We are getting very excited as we near the 6th Annual NEW JAZZ Series, 3 days of great jazz music from the Creative Opportunity Orchestra, jazz legends Kidd Jordan and Alvin Fielder, New York pianist Bob Rodriguez, and more. We know many of you are looking forward to seeing Jordan and Fielder, as well as returning to the beautiful ground of Laguna Gloria (stay tuned to our website for Rain Location updates) for the Orchestra's CD release performance (Migration is their first new recording in almost a decade!) Congratulations to Harriett Wolf for winning the tickets to see the Victory Grill show. For more info look below or visit
www.creop.org. See you there!
Event Listings
Thursday, June 14, 8 pm – The historic Victory Grill: Legendary jazz musicians Kidd Jordan (saxophone) and Alvin Fielder (drums) perform. Preceeded by a performance by Tina Marsh and Alex Coke. Food will be served in the cafe prior to the concert. A jazz photography exhibit by Brenda Ladd will also be on display. ($15 General Admission; $12 Students, Seniors, Artists; $8 Children 12 and under)
Friday, June 15, 7:30pm – Laguna Gloria Amphitheatre: The Creative Opportunity Orchestra celebrates the release of their latest CD, Migration (their first official recording in almost a decade!), with a performance at the beautiful Laguna Gloria. ($15 General Admission; $12 Students, Seniors, Artists; $8 Children 12 and under)
Saturday, June 16, 4pm – Steinway Piano Gallery: Solo piano performance by innovative New York pianist Bob Rodriguez. (Pay What You Wish!)
Addresses
The Victory Grill: 1104 East 11th St.
Steinway Piano Gallery: 12980 N. Highway 183
Laguna Gloria Amphitheatre: 3809 W. 35th St.
TICKET INFO & OTHER INQUIRIES: visit
www.creop.org or call 512.448.3485 or email
creop@texas.net
About Kidd Jordan:
Edward "Kidd" Jordan (b. Crowley, Louisiana, United States, May 5, 1935) is an American jazz saxophonist and music educator from New Orleans, Louisiana.
After completing a music degree at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he relocated to New Orleans. He taught at Southern University at New Orleans from 1974 to 2006.
Jordan performs on tenor, baritone, soprano, alto, C-melody and sopranino saxophones, as well as contrabass and bass clarinets. He has performed and recorded with a wide selection of musicians in styles ranging from R&B to avant-garde jazz, including Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, William Parker, Alvin Fielder, Fred Anderson, Ornette Coleman, Ellis Marsalis, Cannonball Adderley, Ed Blackwell, and Cecil Taylor.
In his performances and recordings his music is entirely improvised: "Everything you hear on my albums is improvised." he explains. "It's collective improvisation, but there are no tunes. I tried writing down ideas a long time ago but I don't do that anymore."
About Alvin Fielder:
Alvin Fielder was born in Meridian, Mississippi, on November 23, 1935 and became interested in music from the very beginning, as both of Fielder’s parents were musicians. His mother played the piano and violin, while his father studied the coronet. Al Fielder began to study the piano at age six for three years, but disliked his teacher. At about the age of twelve, a friend of Fielder’s gave him an album titled Koko by Charlie Walker. The drummer on the recording was Max Roach. Young Alvin Fielder loved the way Roach played and as a result became interested in studying percussion.
Alvin Fielder is one of the South's hidden jazz treasures. From his early days as a student with Ed Blackwell in 1951 and his founding work with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM) in 1963, Alvin Fielder has remained true to his original vision "that the music always had to swing...no matter what." His trademark is an impeccable time and laser sharp sense of rhythm that never gets in the way. It is always there, driving the music forward, but never in a hurry.
While many of his contemporaries have received more publicity the list of bands Alvin Fielder has worked with reads like the jazz timeline for the last 30 years. From his 1967 recording, Sound, with Roscoe Mitchell, which was really the beginning of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Al has worked with bands ranging from the Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson Sextet, the Sun Ra Arkestra, the Muhal Richard Abrams Quartet, and the Eddie Harris Quintet.
In 1963, Al, and other jazz musicians founded the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM). In 1967 Roscoe Mitchell's Sextet with Alvin Fielder released their first album entitled Sound.
About the Creative Opportunity Orchestra:
Among the many pioneers on the Austin music scene, the Creative Opportunity Orchestra stands as one of the boldest and certainly the jazziest. Beginning in 1980, CO2 dared to cross the unknown frontiers of avant-garde jazz and improvisational music. Led by Texas Hall of Fame vocalist Tina Marsh, whose singing has been called “scat to the highest power,” CO2 set out to break free of the pressures of commercial nightclub performance and explore composition and improvisation possibilities in a large-group format. With innovative compositions, laced with free-form inventions and the unique vocalization of Marsh, CO2 has accelerated the genre into the modern age with an avant-garde jazz sound mixed with a world music sensibility. Originally consisting of 20 members, the orchestra has expanded to more than 100 musicians, including guest artists such as Roscoe Mitchell, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Billy Hart, and Kenny Wheeler. Its mission to promote and present jazz to a diverse audience has long led CO2 to reach out to Austin elementary schools, most recently with Circle of Light, a program that promotes cultural understanding through the music of the word’s many holiday traditions, including Christmas, Las Posadas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, and Ramadan. The orchestra has received numerous prestigious national grants and commissions and has toured to Corpus Christi, San Angelo, Albuquerque, Berkeley, Eugene and Portland, Oregon, Seattle and Spokane, Washington, Helena, Atlanta, Chattanooga, and Tuscaloosa. Since 2001 CreOp has held its annual NEW JAZZ Series, featuring the best of Austin’s jazz scene as well as national guests including jazz legend Hamiet Bluiett, Ron Miles, Fred Hess, and others.
The Creative Opportunity Orchestra, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.
“Too few people know that the CO2 is a killer band ... great, wise recordings stomping into disparate passions, touching on Ellington, Sun Ra, Stravinsky in tandem with CO2’s sweeping Big Band sound.”
- THE SEATTLE WEEKLY
Creative Opportunity Orchestra is funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Chamber Music America, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Still Water Foundation, SBC Foundation, with generous help from the Austin Lyric Opera, Epistrophy Arts, Brenda Ladd Photography, DiverseArts, Blue Lapis Light, Greenlights, Zachary Scott Theatre, and Sharir+Bustamante DanceWorks
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