Concert Features Bossa Nova of Antonio Carlos Jobim Performed by Dianne Reeves and Leading Brazilian Artists Gal Costa, Eliane Elias, Ivan Lins, Luciana Souza, Paulo and Daniel Jobim, Gretchen Parlato and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra conducted by Nicole Paiement with Musical Director Oscar Castro-Neves
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, AT 8 PM
Media support provided by KKJZ
Bossa nova pioneer Tom Jobim is recognized globally as a songwriter who shares equal rank with the Gershwins, Cole Porter and The Beatles. His arrangements combined modernist classical touches with a suave swing similar to North American "cool" jazz, rendering such deceptive simplicity that it masks gorgeous and complex harmonic structures. Jobim's bossa nova sound has captivated audiences since the musical style emerged in the 1960s. His universal classics include "The Girl From Ipanema" and "Desafinado." Long an ambassador and advocate of Brazilian music, Jobim also helped obtain the first recording contract for Brazil's other great bossa nova legend, João Gilberto. Jobim's son Paulo and grandson Daniel carry on Tom Jobim's great musical legacy.
Musical Director OSCAR CASTRO-NEVES returns to the Hollywood Bowl to lead his seventh Brazilian program. Of a previous performance here, the Los Angeles Times stated, "Castro-Neves was present in Rio at the birth of bossa nova in the 50s, and he is one of the most proficient players of the deceptively complex guitar rhythms that are the music's heartbeat." The multi-talented musician, an accomplished record producer who is renowned for his distinctive guitar style, is also acclaimed as a composer/arranger for his sophisticated harmonic concepts and the exquisite texture and color of his orchestrations. Castro-Neves was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1940, one of triplets in a musical family. He emerged as one of the founding figures, along with Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto, and a handful of others, of the musical movement that became known worldwide as bossa nova. At age 16, his first recorded song, "Chora Tua Tristeza," became a hit. In 1962, he appeared at the first bossa nova concert in America, at Carnegie Hall in New York. As leader of his own group, Castro-Neves toured in the company of such groups as the Dizzy Gilespie Quintet, the Stan Getz Quartet and the Lalo Schiffrin Trio. After returning to Brasil, he wrote for every top performer in the country, and joined Sergio Mendes' Brazil 66 group as featured guitarist, musical director and vocal coach. During his ten-year stint with the group, from 1971-1981, he recorded more than 15 albums with Mendes. He has also recorded with such diverse artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Herbie Hancock, Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joe Henderson. Currently living in Los Angeles, Castro-Neves has many film scoring credits including "Blame it on Rio," "Gabriela," and the Oscar-nominated short documentary "Burning Down Tomorrow." The television special "Tribute to Jobim" with Herbie Hancock, Shirley Horn, Gal Costa and others, produced under the musical direction of Costa-Neves, aired to audiences worldwide. He also appears on the PBS series "Legends of Jazz." The Brazilian government honored him by appointing him an officer of the Order of Rio Branco in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the dissemination of Brazilian culture and music around the world.
A pioneer of Brazil's Tropicalia movement, singer GAL COSTA was brought up listening to the music of João Gilberto, Caetano Veloso and other great Brazilian artists. Little did she know that one day she would sing bossa nova standards with them. Even at a young age, she could turn wishy-washy romantic songs on the hit parade and the nearly forgotten sambas written by passé composers into Brazilian cultural jewels. Her earliest albums were some of the fieriest and most experimental of the tropicalia records, and she has continued to champion varied and original material through out her 33-year career, during which she catapulted to superstar status in Brazilian pop, becoming one of the country's most important song stylists.
