George Gee Big Band Salutes Frank Foster-nyc-4/20/04

[Buddhaboogie]

DATE: Tuesday - April 20th, 2004
Shows: 9pm and 11pm
WHERE Birdland Jazz Club, 315 West 44th Street, NYC (212) 581-3080
www.birdlandjazz.com

$20 cover/ $10 minimum at tables
$10 cover/ $10 minimum at bar


WHAT The George Gee Orchestra Salutes Frank Foster

THE BAND:

Saxes: Ed Pazant, Marshal McDonald, Michael Hashim, Lance Bryant, Howard Johnson
Trombones: Charles Stephens, Eddie Bert, Robert Trowers, Jack Jeffers
Trumpets: Walt Szymanski, Steve Wiseman, Mark McGowan, Shawn Edmonds
Piano: Jon Cowherd, Bass: Daryl Hall, Guitar: Joe Cohn, Drums: Willard Dyson, Vocals: Carla Cook






The 17pc. George Gee Orchestra will be performing a selected repertoire of Frank Foster arrangements at Birdland on Tuesday, April 20th. Legendary American jazz composer and arranger Frank Foster has agreed to attend the performance as special Guest of Honor at this special tribute program. Mr. Foster has been a staunch supporter of bandleader George Gee and his big band orchestra for many years and last performed together on the stage of Roseland Ballroom at dance legend Frankie Manning¹s 88th Birthday Party in 2002. Their original pairing was at the old Metropolis Jazz Club in Union Square, when Frank appeared with The George Gee Orchestra as featured saxophonist soloist in 1995. "George Gee shows the true spirit of the big band every time he steps up to the bandstand!" explains Mr. Foster of George Gee's love for the music. This special tribute program will be the launch of a studio recording project collaboration between the two bandleaders. The big band will be recording their first studio album (all of their previous efforts with the full big band have been in "live" situations) the very next day, under the auspices of Mr. Foster. The album will be a celebration of the music of Frank Foster.

"Frank and I discussed this exact project a few years back, right before he suffered his stroke. Obviously, it was shelved and the timing just wasn't right until now," says Gee. For George Gee, this is a dream program, beginning with his initial encounter with Count Basie in 1979, while interviewing the big band master for his Pittsburgh college radio station. A relationship Mr. Gee maintained and nurtured until his untimely passing in 1984, the spirit and music of Count Basie lives on today in The George Gee Orchestra. Explains Gee, "This show has a lot of meaning to me, as I am a great admirer of Frank's work and the whole Basie mystique."

FRANK FOSTER

A very talented tenor saxophonist and arranger, Frank Foster has been associated with the Count Basie Orchestra since 1953. Foster contributed plenty of arrangements and such originals as "Down for the Count," "Blues Backstage," and the standard "Shiny Stockings" to the Basie repertoire. Foster remained in the Basie saxophone section throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, recording with such greats as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald and many too numerous to mention. He took over the helm of The Basie ghost Band in 1986, revitalizing it and staying at the helm until 1995. Recently, his Loud Minority Big Band has been playing and recording regularly and he continues to write music on a daily basis. Frank and his longtime wife, Cecilia, resides in Virginia.

GEORGE GEE

Big Bandleader George Gee has been busy touring the country and the world recently, as a highly soughted-after swing dance orchestra in the lindyhop circuit. Their high-power swing backbeat has bought the band everywhere from Tokyo to Zurich and from Harlem to Chicago to Hollywood. They were even summoned to perform at Ozzy Osbourne's 50th Birthday Bash in Los Angeles! Every year, they are featured along with some of today's top jazz artists at The Friends of Charlie Parker Jazz Benefit Concert in NYC, having performed with Milt Jackson, Milt Hinton, Ray Brown, Billy Taylor, Clark Terry and Benny Powell. For 2004, the big band is traveling to concert halls throughout the United States with a special "Count Basie and Glenn Miller Centennial" concert program. The Orchestra has been selected to be the opener for Lincoln Center's "Midsummer Night Swing" in June and the band has a planned tour of the Far East in October. The artist's website is www.georgegee.com