2020 vision: a great year of jazz
It’s a busy year for Berkshires Jazz, with several outstanding events remaining on the docket. Mark these dates on your calendar, and check back for details.
• June 12-14: Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend, Lee Meeting House (Lee Congregational Church)
• July 11: Berkshire Jazz Showcase, featuring the best of regional bands, in an outdoors mini-fest on Pittsfield Common
• Oct. 8-18, Pitsfield CityJazz Festival, with headline concerts on Oct. 16-17
• Nov. 28: vocalist Dawning Holmes, a duo performance with pianist Jeff Holmes, Saint James Place, Great Barrington
And, watch for news about the Berkshires debut of “Dear Erich,” the jazz opera created by Ted Rosenthal. Aug. 8, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.
NOTE: our April 18 concert featuring Insight, a very exciting group headed by flutist Andrea Brachfeld, has been postponed. Please check back for our new date.
Guitarist Jason Ennis is an exciting voice in the world of jazz guitar. His unique sound, deep groove and sensitive feel, along with a diverse background in jazz, blues, Brazilian music and classical music have made him highly in demand as a soloist, sideman, bandleader and musical director. Jason leads his own instrumental group, Trio Jota Sete, and co-leads the world jazz trio, La Voz de Tres, which has toured extensively throughout the United States and Chile and has released two CDs. His searing blues style is a cornerstone of the NYC-based jazz/blues powerhouse group, Opius Bliss.
Guest artist Claire Daly’s career has included anchoring the sax section in the Diva Big Band, freelancing in New York doing every imaginable kind of gig, recording five CDs with the band “People Like Us”, as well as several CDs as leader. She has appeared at many festivals and venues, including Pittsfield, where her last appearance was with Sharel Cassity and Ada Rovatti and the Empire Jazz Orchestra. President Clinton’s Library requested a copy of her first CD, Swing Low, to be included in a listening station as a CD that was significant to the former president while in office. A four-time winner of the Downbeat Critic’s Poll “Talent Deserving Wider Recognition,” she was also recognized by the Jazz Journalist Association as Baritone Sax Player of the Year.
Headline weekend starts on Friday, Oct. 18, with another prodigious piano talent, Dayramir Gonzalez and his quartet. A Cuban jazz pianist, composer, arranger and music visionary, Gonzalez has appeared at leading jazz venues worldwide, He will be performing on the Steinway at the Berkshire Museum, 39 South Street. His group includes Dean Torrey, bass; Juan Chiavassa, drums; and Arturo Stable, a master Cuban percussionist and composer. C
e Birdland, The Jazz Standard, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, and The Jazz Showcase; and headlined at top festivals including Monterey, Montreal and Telluride. As a child, she began performing with her musician parents, the late pianist Hod O’Brien, and the singer/educator/author Stephanie Nakasian, and in 2015, she earned second place in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition, the most prestigious contest in the art form. Her command of the vocal-jazz tradition is astounding, as was demonstrated at last year’s Pittsfield CityJazz Festival. Swift so impressed the audience that she is the only performer ever invited back for a second consecutive year. PBS viewers caught part of her tour with Chris Botti on a recent fundraising concert video.
will be Nakasian’s third appearance in Pittsfield.
uest vocalist Chiara Izzi. The musical app
roach for Saturday has been described as “bossa nova with a fiery modern flavor”.
The wWinning paintings include (with judges’ comments):
an iconic jazz pianist, and has performed worldwide, both as a leader and as a sideman with many jazz greats, including Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer, Phil Woods, Bob Brookmeyer, and Jon Faddis. His classical/jazz crossover performances include solo and featured appearances with the Boston Pops, the Baltimore Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, and many other orchestras. His work includes adapting themes by Brahms, Schumann, Tchaikovsky and others into a mainstream jazz idiom. Local audiences are still talking about his interpretation of “Rhapsody In Blue” at the Berkshire Museum last year.