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Jazz Artists Kurt Elling and Jose Feliciano Join 'The Real Ambassadors' Benefit Gala April 3

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Jazz Artists Kurt Elling and Jose Feliciano Join 'The Real Ambassadors' Benefit Gala April 3

Elling to Perform Brubeck Musical Selections with Jon Hendricks and Student Jazz Choir

(Greater Hartford) – Jazz artist Kurt Elling and “Mr. Music" Jose Feliciano will join jazz legends Jon Hendricks and Dave and Iola Brubeck at the previously announced benefit gala for the CREC Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts on Sunday, April 3, beginning at 2:30 p.m. and featuring the Brubecks’ musical The Real Ambassadors at the Academy’s Theater of the Performing Arts, 359 Washington Street, Hartford.

Elling, like Hendricks who is credited with its creation, is a writer and performer of vocalese, the art of putting words to the instrumental music of jazz greats and arranging the vocals to sing the parts of the instruments. He has been nominated for six Grammy Awards; won the DownBeat Critics’ and Readers’ Poll, as well as JazzTimes’ Annual Readers’ Poll three years running; and twice was named Best Male Jazz Vocalist by the Jazz Journalists Association.

With 45 Gold and Platinum records and six Grammy Awards, Feliciano has been hailed by critics throughout the world as “the greatest living guitarist." He received Billboard Magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. Feliciano is expected to participate in the informal jam after The Real Ambassadors show and again at the Hartford Club celebrity dinner that evening.

Back-up support for these jazz greats will come from the Academy jazz choir, the Academy band, and the dance and acting departments.

The gala begins at 2:30 p.m. with a silent auction and wine reception featuring Feliciano and Hendricks, who received a President’s Merit Award at the 2nd Annual GRAMMY Salute to Jazz on February 8.

The performance begins at 4 p.m. and will be followed by an informal jam session. Originally written for Louis Armstrong, who performed in the musical at the 1962 Monterey Jazz Festival with Jon Hendricks, The Real Ambassadors uses a fictional version of Armstrong and his band touring the world as ambassadors of good will to promote the belief that all people deserve equality and that racial discrimination should not be tolerated – all during the era of Jim Crow laws and practices.

Tickets are $100 for Patron seating and $200 for Ambassador seating (center orchestra). The price includes admission to the wine reception, featuring food from Hot Tomato’s, the Max Restaurant Group and Pastis. For $500, contributors can also have dinner at the Hartford Club at 7:30 p.m. with The Real Ambassadors celebrities, who are planning a second jam session there, and local media personalities Colin McEnroe, Dan Kain, Dennis House and Kara Sundlun. Please call the Box Office at 860-757-6388 for all tickets. Please visit www.crec.org/therealambassadors for more information.

CREC is a non-profit, regional educational service center serving 35 Greater Hartford public school districts. It was founded in 1966 by local school districts working together to solve common problems. Today, CREC administers more than 100 programs and services spanning the entire educational spectrum with the same goal in mind. CREC’s Division of Magnet Schools strives to offer the highest quality educational opportunities that reduce racial, ethnic and socio-economic isolation of students by initiating, developing and managing innovative educational programs. For more information about CREC and the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, please visit www.crec.org/academy.

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