New School University's Jazz and Contemporary Music Program presents: Jazz @ 6:30

Location:
Tishman Auditorium
66 West 12th Street, NYC

Tickets: $18 per show or $60 for the series
The New School Box Office, 66 West 12th Street
Tickets may be charged @ 212-229-2488

Q & A session with the artists will follow each performance.

Elise Axelrad is producer of Jazz @ 6:30. The series was founded and conceived by Paul J. Weinstein. Martin Mueller is the Executive Director of the Jazz Program.

KENNY WERNER & ANDY STATMAN
Monday, October 28th, 6:30 p.m.

A pianist of seemingly infinite capacity, Jazz Program faculty member Kenny Werner provides a lyrical (but never predictable) journey through the seas of improvised music. A guru of jazz education since the publication of his book, Effortless Mastery, he is also sought-after for college lectures and residencies, and while on campus often performs with student ensembles. A Brooklyn native, Werner became a concert piano major upon completion of high school, but in 1970, his desire to improvise took him out of the classical world and into jazz. Under guidance from teachers, Werner began to combine the spiritual and musical aspects of creativity, blending an ideology that constitutes his approach to music today. In addition to recently recording with his new trio, Werner has recorded Between Heaven and Earth with Klezmer musician Andy Statman. Statman's music, Werner says, “is all about light and consciousness, and that is the goal that draws and captures my heart."

A driving force behind the neo-klezmer movement since its inception in the early 1980s, Andy Statman is a paradox: a musical traditionalist who continues to break new artistic ground. A celebrated mandolin player in the 1970s, Statman (clarinetist/composer/bandleader) has reinvigorated yet another realm of traditional musicmaking -- klezmer -- the instrumental dance music of Eastern European Jews. After achieving critical acclaim as a bluegrass musician, Statman learned clarinet and went on to other neo-klezmer groups such as the Klezmatics, Brave Old World and the Klezmer Conservatory Band. Statman has gone back to the roots of klezmer in the “niggunim," or Hasidic prayer-melodies that are used by Jewish mystics to induce heightened spiritual awareness. Statman and his quartet, featuring Kenny Werner, use these melodies as raw material for their spiritually oriented jazz improvisations.

REGGIE WORKMAN & ANDREW CYRILLE
Monday, November 11th, 6:30 p.m.

Reggie Workman has performed with almost every notable figure in Jazz. His 40-year career includes landmark recordings with John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Archie Shepp, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Cecil Taylor, among many others. In 1960, Workman became a member of Coltrane's famous Quartet, along with Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner. His own groups have included Top Shelf, The Reggie Workman Ensemble, and his current group, Trio 3. In 1998, he began Tribute to an African American Legacy, an ongoing initiative featuring arrangements and new works inspired by 20th century African-American composers. Among his many accolades, Workman has received the Eubie Blake Award for Musical Excellence, the IAJE Award for Education, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Foundation of America, and a Living Legacy Jazz Award from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation.

Since 1987, Reggie Workman has been a full-time instructor and coordinator of curriculum in the Jazz & Contemporary Music Program.

Drummer and Jazz Program faculty member Andrew Cyrille attended both The Juilliard School and Hartnett School of Music. He has worked with some of the most renowned jazz artists of the period, including Mary Lou Williams, Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet, Kenny Dorham, Freddie Hubbard, and Babatunde Olatunji. From the mid-60s to the 70s, Cyrille collaborated with pianist Cecil Taylor and taught as artist-in-residence at Antioch College. He has also organized several percussion groups featuring notables such as Kenny Clarke, Milford Graves, Rashied Ali, Daniel Ponce, and Michael Carvin. Having toured and performed throughout the world, he is currently a member of TRIO 3, featuring Oliver Lake and Reggie Workman. Cyrille has received three NEA grants for performance and composition, two Meet the Composer grants, and an Arts International award to perform with his quintet in West Africa. In 1999, Cyrille received a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition.

ROY HARGROVE & RAYMOND ANGRY
Monday, November 25th, 6:30 p.m.

Trumpeter and Jazz Program alumnus Roy Hargrove grew up in Texas and began trumpet in the school band at age 9. Hargrove attended Berklee College of Music, then transferred to the New School Jazz Program, from which he graduated. Exposed to many varieties of music at an early age, such as Gospel, Soul, and R&B, Hargrove has uniquely interpreted those influences, extending his jazz lines from a base in classic bop to a sound and personality uniquely his own. Having recorded several albums as a leader, first with RCA/Novus and then with Verve, he has enjoyed commercial recognition as well. An exceptionally gifted musician, with a rich tone and inventive mind, Hargrove received a Grammy award in 1998 for Habana, recorded with his band Crisol.

Pianist and organist Raymond Angry was born in Miami, Florida. After completing his M.A. at Howard University, Angry made his move to New York. In the period that he has been here, his musicianship has earned the respect of fellow musicians, performing with such notables as Mulgrew Miller and Ralph Peterson. Angry also has extensive experience in church music, R&B and Hip-Hop.

JANE IRA BLOOM & FRED HERSCH
Friday, December 13th, 6:30 p.m.

Jazz Program faculty member and saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom is a graduate of Yale University and the Yale School of Music, winner of the Downbeat International Critics' Poll, and recipient of fellowships from the Doris Duke Foundation, the NEA, the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, as well as the IAJE Charlie Parker Fellowship for Jazz Innovation. She has performed, recorded and/or collaborated with artists such as Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell, George Coleman, Rufus Reid, Kenny Wheeler, Julian Priester, Fred Hersch, Jay Clayton, and Cleo Laine. Winner of the 2001 Jazz Journalists Award for soprano sax of the year, Jane is also the first musician ever commissioned by the NASA Art Program, and was honored by having an asteroid named in her honor by the International Astronomical Union (asteroid 6083). Bloom was recently awarded a fellowship for jazz composition by Chamber Music America/ Doris Duke Jazz Project for work on “Chasing Paint," a series of compositions inspired by painter Jackson Pollock.

A pianist and composer whose work has received nearly universal acclaim, Fred Hersch has been described by The New York Times as “a master who plays it his way." Hersch has released seventeen albums as a leader, two of which were nominated for Grammy awards for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance. He has co-led another twenty albums and has appeared as sideman or featured soloist on over eighty further recordings. Hersch has been widely recognized in recent years for his ability to re-invent the standard jazz repertoire, investigating classics and interpreting them with fresh ideas. He has also enjoyed long-time musical associations with such jazz artists as Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, Toots Thielemans, Gary Burton, and Charlie Haden, as well as such diverse vocalists as Andy Bey and Dawn Upshaw.

Jazz @ 6:30 is sponsored in part by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.

To find out about New School University's Jazz and Contemporary Music Program, visit www.newschool.edu/jazz.