BLUES GUITAR LEGEND BUDDY GUY LAUNCHES THE 2009-2010 JAZZ ROOTS SEASON, BRINGING HIS FAMOUS WAILING ELECTRIC GUITAR SOUND TO A PROGRAM FEATURING SPECIAL GUEST DR. JOHN AND HIS BAND THE LOWER 911
Friday, November 6, 2009
Tickets: $25 to $125
John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall
MIAMI, FL October 19, 2009 – The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, with acclaimed jazz producer and entrepreneur Larry Rosen, present the inaugural concert of the 2009-2010 JAZZ ROOTS season – THE BLUES featuring multi-Grammy Award-winning blues guitar icon BUDDY GUY AND DR. JOHN & THE LOWER 911 on Friday, November 6, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. in the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall.
Renowned for his theatrical guitar showmanship and unvarnished blues style, BUDDY GUY, an inductee into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame, is considered the greatest living exponent of Chicago electric blues. His unique, wailing guitar sound has influenced virtually every major blues and rock guitarist from Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton. New Orleans singer/songwriter and pianist Dr. John and his band The Lower 911 open the concert performing their patented version of blues, gospel, funk and jazz. In addition to his unique fusion style, Dr. John is universally recognized for his original blues interpretations of traditional forms of jazz and American classic songs, as well as his elaborate stage shows.
“Buddy Guy is one of the titans of the blues, straddling traditional and modern forms, as well as musical generations, and Dr. John is universally celebrated as the living embodiment of the rich musical heritage exclusive to New Orleans,” said M. John Richard, president and CEO of the Adrienne Arsht Center. “We are thrilled to present the talents of these legendary American artists to the South Florida community.”
“We are especially proud to offer 150 Miami-Dade County Public School youth the once-in-a-lifetime experience to interact with these acclaimed musicians,” continued Richard. As a part of the JAZZ ROOTS education program, the students will have the opportunity to attend the sound check and concert as well as learn more about the blues and how this truly American musical genre has influenced jazz, rock, R&B, rap and popular music.
“Thematically, our JAZZ ROOTS series is based on the drums that came from Africa and their influence on all the popular music of the Americas. THE BLUES, our season opener, starts at the core of jazz,” said series co-producer Larry Rosen. “Both Buddy Guy and Dr. John come from a long heritage of Louisiana blues artists. As Buddy Guy said when I recently interviewed him for our JAZZ ROOTS radio show on WLRN-FM, ‘The blues can be sad, or the blues can be happy, but it always represents how folks are feelin’.”
JAZZ ROOTS’ in-depth educational partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools brings more than 900 music students to the Center each season for a unique behind-the-scenes experience, including a pre-concert sound check and a Q&A session with featured artists followed by a workshop with a local jazz expert that will highlight the music, the artistic process and the practical skills needed for a career in the arts. In addition, the Center has developed a curriculum which will be distributed to 800 music, English and social studies teachers throughout the MDCPS school system, potentially serving 24,000 children.
In its debut last season, the JAZZ ROOTS series was a major success, selling out all six performances and drawing more than 10,000 jazz lovers to the Arsht Center. The electrifying 2009-2010 series will once again showcase an all-star lineup of artists in a variety of programs exploring the spectrum of jazz: AN EVENING WITH DAVE GRUSIN featuring Patti Austin, Jon Secada, Gary Burton, Sammy Figueroa, Arturo Sandoval, Nestor Torres, and the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music Mancini Institute Orchestra (December 4); VOCALESE – Manhattan Transfer, New York Voices and Jon Hendricks (January 15); JAZZ and SOUL – Al Jarreau and Ramsey Lewis (February 26); A TRIBUTE TO FRANK SINATRA – Michael Feinstein, John Pizzarelli and The Frost School of Music Mancini Institute Big Band (March 19); PIANO LATINO – Eddie Palmieri, Michel Camilo, and introducing Alfredo Rodriguez (April 16).
The JAZZ ROOTS series is presented in partnership with Bank of America.
WPBT Channel 2, WDNA 88.9 FM Serious Jazz, WLRN 91.3 FM, and Capsule Media, and Daniel Azoulay Gallery have generously agreed to be media sponsors of JAZZ ROOTS.
TICKETS:
Tickets for JAZZ ROOTS: THE BLUES range from $25 to $125 and can be purchased through the Adrienne Arsht Center box office at 305.949.6722 or online at www.arshtcenter.org.
