Jazz greats Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White, the original members of Return to Forever, re-uinite, Sept. 2, at the Hollywood Bowl in Southern California.
The concert will feature guest appearances by vocalist Chaka Khan, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and original RTF guitarist Bill Connors. The event heralds the beginning of Corea, Clarke & White's first worldwide trio tour.
Khan is expected to perform some of her own hits along with Return to Forever classics. Ponty (a key collaborator on Corea's 1976 classic My Spanish Heart, and with Clarke on 1995's Rite of Strings) will lend his virtuosic violin playing to the mix.
This will mark the first performance of Return to Forever's original electric lineup since 1974. Together the musicians will reprise their dynamic chemistry from the classic album Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, performing such early RTF material as “Space Circus," and “Spain."
Also appearing at the Hollywood Bowl show will be master guitarist John Scofield and the Piety Street Band. For tickets: HollywoodBowl.com, (323) 850-2000
Another big event, the 2009 Angel City Jazz Festival. is set to take place on Labor Day weekend itself, Sept. 6-7, at the intimate John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood. Headlining this year's festival will be veteran woodwind player/composer Bennie Maupin and Dolphyana, with an all-star band performing West Coast premieres of newly discovered compositions by the great Eric Dolphy. Also headlining will be world renowned trumpeter Dave Douglas and Brass Ecstasy, a recently formed band with the unique instrumentation of trumpet, French horn, trombone, tuba, and drums.
Other artists appearing at the festival are Grammy Award-winning pianist Billy Childs' Jazz-Chamber Ensemble, The Nels Cline Singers with Jeff Parker of Tortoise, The Larry Goldings Organ Trio with Peter Bernstein on guitar and Bill Stewart on drums, The Satoko Fujii Four with Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, and Mark Dresser on bass, Seattle based pianist Wayne Horvitz's Gravitas Quartet, pianist Motoko Honda & Butoh master Oguri, Jesse Sharps' The Gathering featuring vocalist Dwight Trible, and many others.
For tickets, log-on to FordTheatres.org, or call the Ford Box Office at 323-461-3673. Tickets are priced at $35 for adults, and $12 for full-time students with ID and children 12 and under. Through the Ford's early buyer incentive, adults who buy tickets on of before Aug. 30 pay only $30.
For more information contact DL Media.
