A "GIANTS OF JAZZ" CONCERT

Featuring
TERRY CLARKE - NEIL SWAINSON

PRESENTS

"NOTES FROM THE GREEN BOOK"

A RETROSPECTIVE ON THE PROTAGANIST IN THE
ACADEMY AWARD WINNING MOVIE, "GREEN BOOK", WHO
COMBINED HIS VIRTUOSITY AS A CLASSICAL PIANIST WITH
HIS BRILLIANCE AS AN IMPROVISER-COMPOSER OF JAZZ MUSIC.

DON SHIRLEY

Donald Walbridge Shirley
January 29, 1927 – April 6, 2013

African-American pianist and composer, Don Shirley, displayed immense talent at an early age, debuting in concert with the Boston Pops at age 18. Despite the obstacles of segregation, he performed at prestigious venues and earned acclaim for his work with the Don Shirley Trio, showcasing a unique style that combined classical, spiritual and popular elements. Largely forgotten by the time of his death, Shirley was introduced to new generations of fans with the 2018 premiere of the biographical movie, "Green Book".

Despite his training, Shirley in his 20s was dissuaded from pursuing a career as a classical pianist by impresario Sol Hurok, who said the country wasn't ready to accept a black man in that arena. Shirley subsequently developed his own genre of performance, melding his influences in blues, spirituals, show tunes, and popular music to deliver compositions that were both familiar and original to audiences.

His imagination and deft touch drew praise from musical luminaries like Igor Stravinsky, who cited Shirley's virtuosity as "worthy of the gods".
Duke Ellington said he would "give up his bench" at the piano to let Shirley take the reins, and in 1955, Shirley made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and the Symphony of the Air Orchestra.in a performance of Ellington's Symphonic Suite for Solo Piano and Orchestra, "New World A-Comin'".

Starting with "Tonal Expressions" in 1955, Shirley began recording his unique versions of popular favorites like "Blue Moon," "Lullaby of Birdland" and "Love for Sale" with the Don Shirley Trio. The trio enjoyed a highlight with their self-titled 1961 album, which included the Top 40 hit "Water Boy," and continued recording together through 1972's "The Don Shirley Point of View". Shirley recorded over two dozen albums in his career.

Following the death of his good friend Ellington in 1974, Shirley composed "Divertimento for Duke by Don". Other ambitious creations included his variations on the story of Orpheus in the Underworld, a tone poem based on James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake", and works for piano, cello and strings.

Featuring
TERRY CLARKE - JIM VIVIAN

"BOUNCIN' WITH BUD"

A RETROSPECTIVE ON "ONE OF THE TWO MOST SIGNIFICANT PIANISTS OF THE STYLE OF MODERN JAZZ THAT CAME TO BE KNOWN AS BOP." HIS VIRTUOSITY AS A PIANIST LED MANY TO CALL HIM
"THE CHARLIE PARKER OF THE PIANO".

BUD POWELL

Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell
September 27, 1924 in Harlem, New York City, U.S.A.
– July 31, 1966

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"If I had to choose one single musician for his artistic integrity, for the incomparable originality of his creation and the grandeur of his work, it would be Bud Powell. He was in a class by himself." - Bill Evans, 1979

"... Bud Powell is the most important pianist in jazz and one of the most underrated .... Bud Powell was imitating Charlie Parker. So Bud was the first pianist to take Charlie Parker's language and adapt it successfully to the piano. That's why he is the most important pianist in music today because everybody plays like that now."
- Bill Cunliffe, in an interview with All About Jazz

No one could play like Bud; too difficult, too quick, incredible!" - Thelonious Monk

"Bud is a genius." - Charlie Parker

"Bud is a genuine genius." - Duke Ellington

"He laid down the basis of modern jazz piano."
- Dizzy Gillespie

"Bud was the most brilliant that a spirit might be, a unique genius in our culture." - Max Roach

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MULTI-AWARD WINNER

MEMBER OF THE ORDER OF CANADA

Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.-born, Paul "Poli" Hoffert, is best known for his work with the rock band "Lighthouse", which he co-founded with Canadian drummer, Skip Prokop. His musical origins, however, were rooted in classical music and subsequently jazz, and he released his first recording - "The Jazz Routes of Paul Hoffert" - with The Paul Hoffert Quartet when he was only 16 years old. He went on to perform with jazz greats such as Moe Koffman, Freddie Hubbard, Guido Basso, Rob McConnell and Ed Bickert, at venues such as the Newport, Monterey, and Boston Globe jazz festivals, as well as Carnegie Hall.

Hoffert's most recent jazz recording, "How High The Bird", is an iconclastic shuffling of the "standards" and "be-bop" deck with music partner-drummer, Jim Gelcer.
"Congrats on a great record!" - Jaymz B, Jazz FM 91.1

A mulit-instrumentalist who, as a child, was recognized for being a prodigy, "Poli" counts as his major influences in jazz piano, Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell.

An intellectual and creative peripatetic, Hoffert's vast and heralded contributions to the Arts and Technology are best
summed up by the media and his contemporaries ......

"Paul Hoffert defies neat definitions. The founder and keyboard player for the 1970s rock band Lighthouse is now the architect of Canada’s most innovative information highway experiments. A university professor, businessman, composer and conductor, Hoffert is, in the words of some, the quintessential 'renaissance man'. He is also, possibly, the ideal visionary for the electronic age."
- Toronto Star

"Mr. Hoffert is one of the New Mandarins - along with Microsoft’s Bill Gates … His music wakes up Canadians every morning, but this member of the Canadian Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has been waking up the technology sector as well ... " - Financial Post

"Musician, scientist, engineer, arts maven, and entrepreneur Paul Hoffert takes us on an accessible, lively, wide-ranging, thought-provoking tour of the frontiers of technology and culture (in his book, The Bagel Effect) ... an optimistic and deeply humanistic view of the world and of modern technology's role in it... Required reading for an introduction to the profound changes being enabled by modern media."
- Dr. Ronald Baecker, Director, Knowledge Media Design Institute, University of Toronto

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