Chico Hamilton, Joanne Brackeen Quartet, Ray Mantilla, and David Sanchez
Sunday, August 27, 2006 From 3:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Tompkins Square Park
The 14th annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival offers an extraordinary and FREE line-up. City Parks Foundation is proud to announce that the festival will also include special celebrations for Chico Hamilton뭩 85th birthday. The two days of free concerts take place in parks in the neighborhoods where Parker himself lived and worked.
Chico Hamilton
Drummer Chico Hamilton뭩 career stretches from the birth of be-bop, through West Coast cool to the present. While still a high school student in the ?0s, he jammed with young players like Dexter Gordon, Illinois Jacquet and Charles Mingus. As a member of Gerry Mulligan뭩 뱎iano-less?quartet in the ?0s, he gained a reputation for his innovative rhythmic sense. Hamilton뭩 own mid-?0s quintet broke barriers both for its multi-racial make-up and it뭩 dynamic take on cool jazz. That group gained immortality from its appearance in the seminal music documentary Jazz On A Summer뭩 Day as well as a supporting turn in the gritty noir drama The Sweet Smell Of Success. Hamilton has continued to be a prolific artist. This year alone he is releasing a total of five albums뾞stonishing for anyone, let alone a man approaching 85.
JoAnne Brackeen Quartet
JoAnne Brackeen has been described as 밶 visionary of extraordinary depth?by Tony Bennett, and 밶 pianist-composer of phenomenal capacity?by the late Bill Evans. Her writing is remarkable for its creativity, stylistic range, emotional depth, and whimsical spirit. After gaining distinction as the first and only female member of Art Blakey뭩 Jazz Messengers (1969-1972), Brackeen went on to perform extensively with Joe Henderson (1972-1975) and Stan Getz (1975-1977). A consistent innovator and prolific composer, JoAnne has created a library of more than three hundred original works. She has gravitated toward a panoply of hues and creative approaches over the course of her career - from bop to Latin to avant-garde abstraction and beyond. The late Leonard Feather once proposed that Brackeen has been as important to the 1980s and 1990s as Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock were to the 1960s, and McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett were to the 1970s. To witness her in performance is to be enchanted by the whole history and future of jazz.
Ray Mantilla
A son of the South Bronx (with a strong Cuban background), Ray Mantilla is one of jazz뭩 most renowned Latin percussionists. A conguero of extraordinary power and lucidity, he has played with Max Roach, Charles Mingus, Ray Barretto, Tito Puente and Art Blakey뭩 Jazz Messengers, as well as recording as a leader since the mid-?0s. His latest album, Good Vibrations, was released in May and features Mantilla뭩 trademark Latin fire.
David Sanchez
Puerto Rican born, New York-based tenorist David Sanchez has been a fixture on the jazz scene since the early ?0s, playing with everyone from Paquito D뭃ivera and Claudio Roditi to Kenny Drew, Jr., Rachel Z and Hilton Ruiz. On his 2004 album Coral, Sanchez reinterpreted the music of Latin master composers such as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Heitor Villa Lobos and Alberto Ginastera, backed by his working sextet and a full symphony orchestra. Sanchez combines rhythmic subtlety and lyrical depth for an unforgettable sound.
** Directions to Tompkins Square Park: Located between 7th to 10th streets in the East Village, Manhattan, between Avenue A & B. Take the L train to First Avenue. Walk South and East.
