Duke Jazz Series

I recently had the pleasure of sitting in on Peter Apfelbaum’s oral history, conducted by long-time friend and jazz writer, Dan Ouellette. I was most pleased to hear about the origins of The Hieroglyphics – a band Peter formed in his teens. I am fascinated by how the band has successfully shifted and transformed alongside him - growing as he did throughout the years. There is a touch of sadness about this being my last opportunity to hear a Duke Jazz artist tell his story like this – laughing with a friend while articulating the first musical sounds he ever made, pausing to find the right words to describe his artistic process, or discussing the true impact of a commission from organizations like Chamber Music America.

Each time we enter the oral history studio, I am reminded of how invaluable we are as our own, best primary resources. I am reminded of the true power of our stories – and of the humanity we feel when we share in the telling of our experiences. I feel overwhelmed with gratefulness for having had the chance to sit in on, catalog, and provide access to these artist histories. Each one has affected me in ways I would only fail in trying to articulate. I hope you will join the Library in celebrating these fine resources. Utilize them! Bring friends!

In the meantime, we do hope you will join us on Friday, November 13th when we end our Duke Jazz Series with a 12-piece bang!

The November Duke Jazz Series concert features Peter Apfelbaum and The New York Hieroglyphics: Peck Allmond, Patrice Blanchard, Charles Burnham, Natalie Cressman, Abdoulaye Diabate, Viva DeConcini, Jessica Jones, Tony Jones, David Phelps, Dafnis Prieto and Josh Roseman.

Composer/multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum started playing drums at the age of three, taking up piano and saxophone in elementary school and forming his first band at age 11. In 1977 - his senior year at Berkeley High - he formed the 17-piece Hieroglyphics Ensemble as a vehicle for composing and exploring non-traditional musical forms; the Hieroglyphics Ensemble went on to perform with artists like Don Cherry and the Grateful Dead. Apfelbaum put the Hieroglyphics Ensemble on hold during the mid-90s, forming a sextet comprising Hieroglyphics musicians and acoustic bassist John Shifflett. In 1998, Apfelbaum moved to Brooklyn, where he soon formed a New York version of his Sextet. This group grew in 2003 to become the 11-piece New York Hieroglyphics and recorded It is Written in 2004. In addition to the New York Hieroglyphics, Apfelbaum continues to perform regularly with Steven Bernstein, Trey Anastasio, Dafnis Prieto, Josh Roseman, and Kamikaze Ground Crew.

The concert will be held on Friday, November 13, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 111 Amsterdam Avenue @ 65th Street. The program is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. For more information, please call 212.870.1793 or visit nypl.org/lpaprograms.

Please do stick around, say hello and share your Duke Jazz experiences at the public reception to follow! Thank you all for your continued support.

Katrina M. Dixon, Librarian
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Project

(Photo: Courtesy of Drew Gress)

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will continue its free Duke Jazz Series with a performance by Drew Gress and 7 Black Butterflies on August 26 at 7:30 p.m.

Accompanying Mr. Gress will be Tim Berne on alto saxophone, Shane Endsley on trumpet, Tom Rainey on drums, and Craig Taborn on piano. The performance will be held in the Bruno Walter Auditorium, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. and performances begin at 7:30 p.m. All concerts in the Duke Jazz Series are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. For information, please call (212) 642-0142.

Composing for big bands since high school, Drew Gress is a bassist with a background in contemporary improvised music. His latest project is entitled The Irrational Numbers (Premonition) and features original compositions for a quintet. Earlier releases include the critically-acclaimed 7 Black Butterflies (2005), Spin & Drift (2001) and Heyday (1997). Mr. Gress’s future projects and endeavors include a solo bass recording and an electronics project. He boasts an extensive resume of collaborations with such artists as John Abercrombie, Ralph Alessi, Tim Berne, Don Byron, Uri Caine, Bill Carrothers, Ravi Coltrane, Marc Copland, Mark Feldman, Fred Hersch, John Hollenbeck, Tony Malaby and John Surman. He has toured extensively through North and South America, Europe and Asia and previously served as the Artist-in-Residence at St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer and Chamber Music America.

