03/05/13

Kennedy Center Announces 2013-2014 Jazz Season

Blue Note Records 75th anniv., Arturo Sandoval celebration among highlights

By Jeff Tamarkin

The Kennedy Center has announced its 2013–2014 jazz season. The jazz program at the prestigious Washington, D.C., venue, now under the leadership of Artistic Advisor Jason Moran, will include more than 70 performances. Featured artists will include Geri Allen, Terence Blanchard, Terri Lyne Carrington, Ann Hampton Callaway, Ramsey Lewis, Kevin Mahagony, Oscar Peñas, John Pizzarelli, Dorado Schmitt, Esperanza Spalding and Cecil Taylor.

Among the themed shows announced by the Kennedy Center is a 75th anniversary celebration of Blue Note Records, a weeklong series of performances that includes Norah Jones, Moran and Cassandra Wilson. Trumpeter Arturo Sandoval will be the focus of a concert titled “50 Years: The Life, Passion, and Music of Arturo Sandoval,” with Chick Corea, Bill Cosby, Doc Severinsen, Andy Garcia and more. Soprano Kathleen Battle will perform “Something to Sing About,” a program of songs by Gershwin, Ellington and Joplin with pianist Cyrus Chestnut.

Pianist Robert Glasper and Roy Hargrove’s RH Factor will appear at the Supersized Jazz Club, a jazz-specific venue in the Kennedy Center Atrium. Annual events such as NPR’s “A Jazz Piano Christmas,” the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival and “A Jazz New Year’s Eve” complete the season. The Center’s jazz concerts are frequently recorded for future broadcast on NPR’s JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater.

In addition, a program titled “One Mic: Hip-Hop Culture Worldwide” will feature rapper Nas in “The Real Ambassadors 2014,” described as “a re-imagining of Dave and Iola Brubeck’s jazz musical … performed by an all-star lineup of jazz and hip-hop artists [that] utilizes some of the original music as well as new takes on the existing compositions.”

The National Symphony Orchestra Pops will also showcase jazz at one event, a performance with Wayne Shorter and his quartet featuring jazz vocalist and bassist Esperanza Spalding. And the three-day program “Renée Fleming: American Voices” will showcase fellow vocalists Kim Burrell, Kurt Elling and Dianne Reeves, among others.

Kennedy Center 2013-2014 Jazz Season Highlights

September 26, 2013 Concert Hall NSO Pops: Wayne Shorter

October 5, 2013 Terrace Theater Cecil Taylor, Solo Piano

October 11, 2013 Terrace Theater ACS: Allen, Carrington, Spalding

October 19, 2013 KC Jazz Club Javon Jackson, We Four: Celebrating John Coltrane

November 2, 2013 Terrace Theater Django Reinhardt Festival All-Stars

November 15, 2013 Eisenhower Theater Something to Sing About
Kathleen Battle, soprano

November 22, 2013 Terrace Theater Renée Fleming: American Voices
Jazz Master Session with Dianne Reeves

November 23, 2013 Concert Hall Renée Fleming: American Voices Concert

December 7, 2013 Terrace Theater NPR’s A Jazz Piano Christmas

December 14, 2013 Eisenhower Theater 50 Years: The Life, Passion,
and Music of Arturo Sandoval

December 31, 2013 Terrace Theater A Jazz New Year’s Eve
with Ramsey Lewis and John Pizzarelli

January 18, 2014 Supersized Jazz Club Roy Hargrove’s RH Factor

February 7, 2014 KC Jazz Club Oscar Peñas

February 14, 2014 Terrace Theater Ann Hampton Callaway

February 28, 2014 KC Jazz Club Jamison Ross and Joy Ride

April 2, 2014 Concert Hall The Real Ambassadors 2014

April 5, 2014 KC Jazz Club The Revive Big Band

April 26, 2014 KC Jazz Club Kevin Mahogany

May 4-11, 2014 Millennium Stages Blue Note at 75 celebration

May 9, 2014 Terrace Theater Terence Blanchard Quintet (Blue Note at 75)

May 10, 2014 Supersized Jazz Club Robert Glasper (Blue Note at 75)

May 11, 2014 Concert Hall Blue Note at 75, The Concert

May 23-24, 2014 Terrace Theater Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival

For more information about the Kennedy Center, including other shows, visit .