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  • JAZZ AT THE BOWLLEGENDARY JAZZ PIANIST DAVE BRUBECK BRINGS HIS HITS AND SWINGING STANDARDS TO THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL
  • Aug. 22, 2007
  • Bruce Hornsby Trio Featuring Christian McBride and Jack DeJohnette, Madeleine Peyroux Round Out the Evening

    WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, AT 8 PM

    Concert Sponsored the Pasadena Showcase for the Arts; Media Sponsor: KJAZZ

    An all-star lineup of jazz greats: Dave Brubeck, the Bruce Hornsby Trio and Madeleine Peyroux, treat Hollywood Bowl audience to their masterful and diverse performances, Wednesday, August 22, at 8 p.m. American jazz singer Peyroux, whose vocal style is often compared to that of Billie Holiday, opens the concert in her Bowl debut. The ever-popular Dave Brubeck brings his signature and accessible style of jazz back to the Bowl, and Grammy-winner Hornsby, known for drawing from a multitude of musical genres for his whimsical yet refined sound, performs in a trio joined by jazz giants Christian McBride, bass, and Jack DeJohnette, drums.

    Other upcoming Jazz at the Bowl performances this summer include:

    • Nancy Wilson's 70th Birthday Celebration, with many friends and colleagues from her esteemed career including Ernie Andrews, Regina Carter, Kurt Elling, Nnenna Freelon, Ramsey Lewis, Tom Scott, Terence Blanchard and special guest host Arsenio Hall, on August 29.

    • B.B. King returns to the Hollywood Bowl on September 5 for the B.B. King Blues Festival featuring Robert Randolph & The Family Band, led by searing pedal-steel player Robert Randolph and soul-bluesman James Hunter.

    During his more-than-50-year career as a jazz pianist, DAVE BRUBECK has received numerous honors, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, as well as induction to the Down Beat Hall of Fame and the International Jazz Hall of Fame. In recognition of his ongoing contributions to jazz, the National Endowment for the Arts presented him with the Jazz Master's Award in 1999. He also received the National Medal of the Arts from the NEA in a White House ceremony in 1994. His contributions as pianist and composer have been recognized by a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In the 1940s, Brubeck began studying composition with Darius Milhaud, the famous French composer, who was teaching at Mills College in Oakland. The Frenchman encouraged Brubeck to pursue a career in both jazz and composition. Since then, Dave Brubeck has become a legend and a jazz icon, with a substantial discography of important recordings and compositions. His Time Out is one of the top-selling jazz albums of all time. Brubeck's charismatic performances and his ground-breaking compositions continue to challenge and excite new generations of musicians and listeners.

    Born in Chicago in 1942, JACK DEJOHNETTE is widely regarded as one of jazz music's greatest drummers. He studied classical piano from age four until fourteen before beginning to play drums with his high school concert band and taking private piano lessons at the Chicago conservatory of music. DeJohnette credits his uncle, Roy I. Wood Sr., who was one of the most popular jazz DJ's in the South Side of Chicago, later vice president of the National Network of Black Broadcasters, as the person who initially inspired him to pursue music. In his early years on the Chicago scene, he led his own groups and was equally in demand as a pianist and as a drummer. He played R & B, hard bop, and avant-garde. International recognition came with his tenure in the Charles Lloyd Quartet, one of the first jazz groups to receive cross-over attention, also alerting the world to Keith Jarrett's skills. DeJohnette has collaborated with most major figures in jazz history. Some of the great talents he has worked with are John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Sun Ra, Jackie McLean, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Keith Jarrett, Chet Baker, George Benson, Stanley Turrentine, Ron Carter, Lee Morgan, Charles Lloyd, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Abbey Lincoln, Betty Carter and Eddie Harris, who is responsible for convincing DeJohnette to stick with drums because he heard DeJohnette's natural talent. Jack DeJohnette is the winner of DownBeat Magazine's 2006 Critics Poll and Readers' Poll for Drummer of the Year.

    BRUCE HORNSBY, a three-time Grammy winner who's sold more than 10 million records since his multi-platinum debut in 1986, draws from a wide array of influences - among them jazz, pop, classical, bluegrass, rock, vaudeville and sounds both swinging and downright uncategorizable. His songs have been performed and/or recorded by a variety of artists including Willie Nelson, Don Henley, Tupac Shakur, Bob Dylan, Chaka Khan, Robbie Robertson, Huey Lewis, Sara Evans, and Leon Russell. One of pop music's most in-demand "side" men, Bruce Hornsby has played on more than 100 records with artists ranging from Bob Dylan, Don Henley, and the Grateful Dead to Bob Seger, Bonnie Raitt, B? Fleck, and Willie Nelson, among many others.

