For those of you lucky enough to get BET Jazz, they’ve announced some highlights of September’s programming, which includes a program on Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane and their recently discovered performance at Carnegie Hall and a tribute to Billie Holiday by Nnenna Freelon (pictured).
The fun begins Sept. 4 with Wynton Marsalis: Live at the House of Tribes, a personal interview and performance with the trumpeter, whose Live at the House of Tribes CD comes out Aug. 30. The live footage is from a Dec. 15, 2002 performance at the New York venue, which featured Eric Lewis on piano, Wess “Warmdaddy” Anderson on saxophone, Joe Farnsworth on drums and Kengo Nakamura on bass. The broadcast will premiere at 11:30 a.m., 7:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. and will also air at the same times on Sept. 18, and at 1:30 p.m., 9:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 13.
Nnenna Freelon: Blueprint of a Lady is a multi-dimensional portrait and tribute to the legendary jazz singer filmed at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Lee, Mass. Combining music, dance and visuals, Nnenna Freelon: Blueprint of a Lady features music from Freelon’s recent album, Concord’s Blueprint of a Lady: Sketches of Billie Holiday. The program will broadcast Sept. 6 and 20 at 1:30 p.m., 9:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m.
Sept. 13 will see a broadcast of the 2005 Jazz Journalist Awards, held June 14 at B.B. King’s Blues Club and Grill in New York City. Held every year to honor artists and their supporters, this year’s ceremony featured performances by Nnenna Freelon, Jack DeJohnette and Sy Johnson’s 75th Birthday Octet and was hosted by The Wire‘s Robert Wisdom and Kym Hampton.
Finally, Sept. 27’s premiere of Discovering Monk and Trane One Night at Carnegie Hall, designed to coincide with the Blue Note/Thelonious release of Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall the same day. The show features interviews with Library of Congress supervisor and jazz specialist Larry Appelbaum, who discovered the tapes; jazz historian and author Lewis Porter; jazz commentator Howard Mandel; Festival Productions Inc. founder George Wien; and T.S. Monk about the previously-unknown Monk and Coltrane concert. The program will air at 1:30 p.m., 9:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 27 and will then be rebroadcast Oct. 2, 11 and 16.
All times are Eastern Central Standard and more information can be found online at www.betjazz.com.
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