Jack Kleinsinger’s Highlights In Jazz — New York’s Longest Running Jazz Concert Series
– concludes its 43rd Season with Jazz, Past & Present,
a historic double bill featuring NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston with Billy Harper
performing The Roots of the Blues and Highlights In Jazz New Stars
Benny Benack, Steven Frieder, Dylan Meek, Devin Starks & Kosta Galanopoulos plus a
very special surprise guest.
Thursday, June 11, 2015 at 8 pm at Tribeca Performing Arts Center of
Borough of Manhattan Community College, 199 Chambers Street, N.Y., NY 10007
Jack Kleinsinger’s Highlights In Jazz, New York’s longest running jazz concert series,
concludes its 43rd season on Thursday June 11, 2015 at 8:00 PM in the Tribeca
Performing Arts Center at Borough of Manhattan Community College, 199 Chambers
Street, NY, 10007 with Jazz Past & Present, a multigenerational double bill featuring the
incomparable duo of, pianist Randy Weston and tenor saxophonist Billy Harper,
performing a program including selections from their critically acclaimed album The
Roots of the Blues. Sharing the bill with NEA Jazz Master Weston, who celebrated his
89th birthday in April, will be the Highlights In Jazz New Stars, a youthful quintet of
twenty-somethings assembled by Kleinsinger himself to feature some of his favorite up
and coming young jazz players – saxophonist Steven Frieder, trumpeter/vocalist Benny
Benack, pianist Dylan Meek, bassist Devin Starks and drummer Kosta Galanopoulos.
Making his first Highlights In Jazz appearance, NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston
embodies the history of jazz past and present in his uniquely original playing — from the
swing of Duke Ellington to the bop of Thelonious Monk and onward with his own
perennially modern music. A tireless proponent of the African roots of jazz, his sound is
steeped deep in the blues, as evident in his latest critically acclaimed Sunnyside
recording The Roots of the Blues, which features his partner on the program, veteran
tenor saxophonist Billy Harper. The album, which is comprised of a baker’s dozen of
piano/saxophones duets ranging from jazz classics like “Take The A Train,” “Body and
Soul” and “How High The Moon” to Weston’s own engaging originals such as “Blues To
Africa” and “Berkshire Blues” has been hailed by Downbeat for its “intimacy and
warmth.” Weston says of Harper, with whom he has played for more than 40 years, “Billy
is a great blues player. When he plays the tenor it’s like an orchestra.” Together the pair
will bring the history of jazz to life.
The program will also include the Highlights In Jazz New Stars, a youthful quintet
handpicked by Kleinsinger to participate in this program. The veteran producer declares
“I’m very excited about the concert because I’m having some of my kids, people who
played with us when they were (just) students at the New School and the Manhattan
School of Music and Julliard. He beams, “The kids are great. Benny Benack — he’s a
trumpeter and a scat singer that’s extraordinary. Steven Frieder possesses a big warm
sound reminiscent of the legendary tenor sax giants of the past and Dylan Meek, already
an acclaimed recording artist and jazz club attraction on piano. Devin Starks is a bass
player who plays with Charles Tolliver. He’s also a youngster. And so is drummer Kosta
Galanopoulos, who is still at the New School … You know it’s important to me because a
lot of younger musicians that are not so young any more, got their start with Highlights In
Jazz; Kenny Washington, Greg Hutchinson, Peter Bernstein and so many others.” Bennie
Benack feels honored to be one of the musicians selected to join that lineage. He
proclaims, “Jack Kleinsinger has been highlighting the next generation with his support
for years, and it’s humbling to be included in one of his patented All-Star groups, this
time featuring some guys we’re all going to be hearing about for decades to come…”
And of course, as in all Highlights In Jazz concerts there will be a surprise special guest.
Kleinsinger notes with justified pride that past surprise appearances have included, Cab
Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan and Branford Marsalis and other jazz
greats. “You know,” he says, “it doesn’t get any better than that!”
All Shows At
BMCC TRIBECA Performing Arts Center
Borough of Manhattan Community College
199 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007
http://tribecapac.org
By car take FDR Drive south to end, through underpass onto West Street,
north to Chambers.
By Subway take 1, 2, 3, 9, A, C, E, J or M train to Chambers or N, R to City Hall stop.
Walk west on Chambers.
Box Office 212-220-1460
Ticket Prices
$45.00
$40.00 (student rate with valid ID)
Tickets can be purchased in advance at the box office or by mail order.
Please send a check made payable to: Highlights In Jazz
Please mail orders to:
Highlights In Jazz
7 Peter Cooper Road, Apt. 11E New York NY 10010
(Please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope)
http://www.highlightsinjazz.org
Highlights in Jazz Media Contact
Jim Eigo
Jazz Promo Services
272 State Route 94 South #1
Warwick, NY 10990-3363
Ph: 845-986-1677 / Fax: 845-986-1699
Cell / text: 917-755-8960
Skype: jazzpromo
jim@jazzpromoservices.com
www.jazzpromoservices.com
