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Juilliard Jazz Orchestra Plays Music Of Chico O'farrill Conducted By His Son, Arturo O'farrill Thursday, May 16, 2002 At 8 Pm In Alice Tully Hall

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Juilliard Conversations In Jazz Series Continues With Trumpeters Clark Terry And Terell Stafford
Monday, April 22, 2002 At 7pm In Juilliard’s Morse Hall



The Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies’ Juilliard Jazz Orchestra plays its last concert of the 2001-2002 season on Thursday, May 16, 2002 at 8 PM in Alice Tully Hall. The Orchestra will play music of late Latin jazz master Chico O’Farrill, led by guest conductor Arturo O’Farrill, his son. After playing trumpet in various Cuban bands, Chico O’Farrill began to work as an arranger, incorporating the Cuban style and rhythms with the “swing” big-band style. O’Farrill went on to arrange for Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Machito, Dizzy Gillespie, and Stan Kenton, and led his own band in performances throughout the U.S. and Cuba. Among his recordings were the famous Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite, recorded in 1950 for the Verve record label, and his 1995 Grammy-nominated effort Pure Emotion. During the last years of his life he appeared regularly with his band at the New York jazz club Birdland; he died in June of 2001. FREE tickets are available at the Juilliard Box Office, located at 60 Lincoln Center Plaza. Box Office hours are: Monday through Friday, 11 AM to 6 PM. For specific information, please call the Juilliard Box Office at (212) 769-7406.

Juilliard’s FREE Conversations in Jazz series, a collaboration of the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies and Jazz at Lincoln Center, completes the 2001-2002 season when jazz trumpeters Clark Terry and Terell Stafford “talk trumpet” on Monday, April 22 at 7 PM in Morse Hall. These collegial conversations, on topics ranging from technique and repertoire to jazz education and career advice for musicians, have already featured renowned artists such as trombonists Steve Turre and Slide Hampton, drummers Jimmy Cobb and Lewis Nash, and pianist Ellis Marsalis. Juilliard’s Conversations in Jazz are FREE, and no tickets are required. Morse Recital Hall is located at 155 W. 65th Street. All lectures take place at 7 PM; doors open one half-hour prior. For additional information call the Juilliard Box Office Monday through Friday, 11 AM to 6 PM at (212) 769-7406. Check our website at www.juilliard.edu.



The Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies, a two-year pre-professional program leading to an Artist Diploma, is the newest program of performance training to be inaugurated by the 96-year-old Juilliard, in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center. Fall 2001 marked its opening; the first eighteen instrumentalists accepted into the program form the first Juilliard Jazz Orchestra that performs at Juilliard, Lincoln Center, and the greater New York City metropolitan area, as well as the Northeast area on tours.

While long known for the remarkable roster of classical musicians who attended Juilliard, among its celebrated alumni also are numerous musicians who cross all styles of jazz, including: vocalist Freddy Cole, who studied at Juilliard before attending the New England Conservatory; trumpeter Miles Davis who began his training at Juilliard simultaneously with his immersion into the culture of New York’s 52nd Street jazz mecca; pianist Andy La Verne who attended Juilliard’s Saturday Pre-College classes for musicians age eight to eighteen; flutist Hubert Laws, a Juilliard graduate from the class of 1964; bassist Christian McBride, whose short stay at Juilliard prefaced his remarkable career; percussionist Tito Puente, who used his GI Bill of Rights to attend Juilliard; singer Nina Simone, who studied piano at Juilliard’s summer school which existed from 1932 to 1952; and, of course, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who entered Juilliard at age seventeen and now is artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. The quality of Juilliard’s performance training, the depth of its studio and classroom faculty, and its proximity to and collaborative relationships with the twelve other constituents of Lincoln Center, have given Juilliard performers – musicians, dancers, and actors – unique opportunities for professional development while still attending the School.

Arturo O’Farrill was born in Mexico, where his father Chico thrived as a bandleader, but grew up in New York City. He began his career playing piano in the award-winning jazz band at New York’s High School of Music and Art. After studies at the Manhattan School of Music and the Brooklyn College Conservatory, Arturo joined the Carla Bley Big Band from 1979 thru 1983. Mr. O’Farrill then went on to develop as a solo performer with a wide spectrum of artists: Wynton Marsalis, Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Turre, Noel Pointer, Jerry Gonzalez & The Fort Apache Band, and Lester Bowie, among others. In 1987, he became musical director for Harry Belafonte. In 1995 Arturo agreed to direct the band that preserved so much of his father’s music, Chico O’Farrill’s Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, which had been in residence at New York City’s Birdland for several years and has toured the world extensively. Arturo O’Farrill was a special guest soloist at two landmark Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts—Afro Cuban Jazz: Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra in November of 1995 and Con Alma: The Latin Tinge in Big Band Jazz in September of 1998. Arturo is in high demand as an educator and practitioner of Latin music. In January of 2000, he led a panel discussion and performance workshop on “The Latin Rhythm Section” at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse under the auspices of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Clark Terry performed with Charlie Barnet (1947) and in Count Basie's big band and small groups (1948-51) before beginning an important affiliation with Duke Ellington, which lasted from 1951 to 1959. During this period Mr. Terry acquired a lasting reputation for his wide range of styles (from swing to hard bop), technical proficiency, and infectious good humor. After leaving Ellington, he became a frequent performer in New York studios and a staff member of NBC; he appeared regularly on the Tonight Show, where his unique “mumbling" scat singing became famous. He also continued to play jazz with musicians such as J. J. Johnson and Oscar Peterson, and led a group with Bob Brookmeyer that achieved some popularity in the early 1960s. In the 1970s, Mr. Terry began to concentrate increasingly on the flugelhorn, from which he obtains a remarkably full, ringing tone. In addition to his studio work and teaching at jazz workshops, Mr. Terry toured regularly in the 1980s with small groups (including Mr. Peterson's) and performed as the leader of his Big B-A-D Band (formed c. 1970). As a jazz educator he was one of the earliest active practitioners to take time off from the road to enter the classroom, conducting numerous clinics and jazz camps. This work culminated in the creation of his own music school at Teikyo Westmar University in Le Mars, Iowa. A distinctive stylist on his horns, he remains an honored itinerant musician.

Terell Stafford is one of the more recent members of the line of accomplished jazz musicians emanating from Philadelphia. He earned a master of music degree in classical trumpet from Rutgers University, but a chance musical encounter led him to join Horizon, Bobby Watson’s notable hardbopping jazz quintet in 1990. Highlights of his years with Horizon were regular European tours, including the Montreux Jazz Festival (1992) followed by North Sea Jazz (1994). With the Watson group he has played New York’s Blue Note and Sweet Basil, appeared at Carnegie Hall and the Jazz Times Convention; he drew favorable notices when appearing with Branford Marsalis on the NBC Jay Leno Show. Mr. Stafford recorded three times with Horizon, also with Stephen Scott, Lafayette Harris and with his friend saxophonist Tim Warfield, whom he invited to play on his Candid album Time to Let Go, his first album as leader. Here Mr. Stafford’s vigorous attack, liquid delivery, and keen melodic sense are balanced by a poise and patience normally found in the playing of trumpet elder statesmen. His second album, Centripetal Force - also on Candid - includes two Horizon alumni, Stephen Scott and drummer Victor Lewis, plus Warfield and guitarist Russell Malone.

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