Posted May 17, 2017
All things JAZZ!
By JBFC Marketing Volunteer Dotty Battel
Are you ready? You are not going to want to miss the amazing selections in this year’s Jazz Sessions: The Greats on Camera series, May 18–June 22, including five rousing films and four live performances!
We kick things off by celebrating the incomparable Satchmo! Will Friedwald, longtime friend of the Burns, is back with his highly entertaining “Clip Joint” show of classic Armstrong duets, followed by a live performance by the Alphonso Horne Quartet. To complete the evening, head upstairs for the after-party in the Jane Peck Gallery.
Here are a couple more programs you should definitely put on your calendar:
The Legacy of Lee Morgan
June 15, 7:30
Film: I Called Him Morgan, a sizzling documentary about trumpeter Lee Morgan, his common-law wife Helen (who shot him dead between sets at Slug’s Saloon on the Lower East Side), and the New York jazz scene of the ‘50s and ‘60s. “I Called Him Morgan is really a jazz lover’s dream.” (Film Inquiry)
Listen to his trumpet solo and you will be hooked!
The film is followed by a live performance by the Terell Stafford Quintet! Stafford, artistic director of the jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia, has performed with numerous groups, including Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Alumni Band.
A Tribute to Fred Hersch
June 22, 7:30
Film: The Ballad of Fred Hersch, a touching and incisive doc about this cutting-edge pianist and composer whose “body of work is clearly recognizable as a manifesto of contemporary jazz.” (David Hajdu, New York Times)
Here’s a sample of his gorgeous jazz recorded at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Hersch was the first Jazz musician to come out as gay in the early ‘90s, also revealing that he was HIV-positive, and in 2008 he miraculously survived a 2-month AIDS-related coma.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A withFred Hersch and Mike Holober, a fellow pianist and collaborator and a live solo performance by Fred Hersh!!
