ABSOLUTELY LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
presents the 2008-09 Season

"The Shape of Jazz"

Zankel Hall @ Carnegie Hall

2008-2009 season

• Bill Charlap Trio – "Somewhere: The Music of Leonard Bernstein"
  December 10, 2008
  (part of the "Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds" festival)
• John Scofield Trio featuring the ScoHorns
  February 4, 2009
• Dee Dee Bridgewater
  March 18, 2009 (part of the "Honor! A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy" festival)

For further information, please go to Carnegie Hall or call CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800.

Blue Note Records — A 70th Anniversary Recording

In 2009, Blue Note Records will celebrate its 70th anniversary. ALE will produce an international tour, commencing in January 2009 that features an all-star band led by Blue Note Records recording artist and pianist Bill Charlap. With over 50 US concert dates already confirmed, we are currently coordinating plans to tour Europe & Asia during the fall of 2009.

The band includes Peter Bernstein, Ravi Coltrane, Lewis Nash, Nicholas Payton, Peter Washington and Steve Wilson. The group’s new recording will be released in early January.

Click here to see the entire US tour schedule.

For more information on presenting this ensemble, please contact Jack Randall at Ted Kurland Associates at 617-254-0007 or jack@tedkurland.com.

Keith Jarrett — An Evening of Solo Piano Improvisations

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Carnegie Hall, New York City.
Tickets on sale Friday, Oct. 24 online at carnegiehall.org, by calling Carnegie Charge 212-247-7800 or at the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57^th St & 7^th Ave.

Honor: Blues, Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Soul, And Beyond

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Jessye Norman, Producer
Danny Melnick, Associate Producer
Ray Chew, Musical Director
Paying tribute to the great African American popular music artists of the past, the brightest lights in blues, rhythm and blues, soul, and jazz, as well as today's daring innovators, gather for a magical evening of music. Each presentation will parallel an event in the bountiful history of performances by African American artists at Carnegie Hall. Artists tba.
Tickets on sale now online at carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge 212-247-7800 or at the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57^th St & 7^th Ave.

Afro-Cuban All Stars

Saturday, March 28, 2009

First NYC Appearance in 10 Years!
The Town Hall
Tickets on sale date tba.

Freihofer's Jazz Festival, Saratoga Springs, NY

Saturday & Sunday, June 27 & 28

Produced in partnership with the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, this festival is like no other: two days & nights, two stages, picnics, reserved seats & tents on the lawn, sun & shade, jazz, blues, soul, Latin and more. Artist line-up and advance ticket sale information will be announced shortly.

Also in 2009 & 2010

• "Miles & Coltrane" - 50th Anniversary of Kind of Blue and Giant Steps

  Thursday-Saturday, February 12-14, 2009

  Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall
  Produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center - ALE will be Line Producer for this event.
  In 1959, two seminal albums changed the way jazz was played and heard: Miles Davis' Kind of Blue and John Coltrane's Giant Steps. Along with music director Mulgrew Miller and his trio, a capella masters Take 6 bring their unique style to the music of Kind of Blue, while the saxophone section of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra plays orchestrated solos from Giant Steps. The legendary James "Jimmy" Cobb, the drummer on Kind of Blue, joins the evening's festivities, as these groundbreaking masterpieces are re-imagined.

• Duke Ellington Jazz Festival — Washington DC

  June 4-15, 2009

• Kind of Blue @ 50 — Jimmy Cobb & The So What Band World Tour

  Miles Davis recorded what would become the most famous album in jazz, Kind of Blue, in 1959. Jimmy Cobb was the drummer on those sessions. Fifty years later Cobb, the newly honored NEA Jazz Master who celebrates his 80th birthday in '09, leads a hand picked band on a world tour. ALE will produce this tour, commencing at the 40th annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 2, followed by a trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil in mid-May. The band will then perform at many North American and European Jazz Festivals in June & July, followed by concerts at American performing arts centers, in Oct. & Nov., with further dates to follow in Europe and in Asia.
  The band includes Wallace Roney, Javon Jackson, Vincent Herring, Larry Willis, Buster Williams & Jimmy Cobb.
  For more information on presenting this ensemble, please contact Scott Southard at International Music Network at 978-283-2883 or scott@imnworld.com.

