Dee Dee Bridgewater

Photo: Philippe Pierangeli

Legendary Jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater will appear at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at the Duke Jazz Talks series on May 6 at 8:00 p.m. Ms. Bridgewater will discuss her career in jazz and give a short performance accompanied by her longtime arranger Edsel Gomez. The program is presented in the Bruno Walter Auditorium located in The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at 111 Amsterdam Avenue at 65th Street. Tickets for the program are $10 and $5 for students. For more information about this program please call the Library at 212.870.1793.To purchase advance tickets by phone, please call 212.245.5440.

The Duke Jazz Talks
This is the fourth program in a series presented by The Library in partnership with The GRAMMY Museum SM and The Recording Academy® New York Chapter that have included one-on-one conversations with jazz artists about their historic careers. Previous guests have included McCoy Tyner, Charlie Haden, and John and Bucky Pizzarelli. The interviews will become part of the Library’s collections for use by future scholars and researchers. Music curator and scholar Bob Santelli, Executive Director of The GRAMMY Museum SM, will conduct the interview. The Library is also continuing a separate free series of jazz performances with notable artists including Ben Allison (on May 1) and Drew Gress (on August 26). These series are part of a two-year project funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to present, document, and preserve jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances.

Dee Dee Bridgewater
Few entertainers have ever commanded such depth of artistry in every medium like Dee Dee Bridgewater. Fewer still have been rewarded with Broadway’s coveted Tony Award (Best Featured Actress in a Musical – The Wiz), nominated for the London theater’s West End equivalent, the Laurence Oliver Award (Best Actress in a Musical – Lady Day), won two GRAMMY® Awards (1998’s Best Jazz Vocal Performance and Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocal), and France’s 1998 top honor Victoire de la Musique (Best Jazz Vocal Album).

Dee Dee Bridgewater made her New York debut in 1970 as the lead vocalist for the band led by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, one of the premier jazz orchestras of the time. These New York years marked an early career in concerts and on recordings with such giants as Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach, and Roland Kirk, and rich experiences with Norman Connors, Stanley Clarke and Frank Foster’s "Loud Minority." In 1974, Bridgewater began to act and sing on Broadway where her voice, beauty, and stage presence won her great success and a Tony Award for her role as Glinda the Good Witch in The Wiz. This began a long line of awards and accolades as well as opportunities to work in Tokyo, Los Angeles, Paris, and in London, where she garnered the coveted Laurence Olivier Award nomination as Best Actress for her tour de force portrayal of jazz legend Billie Holiday in Stephen Stahl’s Lady Day. Performing the lead in equally demanding acting/singing roles as Sophisticated Ladies, Cosmopolitan Greetings, Black Ballad, Carmen Jazz and the musical Cabaret (the first black actress to star as Sally Bowles), she secured her reputation as a consummate entertainer.

About Edsel Gomez
2007 GRAMMY® award nominee Edsel Gomez is one of the premier Latin Jazz pianists in the world. Born in Puerto Rico in 1962, he began piano studies at age five. Gomez grew up in a musical environment that allowed him to master Afro-Caribbean rhythms in depth, working since childhood with an incredible array of Latin music idols such as Marvin Santiago, Celia Cruz, Carlos “Patato” Valdes, Santitos Colon, Cheo Feliciano, among many others.

Edsel Gomez works around the world as Dee Dee Bridgewater’s pianist/arranger, along with new projects that include Jack DeJohnette’s “Latin Project” featuring Giovanni Hidalgo, Don Byron, Luisito Quintero, and Jerome Harris.

The Duke Jazz Series
The Library is also presenting a series of free jazz performances by Chamber Music America award-winning ensembles at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in the Bruno Walter Auditorium located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. and performances begin at 7:30 p.m. The concerts are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. The following artists are scheduled to perform:

Ben Allison and Medicine Wheel
May 1, 2009, 7:30 p.m., The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Double bassist Ben Allison has emerged as one of the rising stars of jazz in the last decade. He has performed all over the world with musicians ranging from saxophonist Lee Konitz to legendary performance artist Joey Arias. He has appeared on more than 25 albums by various artists and has written music for film, national television and radio, including the theme for the National Public Radio (NPR) show "On the Media" and the score for Two Days, a play written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Donald Margulies. Allison’s most recent album, Little Things Run the World, reached #1 on the CMJ National Jazz radio charts and remained in the top 20 for over four months.

