The 2010 Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air Portland Jazz Festival | Feb. 22nd – 28th, 2010

Mingus Big Band, Dave Holland, Pharoah Sanders
To Headline 2010 Portland Jazz Festival
February 22-28

 

Festival to also Present
“Is Jazz Dead (Or Has It Moved to a New Address)?-New Music from Norway”
 Showcasing Three North American Premiere Performances


The 2010 Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air Portland Jazz Festival presented by US Bank
will be held February 22-28 with jazz outreach programming in area
schools and community centers on Monday through Friday, February 22-26,
leading up to a series of headline concerts Thursday through Sunday,
February 25-28 throughout downtown and inner Eastside Portland venues. 

 

Lauded as one of the top North American jazz events, the 7th annual
Portland Jazz Festival features jazz masters and emerging new artists
including 3-time Grammy Award-winning bassist, bandleader and composer Dave Holland Quintet, legendary saxophonist and John Coltrane collaborator Pharoah Sanders, the Mingus Big Band devoted since 1993 to the musical legacy of Charles Mingus, Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza, and contemporary trumpeter Dave Douglas Brass Ecstasy.

 
Additionally, Portland Jazz Festival’s annual thematic programming asks the provocative question Is Jazz Dead (Or Has It Moved to a New Address)? – New Music from Norway,
featuring North American premieres of leaders in Norway’s new and
burgeoning jazz scene. This “festival-within-a-festival” includes the
avant-garde chamber jazz of the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble, the saxophone/ accordion duo of Trygve Seim & Frode Haltli, and the jazz/rock fusion of In The Country featuring Morten Qvenild (keyboards), Roger Arntzen (bass) and Pal Hausken (percussion).

 
Complete headline concert schedule:
 

  • Thursday, February 25, 7:30pm, Hilton Pavilion Ballroom, Luciana Souza
  • Friday, February 26, 7:30pm, Newmark Theater, Mingus Big Band
  • Friday, February 26, 9:30 pm, Norse Hall, In The Country
  • Saturday, February 27, 3:00pm, Norse Hall, Trygve Seim & Frode Haltli
  • Saturday, February 27, 7:30pm, Newmark Theater, Dave Holland Quintet
  • Saturday, February 27, 9:30 pm, Norse Hall, Christian Wallumrød Ensemble
  • Sunday, February 28, 3:00pm, Newmark Theater, Pharoah Sanders
  • Sunday, February 28, 7:30pm, Crystal Ballroom, Dave Douglas Brass Ecstasy

 
The Story behind the Theme
This year’s festival theme, Is Jazz Dead (Or Has It Moved to a New Address)?,
shares the title of British jazz writer Stuart Nicholson’s critically
acclaimed book on the contemporary state of jazz. Nicholson confronts
traditional jazz musicians and audiences who insist on narrowly
defining what jazz should be, while maintaining the importance of this
music as being indigenously American. Nicholson claims that such
rigidly defined art alienates younger audiences from jazz, and points
to the exploding scene in Europe, specifically Norway, that has
developed both a new culture and audience for jazz.

 

The inspiration for artistic director Bill Royston’s selection of these
three Norwegian groups stems from his direct exposure to Norway’s jazz
scene while travelling as part of an international delegation invited
by the Norwegian government in 2008 to experience the major
Scandinavian summer festivals. 

 

“I found a rich and vibrant scene, featuring unconventional performers
reinterpreting the American musical legacy and building a whole new
jazz lexicon. I’m thrilled to share this discovery with our Jazz
Festival audience,” says Royston. “The featured American jazz artists
are intended as a counterpoint to the work of these exciting Norwegian
musicians.”


Each of
the Norwegian artists represents the vast diversity of Nordic music
that has risen from an improvisational gumbo derived from jazz,
classical, rock, folk, and even country music styles – pianist
Christian Wallumrød, classically trained, performs haunting
improvisations in a chamber music setting with an ensemble of cello,
violin, Baroque harp, trumpet, percussion and piano; Trygve Seim, who
performed with his large ensemble at the 2007 Portland Jazz Festival,
has an impressive ability to combine unusual instrumentation like the
present saxophone and accordion duo with Frode Haltli; the trio of In
The Country comes from a more pop music base that blends jazz
improvisation with driving rock rhythms and electronic experimentation.
The diverse artists and their music hold a common bond that writer
Nicholson refers to as the “Nordic Tone”, recognized by deep elongated
notes at the center driven by pulsating rhythms and adventurous
improvisations around the edge.


“Mingus
and Coltrane always superseded traditional forms to create their own
sound. They were above the fray, and the Mingus Big Band and Pharoah
Sanders continue this legacy. Contemporary innovators like Dave
Douglas, Luciana Souza and Dave Holland constantly strive to go beyond
the limits of traditional jazz,” states Royston. “Similarly, the
Norwegian artists have carefully studied American jazz, and developed a
distinctive sound. They are the new visionaries, and this festival will
affirm for Americans that a new jazz is very much alive!”

 
Jazz Education and Outreach
Jazz education and outreach events include performances of The Incredible Journey of Jazz,
a Black History Month celebration staged in Portland area middle
schools each February. The 60-minute musical/theater piece was
originally developed by Portland State University professor and pianist
Darrell Grant and the Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute. The performance
features seven actors and musicians who each play multiple roles in
depicting the experiences of African-Americans through the history of
jazz. Early scenes have students communicating through African rhythms,
and then follow the evolution from gospel, blues, ragtime, Dixieland
and New Orleans. Eventually, we witness the migration of Black
Americans up the Mississippi River to Chicago and other industrial
centers with the big band sounds of Ellington and Basie, to the bebop
of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, contemporary experimentation of
Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman, and ultimately to rap and hip hop.

 
Another key outreach component is the popular Jazz Conversations,
one-on-one interviews with jazz headliners and members of the Jazz
Journalists Association (JJA). These interviews are presented before a
live audience in the intimate PCPA ArtBar throughout the festival. The
sessions are recorded by KMHD-FM, Portland’s jazz radio station, for
later broadcast and subsequently are available on the Portland Jazz
Festival website, pdxjazz.com, for general listeners.

 
Tickets

PDX Jazz Members have the advantage of reserving the best seats during
the exclusive pre-sale period from October 13 – October 26. New and
renewing members can join any time.

 

Starting Tuesday, October 27 at 10:00 AM PST Portland Jazz Festival
tickets will be available to the general public at all TicketMaster
locations, by calling 503-228-JAZZ (5299), or online at pdxjazz.com. Those who sign up for the PDX Jazz mailing list will receive the first notification when tickets go on sale to the public.

 
About PDX Jazz

Founded in 2003, PDX Jazz, Portland’s jazz membership organization,
presents both regional and international jazz artists throughout the
year. Dedicated to nurturing jazz musicians and audiences, PDX Jazz is
best known for its critically acclaimed Portland Jazz Festival. PDX
Jazz also presents nearly 200 performances annually showcasing Portland
jazz artists with the ongoing series PDX Jazz @ RiverPlace (RiverPlace Hotel) and PDX Jazz @ the ArtBar (Portland Center for the Performing Arts), as well as the annual PDX Jazz @ RiverFest
each August along Portland’s South Waterfront. The PDX Jazz office is
located at 133 SW 2nd Ave in Portland. For more information visit www.pdxjazz.com or call 503-338-5299.

DL Media

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