By Nick Catalano
Streams of European jazzers are flowing into Gotham and Jazz at Lincoln Center is opening its doors to accommodate the musicians from across the Atlantic. Holland has led the parade of late and a new series inaugurated this year at Jazz at Lincoln Center ("Duets on the Hudson") celebrates the music of Dutch pianist/composer/bandleader Misha Mengelberg and drummer Han Bennink. Along with Willem Brueker (whose Dutch band the Kolltief has aroused enormous interest in its stints at the jazz club "Tonic") Mengelberg is largely responsible for the creation of Dutch "musical theater" which contains heavy doses of absurdity and improvisation, musical and theatrical. The Dutch performers will appear at the Stanley H. Kaplan Playhouse on Saturday and Sunday, May 6th and 7th together with a duet of Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron.
Jazz at Lincoln Center will also hold its first dance party on Friday, May 19th. Upon returning from its latest tour the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will host the dance party at historic Roseland Ballroom (rumored to be razed in coming months.) Also on May 23, writer Gary Giddins will host a discussion of the close relationship between Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong that lasted from the 1920s through the 1970s. This program concludes the "Jazz Talk" series of 1999-2000 which J@LC produces and will serve as a prelude to the "100 years of Armstrong Celebration" which officially begins on July 4, 2000. Tickets for those events are available by calling 212-721-6500.
The lineup for the JVC Jazz Festival in June (the largest jazz festival on the planet) was given to the press at George Wein's annual party a few weeks ago. In recent years the festival has favored music from south of the border and this year continues the trend. Of particular interest is "40 Year of Bossa Nova" featuring Joao Gilberto which will be held at Carnegie Hall on June 16. Also at Carnegie is a show titled "Chucho, Michel and Tomatito" which showcases the talent of Michel Camilo and Tomatiti in a quartet led by Chucho Valdes. This all happens on June 21. We will discuss more of the JVC Festival in next month's column.
