Legends of Jazz pleases the `in crowd'.Byline: Peter Landsdowne COLUMN: MUSIC REVIEW WORCESTER - The Ramsey Lewis Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. (b. May 27, 1935) is an American jazz icon, composer, and pianist. Has been referred to as “the great performer,”[1] a title reflecting his performance style and musical selections which display his early gospel playing and Trio, clarinetist-saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera Paquito D'Rivera (born 4 June, 1948) is a Cuban alto saxophonist, clarinetist and soprano saxophonist. Biography Paquito was a child prodigy. He started learning music with his father Tito Rivera at the age of 5, who was a well-known classical saxophonist and conductor in , and the fusion quartet FourPlay joined forces Saturday night at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts The Theatre for the Performing Arts is a 7,000 seat theater located in the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. History The Performing Arts Center or the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts for the Legends of Jazz Tour 2008. Presented by the AARP AARP, a nonprofit, nonpartisan national organization dedicated to "enriching the experience of aging"; membership is open to people age 50 or older. Founded in 1958 by Ethel Percy Andrus as American Association of Retired Persons, AARP now has over 30 million and named for the PBS PBS in full Public Broadcasting Service Private, nonprofit U.S. corporation of public television stations. PBS provides its member stations, which are supported by public funds and private contributions rather than by commercials, with educational, cultural, radio and television programs of the same name, the Legends of Jazz Tour drew about 1,000 jazz fans. Many members of the crowd were obviously from the baby boomer baby boomer also ba·by-boom·er n. A member of a baby-boom generation. Noun 1. baby boomer - a member of the baby boom generation in the 1950s; "they expanded the schools for a generation of baby boomers" boomer generation, including this card-carrying AARP member, who was a senior at Westboro High School way back in 1965, when pianist Lewis scored a hit with an instrumental version of Dobie Gray's "The In Crowd," right in the middle of Beatlemania. For this concert, Lewis and his cohorts (acoustic bassist Larry Gray and drummer Leon Joyce) opened with "Wade in the Water," a gospel standard The Gospel Standard is a monthly magazine promoting a Strict Baptist Christian theology. Founded in 1835 by hymnwriter and preacher William Gadsby, it is the oldest Christian monthly magazine still in publication in the UK. that served as another hit for Lewis in the mid-1960s. Lewis initially played the tune as if he were in church (that's where he first learned it as a 9-year-old pianist) before jazzing up the melody with some bombastic block chords. Lewis didn't dwell in the past but instead presented two new compositions to a receptive audience. The pianist's "Exhilaration" was so new that Lewis and bassist Gray were reading their parts from music manuscript Music manuscripts are handwritten sources of music. Generally speaking, they can be written on paper or parchment. If the manuscript contains the composer's handwriting it is called an autograph. Music manuscripts can contain musical notation as well as texts and images. paper. The pianist's out-of-tempo introduction quickly morphed into a funk groove that Lewis sustained with some floating, suspended chords on the bridge. His "The One," on the other hand, was a poignant ballad with some impressive interplay between the pianist and Gray. Elsewhere, Lewis focused on blues-drenched compositions such as Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Feels to be Free," which he invested with some crowd-pleasing funky chords and trills before drifting into a wistful piano solo on Duke Ellington's "Come Sunday." Lewis and his crew transformed "Give Me That Old Time Religion" into a Fats Waller-like romp full of blues riffs, before a lengthy drum solo from Joyce drew an ovation. The inevitable encore was "The In Crowd," which Lewis played with an irresistible beat that had audience members clapping along. He took the tune through a bossa nova incarnation and threw in a quote from "On Broadway" for good measure before returning to the song's simple melody, which he enhanced with some crashing block chords and even a chorus of some fast, straight-ahead jazz. Backed up by pianist Ari Brown, D'Rivera warmed up the crowd with a stunning set that included Argentinian composer Carlos Vanzelli's classical-sounding "Serenata Ser`e`na´ta n. 1. (Mus.) A piece of vocal music, especially one on an amoreus subject; a serenade. Or serenate, which the starved lover sings To his pround fair. - Milton. " and two selections from D'Rivera's new "Funk Tango" CD, pianist Brown's original "Los Condrelanza" and Astor Piazolla's "Brevidado." The interaction between Brown and D'Rivera, who played most of his set on clarinet, was astonishing a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. . Unison lines alternated with improvised passages and sparked spontaneous outbreaks of applause. The capper cap·per n. 1. One that caps or makes caps. 2. Informal Something that surpasses or completes what has gone before; a finishing touch or finale. 3. of D'Rivera's set was his original "I Remember Dizzy," a heartfelt tribute to the late trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, a major influence on Afro-Cuban jazz and D'Rivera's mentor when he moved from Cuba to the U.S. The tune was full of Gillespie's quirky harmonic turns and angular melodic lines before turning into a series of quotes from Gillespie compositions such as "Manteca," "A Night in Tunisia" and "Con Alma."D'Rivera got the crowd involved in this selection by spontaneously teaching audience members how to sing Gillespie trademark "Salt Peanuts" riff, to a standing ovation. Jazz fans who stayed after the intermission that followed Lewis' set were pleasantly surprised by FourPlay, a jazz fusion quartet consisting of pianist Bob James, bassist Nathan East, drummer Harvey Mason and guitarist Larry Carlton, all well-known studio musicians in Los Angeles. In a rare East Coast appearance, FourPlay played extended versions of some of its better-known compositions, which sometimes show up as background music on The Weather Channel's "Weather on the 8's" segment. Lengthy romps on such FourPlay classics as "101 Eastbound" and "Tally-Ho" plus a moving version of "Amazing Grace" earned an ovation for FourPlay as well. ART: PHOTO CUTLINE: Paquito D'Rivera performs at the Hanover Theatre on Saturday. PHOTOG pho·tog n. Informal A person who takes photographs, especially as a profession; a photographer. : T&G Staff/MARK C. IDE |
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