-Atlantic region, DC Jazz Festival (DCJF) is proud to announce the addition of acclaimed genre-bending vocalist Cassandra Wilson, perennial poll-winning alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett, and tenor sax titan Joshua Redman to its already stellar lineup celebrating Great Masters of Jazz, Sunday, June 16 in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. The DC JazzFest presented by Events DC takes place throughout the District from June 7-16.

DC Jazz Festival (DCJF), with the only city-wide jazz festival in the mid-Atlantic region, today announced that Nick Cannon will host Great Masters of Jazz, on June 16 in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Co-presented by the DC Jazz Festival and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, with support from Events DC, Great Masters of Jazz will celebrate the life and work of the legend Quincy Jones; the trailblazing trumpeter-bandleader Roy Hargrove; the highly influential song stylist Nancy Wilson; and DC's own peerless pianist-vocalist Shirley Horn and saxophonist-educator Fred Foss. Featured performers and presenters include the Roy Hargrove Big Band, Patti Austin, Kenny Garrett, Justin Kauflin, Adam Clayton Powell III, Angela Stribling, Paxton Baker, Sharón Clark, Princess Mhoon Dance Project, and very special guests.

Three-day Arena and Grounds Ticket Packages for the 62nd Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, September 27-29 go on sale Wednesday, May 1 at 8 a.m. PST and can be purchased online at montereyjazzfestival.org or by calling 888.248.6499. Single-day tickets go on sale May 10.

There is nothing negative I could possibly say about the performance I witnessed on April 4, 2019 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.  Such artistry is almost hard to describe.  This company has an amazing history and is superb in both their interpretation and their amazing technique. Their 60-year history of excellence is a gift to our lives that must always Be. What more could you want? Extreme gratitude given to Glorya Kaufman, and Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center.  Ms. Kaufman is an Angel for the Arts in Los Angeles; especially for Dance. Supple strength that fluidly morphs until it hits a line that is as outstretched and aesthetically perfect as could be, and those are the visual pictures they create with their bodies.  It is a way of moving that combines all the elements of different opposites that we feel, react to and dream of, painting a visual picture, conveying expressive perceptions.  

Harlem One Stop, a leading uptown destination marketing organization and tour operator and originator of the Harlem Renaissance 100 celebration, today announced the program for An Afternoon with Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band. The film screening and concert are official events of the centennial, co-presented with Harlem Cultural Collaborative Partners, which launched in late 2018 and runs through 2020.

Harlem One Stop, a leading uptown destination marketing organization and tour operator and originator of the Harlem Renaissance 100celebration, today announced the program for An Afternoon with Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band. The film screening and concert are official events of the centennial, co-presented with Harlem Cultural Collaborative Partners, which launched in late 2018 and runs through 2020.

Carnegie Hall today announced the names of 22 outstanding young musicians chosen from across the country for NYO Jazz, a four-week intensive summer program designed to nurture and showcase the talents of exceptional young American jazz instrumentalists (ages 16-19).

The annual Highlights In Jazz series, a fan fave for almost a half century, can be counted on to deliver concerts that surprise and delight savvy jazz fans. The third event of the 2019 lineup showcases one of the series' most beloved traditions: paying homage to a living jazz great. The Highlights In Jazz presentation Salute to Randy Brecker celebrates the music and contributions of this beloved trumpeter and contemporary jazz icon. “Let's honor them while they can smell the roses,” declares producer Jack Kleinsinger.

The Afro Latin Jazz Alliance is proud to announce The Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University is now the permanent home of the Arturo 'Chico' O'Farrill Music and Personal Archives. This marks the acquisition of the first major Latin jazz archival collection in the Institute's 60-year history. The collection contains O'Farrill's original music manuscripts, photographs, and sound recordings documenting his prolific career as a composer, arranger, and bandleader. Famed compositions such as 'Afro Cuban Jazz Suite,' 'Manteca Suite,' 'Carambola,' and 'Cuban Episode,' among others, are included in this acquisition for the Institute. The Institute is thrilled to add O'Farrill's illustrious archives to its collection to celebrate Chico's monumental impact in jazz during his lifetime.