    Over the course of three albums as a leader and over a hundred as a sideman, Grammy winner CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE has arguably become the most acclaimed acoustic and electric bassist to emerge from the jazz world in the 1990's. His passion for musical diversity has led him to work with everyone from Chick Corea to Pat Metheny, from Kathleen Battle to D'Angelo, from Diane Krall to Bruce Hornsby, from Quincy Jones to Sting. Given that the bass is the heart and soul of any music, this makes McBride's versatility all the more impressive. McBride's most recent recording, on Ropeadope, resists pigeonholes. His first release for the label, Live at Tonic, captures his capacious quartet joined by an array of guest artists, including eight-string guitar ace Charlie Hunter, Logic, pianist Jason Moran, violinist Jenny Scheinman, beat boxer Scratch, and Soulive guitarist Eric Krasno. McBride holds Artistic Director posts at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass summer program and the Dave Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. In January 2005, he was named co-director of The Jazz Museum in Harlem. While working for the museum in Harlem, McBride is racking up frequent flyer miles as the second Creative Chair for Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. He works with the organization year-round, building on the Philharmonic's presence in the musical community as a leading presenter of jazz. Among his various gigs, McBride spoke at former President Clinton's town hall meeting on "Racism in the Performing Arts," and participated in a Stanford University panel on "Black Performing Arts in Mainstream America." He has also hosted thoughtful one-on-one "jazz chats" in cyberspace on sonicnet.com and scribed the forward for pianist Jonny King's book, What Jazz Is (Walker & Co., New York).

    MADELEINE PEYROUX doesn't simply interpret songs, she possesses them…and vice versa. Peyroux is either an old soul or was "born with it" (depending on one's theory about the flashpoint of artistry); that became apparent in 1996, with the release of her debut album, Dreamland, a remarkably knowing work in which the then-22-year-old singer brought commensurate insightfulness to material associated with Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, and Patsy Cline. Her decision to cover Edith Piaf's "La Vie en Rose" reflected the decade that the Georgia-born Peyroux had spent living in Paris, from ages 13 to 22. In the 10 years since then, she has brought a wealth of life experience to her natural affinities, first manifested on the long-in-coming sophomore album Careless Love and brought to fruition on Peyroux's new album Half the Perfect World. Whereas much of her earlier work drew on writers and singers from the first half of the twentieth century, the bulk of Half the Perfect World focuses on artists and writers from the lifetime of the 32-year-old artist, including Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Fred Neil and Joni Mitchell. Peyroux's knack for choosing the perfect song is again key to the album's emotional impact, but her continued growth as a songwriter is equally important, and the new album's four original tunes more than hold their own, raising the groove quotient in the process.

    One of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world, with a seating capacity of nearly 18,000, the HOLLYWOOD BOWL has been the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since its official opening in 1922, and in 1991 gave its name to the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, a resident ensemble that has filled a special niche in the musical life of Southern California. The 2004 season introduced audiences to a revitalized Hollywood Bowl, featuring a newly-constructed shell and stage and the addition of four stadium screens enhancing stage views in the venue. To this day, $1 buys a seat at the top of the Bowl for many of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's concerts. While the Bowl is best known for its sizzling summer nights, during the day California's youngest patrons enjoy "SummerSounds: Music for Kids at the Hollywood Bowl," the Southland's most popular summer arts festival for children, now in its 39th season. Attendance figures over the past several decades have soared: in 1980 the Bowl first topped the half-million mark and close to one million admissions have been recorded. In February 2007, the Hollywood Bowl was named Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue for the third year in a row at the 18th Annual Pollstar Concert Industry Awards; the Bowl's summer music festival has become as much a part of a Southern California summer as beaches and barbecues, the Dodgers, and Disneyland.

    EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

    WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2007, AT 8:30 PM

    HOLLYWOOD BOWL, 2301 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood

    JAZZ AT THE BOWL

    BRUCE HORNSBY TRIO FEATURING CHRISTIAN McBRIDE AND JACK DEJOHNETTE

    DAVE BRUBECK

    MADELEINE PEYROUX

    Concert Sponsored by the Pasadena Showcase for the Arts; Media sponsor KJAZZ

    Tickets ($1 - $93) are on sale now at HollywoodBowl.com, at the Hollywood Bowl Box Office (Tuesday - Saturday, 12 p.m. - 6 p.m.), or by calling Ticketmaster at 213.480.3232, and at all Ticketmaster outlets. Groups of 10 or more may be eligible for a 20% discount, subject to availability; call 323.850.2050 for further details. For general information or to request a brochure, call 323.850.2000.

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  • Contact:

    Adam Crane, 213.972.3422, acrane@laphil.org; Lisa Bellamore, 213.972.3689, lbellamore@laphil.org; Lisa White, 213.972.3408, lwhite@lwhite@laphil.org; Photos, 213.972.3034