• The Shape of Jazz – the 7^th Season! — Zankel Hall

• Django100: A Century of Hot Jazz
  featuring French Gypsy Guitar Legend Dorado Schmitt

  Jean-Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt, the Belgian-born gypsy jazz guitarist was born on January 23, 1910. For his centennial year, a collection of the finest European & American Jazz musicians assembles to salute the master. This tour, produced by the creators of the highly-successful "Spirit of Django" concerts in New York and the "Django Reinhardt NY Festival" now in it's 9th year at the Birdland Jazz club, features French gypsy guitar legend Dorado Schmitt; his son and protégé, guitarist Samson Schmitt; French accordion virtuoso Ludovic Beier; French violin master Pierre Blanchard; and American jazz bassist Brian Torff, who toured with Reinhardt's colleague Stephane Grappelli. American jazz clarinet and tenor saxophone soloist Ken Peplowski will join them.
  These artists have performed in the finest concert halls throughout the world and have earned standing ovations at the Kennedy Center, Disney Hall, and Alice Tully Hall and at the San Francisco Jazz Festival among many others.
  ALE is proud to produce this tour, which will occur between January and April 2010, in partnership with Pat Philips & Ettore Stratta.
  For more information on presenting this ensemble, please contact James Ziefert at Ted Kurland Associates at 617-254-0007 or james@tedkurland.com.

• Danilo Perez presents "Things To Come: 21st Century Dizzy"

  Here's the next "thing" from three-time Grammy ® nominee and Panamanian jazz pianist Danilo Perez, his global all-star band celebrating the music and bountiful inspiration of his mentor, Dizzy Gillespie. As the youngest member of the last edition of Dizzy Gillespie's United Nation Orchestra, Perez learned first-hand how Gillespie embraced musical and personal collaborations throughout the world.
  Danilo has assembled a little big band to perform new arrangements of classic Gillespie tunes in addition to original group compositions. Dizzy's bands were a constant melting pot of styles, genres, and pan-global collaborations. Danilo's hand-picked all-stars, with roots in Afro-Cuban, be-bop, Indian, African and Middle Eastern music among other genres, will more than honor Dizzy's legendary vision.
  ALE is proud to produce this band, which will tour between February and April 2010, featuring Danilo Perez - piano (Panama), David Sanchez - tenor saxophone (Puerto Rico), Rudresh Mahanthappa - alto saxophone (India/US), Jamey Haddad - percussion (Lebanon/US), Ben Street - bass (US), Adam Cruz - drums (Puerto Rico/US) and Amir ElSaffar - trumpet/voice (Iraq/US.).
  For more information on presenting this ensemble, please contact Jack Randall at Ted Kurland Associates at 617-254-0007 or jack@tedkurland.com.

• And many other exciting projects and events in the works....

"The Shape of Jazz" — Prior Seasons

• 2007-2008 Season
  • David Sanchez Group – "La Leyenda del Cañaveral" &mdash NY Debut
  • The Bad Plus
  • The SFJAZZ Collective – "The Music of Wayne Shorter" — NY Exclusive
  • Manhattan Trinity – Cyrus Chestnut, George Mraz, Lewis Nash
• 2006-2007 Season
  • Stefon Harris – "African Tarantella...Dances with Duke" — NY Debut
  • Kurt Elling Group featuring The Escher String Quartet & Bob Mintzer
  • Geri Allen Trio with Special Guest Maurice Chestnut, Tap Dancer
  • James Carter Quartet plus Strings – "Gardenias for Lady Day" — NY Debut
• 2005-2006 Season
  • Fred Hersch 50th Birthday – Solo Piano
  • Ron Carter, Russell Malone & Mulgrew Miller
  • Patricia Barber
  • Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts Quartet
• 2004-2005 Season
  • Abdullah Ibrahim 70th Birthday – Solo & Trio
  • Michael Brecker Quindectet
  • Lizz Wright
  • Greg Osby Four
• 2003-2004 Season
  • David Murray with Strings — World Premiere
  • Karrin Allyson & Luciana Souza
  • Danilo Perez Trio & Danilo Perez/Steve Lacy Duets
  • Dave Holland Big Band