The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is launching a free jazz concert series this fall, featuring performances by Dafnis Prieto (pictured), Jovino Santos Neto, Donny McCaslin, Jane Ira Bloom, Ben Allison, and Drew Gress. Over the next year and a half, the Duke Jazz Series will present eight free concerts, featuring jazz ensembles selected from the Chamber Music America’s “New Works” program. This series is part of the two-year Library for the Performing Arts project funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to present, document, and preserve jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances and related oral histories.
The first concert of the Duke Jazz Series, featuring the Dafnis Prieto Sextet, will be held September 26, 2008. Selections from the sextet’s new album, Taking the Soul for a Walk, will be performed. Prieto is a Cuban drummer and composer whose range extends from Cuban rhythms to traditional jazz ensembles.
On November 21, 2008, the series will feature the Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto with special guests Harvey Wainapel and Felipe Salles. They will perform selections from the album Canto do Rio. Santos Neto is a Brazilian pianist, flutist, and composer whose inspiration comes from Brazilian musical traditions, including African and Portuguese, as well as classical forms.
Upcoming performances will include saxophonist Donny McCaslin and his group on January 7, 2009; soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and her quartet on February 20, 2009; double bassist Ben Allison and Medicine Wheel on May 1, 2009; and bassist Drew Gress and 7 Black Butterflies on August 26, 2009.
All concerts in the Duke Jazz Series are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Performances will be held in the Bruno Walter Auditorium, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, New York, 10023. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. and performances begin at 7:30 p.m. For information, call (212) 642-0142.
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