Pianist/vocalist ELIANE ELIAS is one of the world's foremost interpreters of the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim. Also considered one of jazz's finest pianists, she has been recording for two decades and is heralded by People magazine as "a rare vocalist" and MusicHound Jazz as "a powerful two-handed linear pianist whose fleeting lines are punctuated with chords and varied by altering dynamics, divers phrasing ideas and a wide range of moods and emotions." Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil and a New York resident since 1981, Elias recorded for Blue Note Records for several years, delivering a series of coolly romantic, sensually soothing and instrumentally rousing albums, including discs of Jobim music and 1995's Grammy nominated Solos and Duets, featuring guest pianist Herbie Hancock. She is known for her distinct and immediate recognizable musical style, which blends her Brazilian roots with her impressive jazz and classical skills. In 2002 Elias recorded with opera sensation Denyce Graves. For this recording, The Lost Days, she arranged two Brazilian classical pieces and wrote an original composition especially for Graves. Elias's most recent CD, Dreamer, her second Bluebird Jazz recording, features full orchestra. The 11-track collection comprises rarely performed tunes from the American songbook, rapturous Brazilian bossa novas and new Elias originals, including her first songs written with English lyrics. Elias, who has previously appeared at the Hollywood Bowl, was featured in the Thelonious Monk Institute's televised Second Annual "Celebration of America's Music" at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Self-taught pianist IVAN LINS is one of the most recorded Brazilian composers abroad. Among those who have recorded his songs are Quincy Jones, George Benson, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae and Barbra Streisand. Lins, who pursued music while finishing a degree in engineering, had his first breakthrough as a composer with the song "Madalena" (co-written with Ronaldo Monteiro de Souza), which was recorded by the acclaimed Brazilian singer Elis Regina. His greatest hits include, "Abre Alas", "Somos Todos Iguais Esta Noite" (both by Lins and Victor Martins), and "Começar de Novo." Lins's song "Dinorah, Dinorah" was included on George Benson's million-selling album Give Me the Night. Two Lins originals were featured on the Manhattan Transfer album Brazil, which earned a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album, while Quincy Jones's own multi-Grammy-winning Back to the Block highlighted yet another Lins composition, "Setembro." In 1991, Lins and his partner Vitor Martins founded the record label Velas, whose goal was to tap new talent. They launched such Brazilian artists as Guinga and Chico César.
The first child of Antonio Carlos "Tom" Jobim, PAULO JOBIM was born in 1950. He played with his father on many important recordings, acting as arranger and producer for some of them; he joined his father's Nova Banda in 1984. He has appeared on more than 40 albums. DANIEL JOBIM, Paulo's son and Tom Jobim's first grandson, was born in 1973. He was in charge of keyboards, mixing, and production-along with his father-on Antonio Brasileiro, Tom Jobim's last masterpiece and winner of a Grammy award. Both Paulo (guitar and vocals) and Daniel (piano and vocals) are members of Quarteto Jobim Morelenbaum, and work with many other Brazilian artists.
Conductor NICOLE PAIEMENT has been the Artistic Director of Ensemble Parallèle since 1993. Dedicated to the performance of music from the 20th and 21st centuries, the ensemble commissions new works and has recorded many world-premiere performances, including music by Lou Harrison, Germaine Tailleferre, Henry Cowell, Claude Debussy, Henri Collet, Andrew Imbrie, and others. Commissions and world premieres have included music by Laura Schwendinger, Elinor Armer, Alden Jenks, Bruce Mather, Jacques Desjardins, John Harbison, Hi Kyung Kim, Carolyn Yarnell, and Robert Helps. The ensemble has been supported by the National Endowment of the Arts, the Art Research Institute of the University of California, and the Aaron Copland Foundation. Since 1999 Paiement has also been the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music New Music Ensemble (NME). Under her baton NME has gained recognition in the Bay Area as a dynamic new-music ensemble promoting and commissioning works of living composers. Paiement is also the Director of Ensembles at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the founder (with the support of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music) of the BluePrint project, a highly successful series focused on building new music for San Francisco. Paiement's interest in both vocal and instrumental music has led her to conduct and record many new operas. She recorded the world premiere of Lou Harrison's serial opera Rapunzel and is presently working on mounting the premiere of Harrison's last opera, Young Caesar. She also recorded David Conte's The Gift of the Magi. As a guest conductor, her more recent engagements have included the Kochi Orchestra from Japan, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. This fall she will return to Korea to conduct the Seoul Symphony in a concert of world premieres. Paiement received her doctorate in conducting from the Eastman School of Music and has had additional studies with Erich Leinsdorf.
The winner of the 2004 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition, GRETCHEN PARLATO comes from Los Angeles, where she attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. When she was selected at age 16 for a solo role in an L.A. Opera production and for a solo performance at the John Cage Retrospective at MOCA, music was transformed from a fun hobby into the early stages of an artistic career. After studying African percussion along with earning a Bachelor of Arts in Jazz Studies from UCLA, Parlato continued to study Brazilian music, the Portuguese language and jazz. In 2001 Parlato became the first vocalist (she was selected in lieu of a trumpet player by Wayne Shorter, Terence Blanchard and Herbie Hancock) to be accepted into the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance. In the fall of 2003 Parlato moved to New York, where she has performed at celebrated jazz venues such as the Blue Note, Sweet Rhythm, 55 Bar and the Jazz Gallery. Parlato has provided vocals for the soundtrack to the 2004 film Seeing Other People starring Jay Mohr and Walt Disney's A World of Happiness, which also featured such artists as Lou Rawls, Gary Oldman, Deborah Harry, and Isaac Hayes.
