First Jazz Series on Network Television in 40 Years!
National PBS Series Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis
Launches With One-Hour Special on June 16
Thirteen New Episodes to Air In January
LRSmedia and WTTW National Productions just completed production on six new episodes of Legends of Jazz, hosted by GRAMMY Award-winning composer/pianist Ramsey Lewis. The series will debut nationally on PBS on June 16 with an hour-long special entitled The Jazz Masters and features five winners of the NEA Jazz Masters Award - Nancy Wilson, James Moody, Jon Hendricks, Paquito D'Rivera and George Wein, as well as young jazz vocal sensation Renee Olstead. The special is sponsored by Verizon, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the International Association for Jazz Education. This airing will mark the first time in over 40 years that jazz has been the focus of a national network weekly series. The Jazz Masters special will reach more than 80% of American TV households.
Legends of Jazz will combine live performance, intimate conversation and archival imagery to provide a fascinating and entertaining look at some of the most memorable moments and most exciting artists in jazz. Each show opens with the Ramsey Lewis Trio performing the series' theme music, followed by a brief historical montage informing viewers about each episode's theme. The montage features rarely-seen video and still images of the most important performers in jazz history. Next, Ramsey and his guests -an exciting collection of jazz legends, established stars and up-and-coming young artists -take the stage for a half-hour of frank, funny, fascinating anecdotal conversation and some of the best live jazz performance ever seen on television. One thing particularly special about “Legends of Jazz" is that viewers have the opportunity to see and hear unique pairings of legendary, GRAMMY Award-winning artists who have never appeared or recorded together before. The series is ! produced in multi-camera HDTV and Dolby Surround 5.1 audio.
Nancy Wilson, an NEA Jazz Master and multiple GRAMMY Award winner featured in the one-hour special, The Jazz Masters, states: “It's nice to know that Legends Of Jazz will be out there to honor these great musicians. And it is wonderful to see it being filmed for PBS, so that audiences will get to know more about the people that make the music."
Legends of Jazz episodes that were recently taped include:
NEA Jazz Master Benny Golson, featured in The Tenors episode and a central character in the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks feature film, “The Terminal," remarks: “Legends of Jazz is a noteworthy show because it gives a cross section of a large period of time starting in my day up through the present. Marcus Strickland and Chris Potter [who also appeared on The Tenors with Benny] are excellent examples of what's happening today in jazz and you can't get much better than that."
Says Renee Olstead, the actress and teen vocal sensation who appears on The Jazz Masters, as well as the hit CBS sitcom “Still Standing": “It's really such an honor for me to perform with these legendary musicians. And I think that my generation is completely ready for this kind of music. I've been turning as many young people on to this music as I can, and I think what's considered the mainstream is getting more and more diverse. This music is still around for a reason."
Seven more Legends of Jazz episodes will be taped later in the fall. Those shows will include themes such as The Male Vocalists, Brazilian Jazz, Voices Of The Next Generation, Piano Masters, The Great Guitars, The Roots Of Jazz: The Blues, and Where Jazz Meets Pop. All 13 weekly 30-minute episodes will debut in January 2006.
States Larry Rosen, co-chairman of LRSmedia, co-founder of GRP Records, and Creator and Executive Producer of Legends of Jazz: “This series not only serves to pay homage to the established legends of jazz, but also provides a national platform for audiences to be exposed to new, exciting young artists who are building upon the legacy of these greats. Now, for the first time in nearly 40 years, we are bringing jazz back to U.S. network television, and we are doing it with state-of-the-art HDTV and 5.1 Surround production technology."
The series, conceived by veteran music producer Larry Rosen, and legendary jazz artist Ramsey Lewis, provides a unique business model for public/private partnership, combining the expertise of LRSmedia and the International Association for Jazz Education. LRSmedia is an independent music entertainment company that creates and produces branded entertainment properties for distribution across broadcast, live and recorded media. IAJE is a non-profit organization with 10,000 members in 40 countries. In this spirit, a portion of the broadcast revenue will be directed back to the jazz community through the education and outreach programs of IAJE.