CALENDAR LISTING
Adrienne Arsht Center, Larry Rosen present
JAZZ ROOTS: THE BLUES – BUDDY GUY & DR. JOHN AND THE LOWER 911
Buddy Guy is a five-time Grammy-winning blues legend, whose unique, wailing electric guitar sound has influenced virtually every major blues and rock guitarist, from Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Dr. John is universally celebrated as the living embodiment of the rich musical heritage exclusive to New Orleans. After a half century of creating music, Dr. John continues to write, arrange, produce and interpret with a passion that has yet to wane.
November 6, 2009 @ 8 p.m.
$25-$125
John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall
Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County
1300 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, FL 33132
For tickets, visit www.arshtcenter.org or call 305.949.6722
Visit www.arshtcenter.org for up-to-date information for details and schedules. See highlights and video for the JAZZ ROOTS series at www.jazzroots.net.
JAZZ ROOTS series subscriptions, which include tickets to all six performances, are also available with seating priority given to renewed subscriptions and Adrienne Arsht Center members.
Support for the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County’s Jazz Roots education program is generously provided by the Arison Arts Foundation; with the additional support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor, and the Board of County Commissioners. The Jazz Roots education program is also funded in part by the Children’s Trust. The Trust is a dedicated source of revenue established by voter referendum to improve the lives of children and families in Miami-Dade County.
Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County is made possible by the public support of the Miami-Dade County Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners, Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, and Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council. Education & Outreach is funded in part by The Children’s Trust. The Adrienne Arsht Center also receives generous support from private contributions to the Adrienne Arsht Center Foundation, Inc., through its Visionary Society membership program and its Encore Circle major gifts program; City of Miami Omni Community Redevelopment Agency; American Express Company; Arison Arts Foundation; Dade Community Foundation; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council; the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
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About the Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County
The Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County is Miami-Dade County’s largest ever public/private-sector partnership, comprised of an $150 million private capital campaign conducted by the Performing Arts Center Foundation and public funding drawn primarily from the County’s Convention Development Tax revenues, as well as the City of Miami Omni Redevelopment District Community Redevelopment Agency. Greatly enhancing the artistic and educational opportunities in South Florida, the Adrienne Arsht Center will have significant and long-term economic benefits for the city and the region.
The Adrienne Arsht Center, designed by world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, includes the 2,400-seat Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House, the 2,200-seat John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall, a 200-seat black box Carnival Studio Theater, the Peacock Education Center, a restored Carnival Art Deco Tower, and the Parker and Vann Thomson Plaza for the Arts, which unites the Center buildings across Biscayne Boulevard, providing a magnificent setting for outdoor entertainment and informal gatherings. The key members of the design team include theater planning and design consultant Joshua Dachs of Fisher Dachs Associates, Inc. and acoustician Russell Johnson of ARTEC, Inc., both of whom worked on the project since its inception.
The Adrienne Arsht Center is a Miami venue not only for its three resident companies (Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet, and New World Symphony), but also for many smaller South Florida arts organizations that will perform in its theaters on a regular basis, as well as for the finest popular and classical performances from around the world. With state-of-the-art performance facilities in Miami for the first time, the Adrienne Arsht Center offers South Florida audiences the best and most diverse theater, music, and dance—with a dedication to entertain, challenge, and educate all segments of the community. For more information, visit www.arshtcenter.org.
About Larry Rosen
Larry Rosen, co-producer and co-creator of the JAZZ ROOTS series at the Adrienne Arsht Center is an entrepreneur, visionary, musician, and producer. Mr. Rosen is chairman of Larry Rosen Productions, Inc.; co-founder and co-chairman of LRSmedia, LLC; co-founder, past chairman and CEO of N2K, Inc. (NASDAQ); and co-founder, past president and CEO of GRP Records, Inc. Mr. Rosen is the creator and producer of the PBS TV series LEGENDS OF JAZZ, and is the creator and producer of the seven-part TV mini-series titled “RECORDING: The History of Recorded Music.” Mr. Rosen’s discography includes over 350 CDs, and DVDs where he serves as Producer/Executive Producer and whose all-star recordings were nominated for over eighty GRAMMY awards. Additionally, Mr. Rosen received Ernst & Young’s prestigious “Entrepreneur of the Year” award in New Media & Entertainment. Mr. Rosen received the GRAMMY Governor’s Award and was inducted into the A&R/Producers Honor Roll. Mr. Rosen serves on the boards of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA), the Music for Youth Foundation (MYF), the Music Educators National Council (MENC), UM Frost School of Music Deans Committee, and along with Mr. Grusin, Mr. Rosen co-founded the National Foundation for Jazz Education (NFJE), a philanthropic group which helps young jazz musicians.