In March 2002, jazz vocalist and recording artist DIANNE REEVES was appointed Creative Chair for Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association-then a newly established position. In this role, Reeves oversees the scheduling of jazz programming for the Association at both the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall. Prior to joining the organization in this capacity, Reeves has graced the Bowl's stage on many evenings under the stars while delighting audiences with her singular vocal talents. A Blue Note/EMI recording artist since 1987, Reeves has earned five Grammy nominations. She won consecutive Best Jazz Vocalist Grammy Awards in 2000 and 2001 for her albums In the Moment and The Calling and in 2003 for A Little Moonlight. But the greatest tribute to her artistry comes from the musicians-Clark Terry, Sergio Mendes, Harry Belafonte, and the late, great Joe Williams-who have actively championed Reeves throughout her career. In 1987, Reeves became the first vocalist signed to the newly reactivated Blue Note label, for which she has since recorded numerous albums, including those that garnered her Grammy recognition. Reeves was recently featured with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra on several Duke Ellington projects in celebration of Ellington's Centennial. A recording with Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony and a concert appearance at Carnegie Hall with Simon Rattle and the Orchestra of St. Luke's were among her many other appearances associated with the Ellington Centennial salute. In 2002, she performed at the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The 2002 season finale of HBO's Sex and the City also featured an appearance and performance by Reeves.
Vocalist LUCIANA SOUZA, born in São Paulo, Brazil, has been hailed by Down Beat magazine as a "a highly trained musician and composer who sees the larger picture, a consequential storyteller/poet… who is keenly aware of how she wants to frame her sound." The double Grammy-nominated artist, noted for both her jazz stylings and classical chops has performed and recorded with Danilo Perez, Hermeto Pascoal, Maria Schneider, Kenny Werner, John Patitucci and Osvaldo Golijov as well as the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, the Boston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony and the Los Angeles, Brooklyn and New York Philharmonic orchestras. In April, she made her Walt Disney Concert Hall debut performing the world premiere of Billy Childs' "The Voices of Angels." Her discography includes An Answer to Your Silence (NYC), The Poems of Elizabeth Bishop and Other Songs, Brazilian Duos, North and South and Neruda (Sunnyside). Souza - who holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Composition from the Berklee College of Music in Boston and a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music - was named Top Rising Star in the Female Vocalist Category by the Down Beat magazine Critic's Poll.
One of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world, with a seating capacity of nearly 18,000, the HOLLYWOOD BOWL has been the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since its official opening in 1922, and in 1991 gave its name to the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, a resident ensemble that has filled a special niche in the musical life of Southern California. The 2004 season introduced audiences to a revitalized Hollywood Bowl, featuring a newly-constructed shell and stage and the addition of four stadium screens enhancing stage views in the venue. To this day, $1 buys a seat at the top of the Bowl for many of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's concerts. While the Bowl is best known for its sizzling summer nights, during the day California's youngest patrons enjoy "SummerSounds: Music for Kids at the Hollywood Bowl," the Southland's most popular summer arts festival for children, now in its 37th season. Attendance figures over the past several decades have soared: in 1980 the Bowl first topped the half-million mark and close to one million admissions have been recorded. In February 2005, the Hollywood Bowl was named Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue at the 16th Annual Pollstar Concert Industry Awards; it is no wonder that the Bowl's summer music festival has become as much a part of a Southern California summer as beaches and barbecues, the Dodgers, and Disneyland.
EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2005 at 8 PM
HOLLYWOOD BOWL, 2301 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood
A CELEBRATION OF JOBIM
OSCAR CASTRO-NEVES
GAL COSTA
ELIANE ELIAS
PAULO AND DANIEL JOBIM
GRETCHEN PARLATO
IVAN LINS
DIANNE REEVES
LUCIANA SOUZA
HOLLYWOOD BOWL ORCHESTRA
CONDUCTED BY NICOLE PAIEMENT
Media sponsor is KKJZ 88.1 FM
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Adam Crane, 213.972.3422