Kennedy Center Jazz in Our Time Festival
Realizing it's better to honor great artists while they can appreciate being appreciated, the Kennedy Center is staging the Jazz in Our Time festival, a series of performances, both paid and free, from Saturday to March 10. The major showcase will be Saturday's Concert Hall performance featuring vocalist Nancy Wilson and the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, violinist Regina Carter, drummer T.S. Monk, pianist Cyrus Chestnut, trumpeter Jon Faddis and others in a concert hosted by James Earl Jones.
During the concert, 35 jazz luminaries will be honored as "living jazz legends," recognizing their lifetime of contributions to the genre. Did we say luminaries? Let's name just the pianists: Toshiko Akiyoshi, Dave Brubeck, Barry Harris, Ahmad Jamal, Hank Jones, Michel Legrand, Billy Taylor, Cecil Taylor and Marian McPartland.
On Sunday, the Family Theater will host McPartland's 89th birthday celebration; typically, McPartland will be working, joining a surprise guest in a performance taped for future broadcast on her NPR radio show, "Piano Jazz."
Pianos will be front and center next weekend as well, with Terrace Theater concerts March 9 and 10 at 7:30 and 9:30. The March 9 concert will feature Jamal with trumpeter Donald Byrd and saxophonist Jimmy Heath. On March 10, the Hank Jones Quartet, with vocalist Roberta Gambarini, will be joined by clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera and trumpeter Clark Terry.
The free daily Millennium Stage concerts at 6 will focus on different jazz eras and styles:
Saturday: Violinist John Blake Jr., "From Africa to America."
Sunday: Pianist Dick Hyman, ragtime and stride.
Monday: The Duke Ellington School of the Arts Jazz Orchestra, led by saxophonist Davey Yarborough, and members of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, "An Evening of Ellington."
Tuesday: Clarinetist Eddie Daniels and the Navy Commodores, tributes to Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw.
Wednesday: Trombonist Curtis Fuller and tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, the bebop era.
Thursday: U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble, 1950s "cool jazz."
March 9: The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, "Third Stream" jazz.
March 10: Bassist Christian McBride, saxophonist Ron Blake, guitarist David Gilmore, drummer Mousey Thompson and DJ Scratch, fusing jazz and hip-hop.
Also on March 10 at 3 in the Terrace Gallery, the Kennedy Center will present a screening of "A Great Day in Harlem," the Oscar-nominated documentary about Art Kane's celebrated jazz photograph, followed by a discussion with director Jean Bach. Tickets are $5.
For more information or tickets to paid performances, call 202-467-4600 or visit
http://www.kennedy-center.org.
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