Sanabria, Palmieri Showcase Afro-Cuban Music Traditions
Be-bop improv, cascading on top of authentic Latin grooves, will echo through Lowell Hall on Saturday, December 9 as percussionist Bobby Sanabria and New York-based trumpeter Brian Lynch perform with the Sunday and Monday Jazz Bands. The concert, part of the Harvard Jazz Band’s year-long pursuit of Afro-Cuban music, is supported in part by the Learning Performers program of the Office for the Arts. Featured in the program will be the famed Stan Kenton arrangement of “The Peanut Vendor,” Dizzy Gillespie’s “Manteca,” and Sonny Rollins’ calypso-based “St. Thomas.”
“Students will be exposed to ways of interpreting the music and rhythms, enhanced by the presence of Bobby Sanabria,” says Director of Bands Tom Everett. The concert is at Lowell Hall at 8 pm. Tickets are $10 ($7 students and seniors) and are available at the Harvard Box Office walk-up window, Holyoke Center Arcade (Tuesday-Sunday, 12-6 pm), by calling 617.496-2222, or online at www.boxoffice.harvard.edu. Tickets may also be available at the door.
Sanabria first visited Harvard on November 6 to present a lecture/demonstration through the Learning From
Performers program. This event was followed by rehearsals with both the Harvard Jazz Bands. He will lead part two of this exchange on Saturday, December 9 at 1 pm at Lowell Hall. Observers are welcome.
Sanabria—drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, producer and educator—has performed with a who’s who of jazz and Latin music including Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Paquito D’Rivera, and the “Godfather of Cuban Jazz,” Mario Bauza. Sanabria’s most critically acclaimed work has been with the Bauza and his Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, including three Grammy-nominated CDs considered to be definitive works of the Afro-Cuban big-band jazz tradition.
Trumpeter Brian Lynch will also perform December 9. He has played with such artists as Horace Silver, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Phil Woods, and has been a prominent voice in jazz and Afro-Caribbean music for two decades.
Adding Jazz Improv to the Latin Base
Latin band maestro Eddie Palmieri, the “Sun of Latin Jazz,” will visit Harvard for the first time during the spring semester. He will rehearse with the Jazz Bands on March 5 and return April 11-14 for an artist residency that will involve Palmieri in Harvard life and showcase his artistry in concert on Saturday, April 14 in Sanders Theatre at 8 pm. While at Harvard, Palmieri will visit with the Nieman Foundation fellows and students in the Department of Music’s Seminar in Ethnomusicology taught by Professor Ingrid Monson, and participate in a conversation through the Learning From Performers program on Friday, April 13 at 4 pm, which is free and open to the public. Tickets to the April 14 concert will be sold through the Harvard Box Office.
“Palmieri was responsible for adding jazz improvisation to the Latin base,” says Tom Everett, “and has been known throughout his career for featuring horn soloists, such as flute, trumpet, trombone and sax. At the April 14 concert he’ll be featured in several settings reflecting this evolution.” His discography includes more than 32 titles. Palmieri’s 2006 release “Listen Here!” won the Grammy for “Best Latin Jazz Album,” the eighth of his 50-year long career as a bandleader of salsa and Latin jazz orchestras.
For more information, please contact Tom Everett (617.496.BAND, everett@fas.harvard.edu) or OFA Director of Programs Cathy McCormick (617.495.8676 or cathleen_mccormick@harvard.edu).