National PBS Series Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis
Launches With One-Hour Special on June 16
Thirteen New Episodes to Air In January
LRSmedia and WTTW National Productions just completed production on six new episodes of Legends of Jazz, hosted by GRAMMY Award-winning composer/pianist Ramsey Lewis. The series will debut nationally on PBS on June 16 with an hour-long special entitled The Jazz Masters and features five winners of the NEA Jazz Masters Award - Nancy Wilson, James Moody, Jon Hendricks, Paquito D'Rivera and George Wein, as well as young jazz vocal sensation Renee Olstead. The special is sponsored by Verizon, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the International Association for Jazz Education. This airing will mark the first time in over 40 years that jazz has been the focus of a national network weekly series. The Jazz Masters special will reach more than 80% of American TV households.
Legends of Jazz will combine live performance, intimate conversation and archival imagery to provide a fascinating and entertaining look at some of the most memorable moments and most exciting artists in jazz. Each show opens with the Ramsey Lewis Trio performing the series' theme music, followed by a brief historical montage informing viewers about each episode's theme. The montage features rarely-seen video and still images of the most important performers in jazz history. Next, Ramsey and his guests -an exciting collection of jazz legends, established stars and up-and-coming young artists -take the stage for a half-hour of frank, funny, fascinating anecdotal conversation and some of the best live jazz performance ever seen on television. One thing particularly special about “Legends of Jazz" is that viewers have the opportunity to see and hear unique pairings of legendary, GRAMMY Award-winning artists who have never appeared or recorded together before. The series is ! produced in multi-camera HDTV and Dolby Surround 5.1 audio.
Nancy Wilson, an NEA Jazz Master and multiple GRAMMY Award winner featured in the one-hour special, The Jazz Masters, states: “It's nice to know that Legends Of Jazz will be out there to honor these great musicians. And it is wonderful to see it being filmed for PBS, so that audiences will get to know more about the people that make the music."
Legends of Jazz episodes that were recently taped include:
- The Golden Horns with Clark Terry, Chris Botti, and Roy Hargrove
- The Altos with David Sanborn and Phil Woods
- The Tenors with Benny Golson, Chris Potter and Marcus Strickland
- Contemporary Jazz with George Duke, Lee Ritenour, and Marcus Miller
- Latin Jazz with Eddie Palmieri and Dave Valentin
- The Killer B's: A Tribute to the Hammond B3 Organ with Joey DeFrancesco and Dr. Lonnie Smith
NEA Jazz Master Benny Golson, featured in The Tenors episode and a central character in the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks feature film, “The Terminal," remarks: “Legends of Jazz is a noteworthy show because it gives a cross section of a large period of time starting in my day up through the present. Marcus Strickland and Chris Potter [who also appeared on The Tenors with Benny] are excellent examples of what's happening today in jazz and you can't get much better than that."
Says Renee Olstead, the actress and teen vocal sensation who appears on The Jazz Masters, as well as the hit CBS sitcom “Still Standing": “It's really such an honor for me to perform with these legendary musicians. And I think that my generation is completely ready for this kind of music. I've been turning as many young people on to this music as I can, and I think what's considered the mainstream is getting more and more diverse. This music is still around for a reason."
Seven more Legends of Jazz episodes will be taped later in the fall. Those shows will include themes such as The Male Vocalists, Brazilian Jazz, Voices Of The Next Generation, Piano Masters, The Great Guitars, The Roots Of Jazz: The Blues, and Where Jazz Meets Pop. All 13 weekly 30-minute episodes will debut in January 2006.
States Larry Rosen, co-chairman of LRSmedia, co-founder of GRP Records, and Creator and Executive Producer of Legends of Jazz: “This series not only serves to pay homage to the established legends of jazz, but also provides a national platform for audiences to be exposed to new, exciting young artists who are building upon the legacy of these greats. Now, for the first time in nearly 40 years, we are bringing jazz back to U.S. network television, and we are doing it with state-of-the-art HDTV and 5.1 Surround production technology."
The series, conceived by veteran music producer Larry Rosen, and legendary jazz artist Ramsey Lewis, provides a unique business model for public/private partnership, combining the expertise of LRSmedia and the International Association for Jazz Education. LRSmedia is an independent music entertainment company that creates and produces branded entertainment properties for distribution across broadcast, live and recorded media. IAJE is a non-profit organization with 10,000 members in 40 countries. In this spirit, a portion of the broadcast revenue will be directed back to the jazz community through the education and outreach programs of IAJE.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
