Charlie Parker Festival

[Lois Gilbert]

City Parks Foundation announces the 17th season of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival: Saturday, August 29 at Marcus Garvey Park & Sunday, August 30 at Tompkins Square Park

Featuring two afternoons of FREE JAZZ headlined by Frank Wess Quintet and Cedar Walton Quartet

“… the festival pays homage to Parker and his footprint in the city. In many ways he was the quintessential New York hero: a maverick and bon vivant, a subject of notoriety and myth. He loved the city, and he toasted it outright with a tune called, “Scrapple From the Apple…” – The New York Times

City Parks Foundation is pleased to announce the 2009 Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. A longstanding summertime tradition, the free festival is revered for bringing leading figures in jazz into the neighborhood parks that the celebrated musician both lived and worked by. Entering its seventeenth season, the two-day festival of free music will take place on Saturday, August 29 at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem and Sunday, August 30 at Tompkins Square Park in the Lower East Side and features programs headlined by jazz greats Frank Wess and Cedar Walton.

Born August 29, 1920 in Kansas City, Kansas, Parker moved to New York City in 1942 where he played alongside fellow musicians Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke, and Charlie Christian at the Harlem clubs Clark Monroe’s Uptown House and Minton’s Playhouse, both sited for giving birth to bebop. During the last years of his life the iconoclastic sax-man resided in the Lower East Side near Tompkins Square Park. The musician’s life ended at age thirty-four but his influence on the jazz world continues to live on. Every year, around his birthday, the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival pays homage to Parker’s life and the indelible mark his music has left on the world.

Performances begin at 3pm on both days.

Saturday, August 29 – Marcus Garvey Park (124th Street and Mt. Morris Park)
Frank Wess Quintet
Gary Bartz
José James
Aaron Parks

Frank Wess Quintet
In 1953 legendary saxophone and flute player Frank Wess joined the famed Count Basie Orchestra. He utilized the popularity of the Basie band to introduce the flute as an independent voice to jazz audiences, becoming one of its first major soloists. In 1964 he moved to New York City to lead his own groups and play with bands such as the New York Jazz Quartet and Dameronia. He held a contract with ABC for ten years, performing for Saturday Night Live, The Dick Cavett Show, and The Sammy Davis Jr. Show. For almost twenty years he played in a quintet called “Two Franks” with Frank Foster, his colleague from the Basie days. Wess remains a highly respected figure of the New York jazz scene while continuing to play gigs worldwide.

Gary Bartz
Grammy Award-winning alto-saxophonist Gary Bartz has had a long, noteworthy career in jazz. His distinguished body of work, spawning over fifty years, has made him one of the most esteemed saxophone players of his generation. Bartz has performed and recorded with such luminaries as Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Abbey Lincoln, Charles Mingus, McCoy Tyner, and Max Roach, among several others. A student of John Coltrane, Bartz frequently cites Charlie Parker as the reason why he plays the alto sax.

José James
Newcomer José James has been winning over fans with his deft combination of soul, hip hop, and jazz since emerging on the scene in 2008. Possessing a warm, rich baritone voice reminiscent of such artists as Terry Callier, Jon Lucien, and Gil-Scott Heron, James has made his mark on the international stage by performing at such venues as Central Park SummerStage (also produced by City Parks Foundation), North Sea Jazz Festival (Netherlands), Victoria Jazz Festival (Canada), Billboard Live (Tokyo), Centro Cultural (Brazil), the Hermitage (Russia), and Royal Festival Hall (UK). His debut album The Dreamer ranked number twenty-one on JazzTimes’ Top 50 Jazz Albums of 2008.

Aaron Parks
Pianist Aaron Parks made a splash in 2008 with his debut Invisible Cinema. The album showcases his virtuosity and harmonic complexity even as it references a wider world of contemporary music-making. Parks first came to public attention during his tenure with Terence Blanchard, and he appeared on three of the acclaimed trumpeter’s albums. With his technically involved yet boundlessly melodic and sensitive playing, the young musician is setting a new standard for jazz piano expression.

Sunday, August 30 – Tompkins Square Park (E. 8th Street, between Aves. A and B)
Cedar Walton Quartet
Papo Vazquez Pirates Troubadors
Pyeng Threadgill
Dred Scott Trio
Cedar Walton Quartet
Cedar Walton is one of the most universally respected jazz pianists active today, having played in the bands of Lou Donaldson, Kenny Dorham, J.J. Johnson, Art Farmer, and Art Blakey, and recorded with Freddie Hubbard, John Coltrane, and Joe Henderson. As a player, Walton is a post-bopper whose solos can be pensive and exciting - often at the same time. In terms of consistency, lyricism, and tastefulness, he recalls Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan. In addition to his abilities as an instrumentalist, Walton has amassed an impressive body of original compositions.

Papo Vazquez Pirates Troubadores
Papo Vazquez’s ability to fuse Afro-Caribbean rhythms, especially those from Puerto Rico and Cuba, with freer melodic and harmonic elements of progressive jazz has insured his popularity on many fronts. As a composer, Papo Vasquez showcased his talents on the soundtracks for the movies “Free Enterprise,” “Mo’ Better Blues,” and “The Mambo Kings,” as well as on recordings for Ruben Blades and Hilton Ruiz. Papo Vazquez Pirates Troubadours boasts a twisted variation on traditional themes and use terms like Jibaro Waltz, Plena Funk, Bomba Jazz, and Mapeye Jazz to help describe their music.

Pyeng Threadgill
Singer/composer Pyeng Threadgill is making waves with her sultry voice and vivid compositions. Her third album Portholes To A Love & Other Short Stories is a group of original songs all based on short stories by world-renowned authors. From the lulling sensation of locomotion, to the secrets of the sea, to the hopeless romantic, to the immigrant experience, Pyeng uses lyrics lush in metaphor to depict a wondrous universe.

Dred Scott Trio
Dred Scott first earned his reputation as an innovative and eclectic pianist and multi-instrumentalist in San Francisco. He has recorded seven self-produced albums and has performed on over thirty-five others. Now based in New York City, Scott regularly performs with his own Dred Scott Trio, Jay Collins, Rene Risque, Carol Lipnik, Sasha Dobson, and the Bari Koral Family Band. The San Francisco Examiner calls Scott, “a fine—in fact, magnificent—pianist.”

WBGO, Jazz 88.3 is the official radio sponsor of the 2009 Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. Additional support comes from: Bloomberg; ConEdison; Forest City Ratner Companies; JPMorgan Chase; NYU Community Fund; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; New York State Council on the Arts; National Endowment for the Arts; Hon. Inez E. Dickens, NYC Council, 9th District; Time Out New York; and Time Warner Cable.



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