Drew Gress and 7 Black Butterflies
August 26, 2009, 7:30 p.m., The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Bassist/composer Drew Gress performs extensively with artists on the cutting edge of contemporary improvised music. His latest recording as a leader, 7 Black Butterflies (Premonition Records), features nine of Gress’ newest original compositions and was released in May 2005. This was the follow-up to 2001's Spin & Drift, which received widespread critical acclaim and also featured Gress’ pedal-steel guitar playing. When Gress is not leading his own ensembles, he can be heard within those of Ralph Alessi, Tim Berne, Uri Caine, Gerald Cleaver, Ravi Coltrane, Marc Copland, Fred Hersch, John Hollenbeck, Tony Malaby, and Mat Maneri.

Brian Lynch and Spheres of Influence
September 23, 2009, 7:30 p.m., The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
A respected insider within both the hardcore bebop and Latin communities, trumpeter/composer Brian Lynch is as comfortable negotiating the complexities of clave with Afro-Caribbean pioneer Eddie Palmieri as swinging through advanced harmony with bebop maestro Phil Woods. He's worked in recent years with Buena Vista Social Club alumnus Barbarito Torres, dance remixer Joe Clausell, and the members of the influential Latin alternative group Yerba Buena. He arranges for Japanese pop star Mika Nakashima and producer Shinichi Osawa, has written string charts for Phil Woods, and has played with such pop luminaries as Maxwell, Prince, and Sheila E. A 1997 recording called Spheres of Influence [Sharp Nine], which earned a 4-1/2 star Downbeat review, was Lynch's first project to reflect the panoramic range of interests that influence his working life as a musician. Lynch has continued to advance the Spheres of Influence concept, gathering around him a repertory company of top-shelf Pan-American oriented musicians.

Peter Apfelbaum and New York Hieroglyphics
November 12, 2009, 7:30 p.m., The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
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.

About the Jazz Section of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Grant
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has awarded a two-year, $1 million grant to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts to support the preservation of performing arts works and related oral histories through the audio and visual documentation of jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances by artists or organizations previously funded by the Doris Duke Foundation; the creation of oral and video histories involving Foundation-supported artists and organizations; and the preservation of recently acquired, fragile, and deteriorating archival material related to the life and work of Martha Graham.

During the two years of the grant, the Music Division is presenting the Duke Jazz Series, eight live performances by jazz ensembles recognized by Chamber Music America’s “New Works” program, which is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Each live performance will be recorded in both video and audio formats and added to the Division’s archive, as will a subsequently created oral history of key musicians, composers, and other influential figures related to each recorded live performance.

The Library’s Music Division, in partnership with The GRAMMY Museum SM and The Recording Academy New York Chapter ®, is also presenting Duke Jazz Talks, one-on-one conversations between GRAMMY-nominated or GRAMMY-winning jazz artists and music curator and scholar Bob Santelli, Executive Director of The GRAMMY Museum SM. These conversations are available in audio and video recordings at the Music Division of the Library and The GRAMMY Museum SM. In addition, the Music Division is producing, Duke Jazz Histories, a series of 10 oral histories with musicians performing in the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 Jazz at Lincoln Center seasons. Duke Jazz Histories will be video recorded and deposited within the collections of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people's lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties.

About The GRAMMY Museum
The GRAMMY MuseumSM, which opened in December 2008 in downtown Los Angeles, is a one-of-a-kind, 21st century museum that explores and celebrates the enduring legacies of all forms of music, the creative process, the art and technology of the recording process, and the history of the premier recognition of excellence in recorded music — the GRAMMY® Award. For more information about the GRAMMY Museum, please visit www.grammymuseum.org.

About The Recording Academy®
Established in 1957, The Recording Academy® is an organization of musicians, producers, engineers and recording professionals that is dedicated to improving the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers. Internationally known for the GRAMMY® Awards — the preeminent peer-recognized award for musical excellence and the most credible brand in music — The Recording Academy® is responsible for groundbreaking professional development, cultural enrichment, advocacy, education and human services programs. In its 50th year, The Academy continues to focus on its mission of recognizing musical excellence, advocating for the well-being of music makers and ensuring music remains an indelible part of our culture. For more information about The Academy, please visit www.grammy.com.

About The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts houses the world’s most extensive combination of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field. Its divisions are the Circulating Collections, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Music Division, Billy Rose Theatre Division, and the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. The materials in its collections are available free of charge, along with a wide range of special programs, including exhibitions, seminars, and performances. An essential resource for everyone with an interest in the arts – whether professional or amateur – the Library is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book materials such as historic recordings, videotapes, autograph manuscripts, correspondence, sheet music, stage designs, press clippings, programs, posters, and photographs.

About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It comprises four research centers – the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library – and 87 Branch Libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second language. The New York Public Library serves over 16 million patrons who come through its doors annually and another 25 million users internationally, who access collections and services through its website, www.nypl.org.

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Contact: Jonathan Pace | 212.592.7700 | Jonathan_Pace@nypl.org
jp: 4.20.09 : nypl11