Los Angeles Philharmonic Brings Jazz To Downtown Los Angeles
First Program Features Jazz Pianist Keith Jarrett, Bassist Gary Peacock And Drummer Jack DeJohnette
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12 AT 8 PM
Media sponsor: KKJZ 88.1 FM
The Los Angeles Philharmonic begins its new jazz series on Wednesday, November 12 at 8 p.m. at Walt Disney Concert Hall, with jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette.
"The new jazz series is an important step forward for the Philharmonic as well as for Los Angeles," says vocalist Dianne Reeves, the Philharmonic's Creative Chair for Jazz. "There is now greater diversity to the Philharmonic's programming and, through the use of the resplendent Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles will continue to grow as a center for this important genre of music."
Upbeat Live pre-concert events take place one hour prior to each concert in BP Hall at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and are free to all ticket holders. Jazz percussionist Terri Lynn Carrington hosts.
The Philharmonic's jazz series includes four concerts throughout the season, highlighted by performances of some of the world's leading jazz ensembles and performers. The series continues with a performance on January 24 by Dianne Reeves, pianist George Duke, pianist Billy Childs and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, featuring a Philharmonic commission written by Childs; the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis on March 15; and the Herbie Hancock Quartet with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on May 1. Performances take place at the new Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, a dramatic space designed for the acoustical performance of live music. While subscriptions to the Philharmonic's jazz series have already sold out, single tickets are available for individual concerts.
For more than 35 years, pianist KEITH JARRETT has been acclaimed as an improviser of unsurpassed genius and a master of jazz piano. In the past 15 years, he has also gained renown as a classical keyboardist focusing on 18th-century keyboard music for piano and harpsichord and 20th-century piano music. He has also composed works for orchestra, soloist, chamber ensemble, and jazz groups. In the past 20 years, Jarrett has been playing jazz with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette.
GARY PEACOCK was born in 1935 in Idaho and first played in Los Angeles in the late-1950s with Bud Shank, Barney Kessel, Hampton Hawes, and Paul Bley. By the early '60s, he was in New York playing with Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sonny Rollins, and others. He moved to Japan for several years in the late '60s to study Oriental philosophy and medicine, before returning to the U.S. in the early '70s to resume active music-making and to teach at the Cornish Institute in Seattle. Over the years he has also worked with Sarah Vaughan, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson, Helen Merrill, Michel Petrucianni, Don Pullen, and Bill Frisell, to name a few. In recent years, Peacock's other major collaborations include duo work with guitarist Ralph Towner, and two different piano trio settings featuring either Paul Bley or Marilyn Crispell backed by Peacock and drummer Paul Motian. In the past 25 years, Peacock has played on over 25 ECM Records recordings.
JACK DEJOHNETTE is one of the finest drummers in jazz today. Born in 1942 in Chicago, DeJohnette studied classical music and piano for 10 years as a youth. In the mid-'60s he joined Muhal Richard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell as a member of AACM, Chicago's pioneering avant-garde ensemble of creative improvising musicians. He headed to New York in 1966, playing first with Jackie McLean, Betty Carter, and Abbey Lincoln, before joining the Charles Lloyd Quartet. By 1967, he was playing with many of period's greatest improvisers including Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Stan Getz, before joining Miles Davis in 1968 to record the quintessential jazz-rock fusion record, Bitches Brew, along with John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, and Dave Holland. After a few years with Davis, DeJohnette moved on and began recording as leader and sideman with most of the finest players in jazz. In the 1970s, he founded New Directions featuring John Abercrombie, Eddie Gomez, and Lester Bowie, followed by Special Edition, and then the Gateway Trio with Dave Holland and John Abercrombie, which is still an active trio today.
EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, AT 8 PM
Walt Disney Concert Hall
111 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles
KEITH JARRETT, piano
GARY PEACOCK, bass
JACK DeJOHNETTE, drums
Media sponsor: KKJZ 88.1 FM
The Upbeat Live pre-concert event takes place one hour prior to the concert in BP Hall at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and is free to all ticket holders. Jazz percussionist Terri Lynn Carrington hosts.
Tickets ($25 - $80) are on sale now at the Walt Disney Concert Hall box office, online at LAPhil.com, or via credit card phone order at 323.850.2000. Groups of 12 or more may be eligible for special discounts for selected concerts and seating areas. For all information, please call 323.850.2000.
# # #
Elizabeth Hinckley, 213.972.3034; Ryan Jimenez, 213.972.3405