4 - Fall Guide 2010
Stellar lineup featured in expanded Lake George Jazz Weekend LAKE GEORGE — Annually for 27 years, the Lake George Jazz Weekend has brought innovative, top quality jazz to upstate New York. The festival has attracted knowledgeable jazz enthusiasts who are aware the event showcases the idiom’s finest musicians and presents their artistry in an incomparable setting. This year, the event has been expanded to three days, Friday, Sept. 17 through Sunday, Sept. 19, with the addition of a special jazz cruise and party celebrating the 80th birthday of jazz performer, composer, arranger and conductor David Amram, who’s been hailed as “The Renaissance Man of American Music” by the Boston Globe. Paul Pines, a former Manhattan jazz club owner who has coordinated the Jazz Weekend for 27 years, said this year’s lineup of talent is one of the fullest and most diverse ever — by featuring both seasoned, acclaimed performers and young musicians who are pushing the familiar boundaries of jazz. Friday night features a party at the Shoreline Restaurant beginning at 6 p.m. with various testimonials and a short presentation by filmmaker Larry Kramen who is in town to film scenes for a documentary on Amram’s life. A three-hour jazz cruise aboard The Adirondack follows at 7 p.m. featuring entertainment by the David Amram Quartet. Amram — who has worked with everyone from Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and
Charlie Parker to Leonard Bernstein, Bob Dylan and even Jack Kerouac — has scored the films of Splendor in the Grass and the Manchurian Candidate as well as writing 100 orchestral and chamber music Acclaimed jazz works. On Saturday, Sept. drummer Cindy 18, he takes to the Blackman will be stage at about 2:30 appearing Sunday p.m. in the middle of Sept. 19 during the Jazz Weekend’s the Lake George afternoon presenta- Jazz Weekend. tions, likely playing the French horn, for which he is known as a pioneer for jazz improvisation, Pines said. The afternoon starts off at about 1 p.m. — the two days of concerts are presented in the lakeside setting of Shepard Park — with the Daniel Kelly Trio. An award-winning keyboardist noted for incorporating sampling into his jazz performances, Kelly has worked with a broad range of artists including hip-hop star Lauryn Hill. Saturday afternoon concludes with the jazz vocalist Roseanna Vitro & the Randy Newman Project, which presents works of the talented rock composer in a new light.
On Saturday, at 7:30 p.m., is a special performance by trumpeter Christian Scott, 27, who’s performed with McCoy Tyner, and been featured on the cover of Downbeat. Scott’s been nominated for a Grammy award, Pines said, noting how he fuses the approach of Miles Davis with hip-hop as he re-interprets the works of contemporary artists. Opening Sunday’s roster at about 1 p.m. is Sharel Cassity Quartet. Cassity is a young Julliard graduate whose improvisation fuses blues, swing, bebop and post-bop. She has recorded an album that Downbeat magazine has rated four stars, Pines said. She is followed by the Buster Williams Quartet featuring Stefon Harris and Cindy Blackman — both acclaimed jazz performers and composers in their own right. Buster Williams, who’s played with Herbie Hancock, and won numerous Grammys, is acclaimed as one of the greatest bass players alive, Pines explained. The Sunday concerts end with the Samuel Torres Group. A percussionist. Torres toured with Chick Corea and many other jazz stars. Pines said Torres melds straight-ahead jazz with the Latin idiom. The jazz weekend’s presentations are all free, and the Amram birthday party at Shoreline Restaurant is open to the public, with no cover charge. Tickets for the cruise, $25, can be purchased by calling 8993000.
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