"His bass-driven jazz digs deep into, as Jack Kerouac said in his novel On The Road, the 'pit and prune juice' of the human experience." -- Kevin Eagan (http://blogcritics.org/music/article/music-review-drew-gress-the-irrational1/)

The Duke Project is more than pleased to welcome Drew Gress and 7 Black Butterflies. I'll leave you with Drew's phenomenal rendition of Autumn Leaves (a video taken as part of David Gage Workshop/Mike's Master Class on April 15, 2008) as a sneak preview!

We hope to see you there!

I manage the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Project for the Library for the Performing Arts, a two-year endeavor funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to present, document, and preserve jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances and related oral histories.

The project is entering its final season this fall, and we have an exciting lineup of artists performing in our Duke Jazz Series: Drew Gress and 7 Black Butterflies (August 26), Brian Lynch and Spheres of Influence (September 23), and Peter Apfelbaum and The New York Hieroglyphics (November 13). Further information is available from our most recent press release.

Most of the live performances and oral histories we have recorded as part of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Project are now available for viewing/listening at The Library for the Performing Arts. To view a full list, search “Doris Duke Charitable Foundation” as a note in The Catalog.

I will be taking a brief hiatus from the project during the late summer and early fall to travel to Kabul, Afghanistan, where I will be training staff at the American University of Afghanistan in library cataloging procedures and assisting the University library in getting its online catalog up and running.  read more »

Beginning in late September 2008, The Performing Arts Library (LPA) hosted two Duke Jazz Series concerts with Dafnis Prieto Sextet and Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto. The members of those groups were wonderful individuals with extraordinary talent. Every musician expressed their love for the music; we witnessed that excitement and burst of energy when they performed. My favorite musician was Jeff Busch from Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto who is the percussionist for that group. The piece that he stood out the most was “Feira Livre,” from Jovino Santos Neto’s album Canto do Rio.

We are pleased to start the New Year and our new Jazz season with Donny McCaslin, who is participating in our next Duke Jazz Series concert. Donny McCaslin who plays the tenor saxophone, will be performing on January 7, 2009 with David Binney, Scott Colley, Adam Cruz, Gonzalo Grau, Ben Monder, and featuring the vocals of Kate McGarry. The Donny McCaslin Group will be performing selected songs from McCaslin’s sixth album In Pursuit, described as “The concept of “pursuit,” single-minded devotion to a distant goal, marked by inventive exploration has characterized his music almost from the beginning.”

Some of the musicians who will be performing in upcoming Duke Jazz Series concerts are Jane Ira Bloom, Ben Allison, and Drew Gress, along with few others. All the performances will be held at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Bruno Walter Auditorium, at 111 Amsterdam Avenue @ 65th Street. Doors open at 7:00, show at 7:30 p.m. Admission to this show is free, and is first-come, first-served.

The Duke Project team -- consisting of Sarah Ziebell (middle), Flordalisa "Lisa" Lopez (right), and myself (left) -- are gearing up for the second concert in the Duke Jazz Series.

For those of you who missed September's show, the wonderfully talented Dafnis Prieto Sextet were featured, filling the Bruno Auditorium with Cuban-infused jazz. We had an excellent turn out for the event -- despite having to compete with presidential debates and pouring rain -- and hope to match the turn out next week with the sounds of Brazilian pianist/flutist/composer Jovino Santos Neto and his Quintet. In addition to the quintet (traveling to NY from Seattle to perform) are special guests Harvey Wainapel and Felipe Salles.

Jovino and his band were in New York during the summer as part of the River to River festivities, and the Duke team caught his set. Jovino and his band mates are excellent musicians and the danceable Brazilian rhythms make the music irresistible.

We were fortunate to include this program in the Third Annual Latin American Cultural Week (LACW), which is a celebration of Latin American arts and artists throughout New York City from November 5 through 21. LACW is a program of PAMAR (Pan American Musical Art Research), founded and directed by Uruguayan pianist Polly Ferman. For more information, visit www.pamar.org.

Please join us for this free, first-come, first-served show on November 21st at the Bruno Walter Auditorium, 111 Amsterdam Ave. @ 65th Street. Doors open at 7:00. If you have any questions, give us a call at (212) 870-1793.

The Duke Project has many outstanding musicians scheduled throughout 2009 -- both as part of the Duke Jazz Series and Duke Jazz Talks -- so please check back often to find out who is performing next at the LPA.

We'll look for you there!

Jovino_Santos_Neto-Duke_Jazz_Series.pdf (110.27 KB)