25 Jazz Ensembles from Across Massachusetts Selected to Perform at Jazz Along the Charles: A Walkable Concert
Celebrity Series of Boston Announces Artists for Concert on Sunday, September 23rd Along the Charles River Esplanade
June 11, 2018 – Boston, MA — Bostonians will have another reason to welcome autumn along the Charles River when the Celebrity Series of Boston presents Jazz Along the Charles: A Walkable Concert. After receiving close to 100 applications, a selection committee comprised of educators, administrators and performers from Boston’s thriving jazz scene has chosen 25 ensembles to perform at a series of connected, walkable locations along the Charles River Esplanade, interpreting the same curated list of Boston-related tunes in one collective free concert.
Set to take place on September 23rd, Jazz Along the Charles will showcase ensembles from neighborhoods and institutions across Greater Boston, which were selected from wide-ranging styles including avant-garde, bebop, blues, Bossa Nova, chamber jazz, cool, free, funk, fusion, gypsy jazz, klezmer, Latin, New Orleans Swing, reggae, and world jazz, and with musical influences from Brazil, Panama, Africa and Cuba.
From eighth-grader Cameron Shave’s Funkacademy, the brass sounds of Cocek! Brass Band, and the gypsy jazz of Aska and Hot Club of Boston, to the drumming of the Yoron Israel Connection, the New Orleans swing of Krewe de ROUX and the solo guitar stylings of Eric Hofbauer, performers selected not only come from a wide variety of jazz genres but all levels of experience including amateurs and those with collegiate, pre-professional and professional backgrounds.
“The response to our call for performers to be part of Jazz Along the Charles was more than we could have ever imagined and truly shows how talented and diverse the jazz community is in Greater Boston. This really made the task of the selection committee very challenging,” said Gary Dunning, Celebrity Series’ President and Executive Director. “The end result is that we will have 25 talented ensembles performing along the Charles River providing a unique shared experience for the city. This will be a true celebration of the depth and stature of the jazz community in Boston today.”
The selected performers are:
Amber Ensemble
Aska and Hot Club of Boston
Big Time Company
Charlie Kohlhase’s Explorers Quintet
Choro JP
Cocek! Brass Band
Eric Hofbauer
Funkacademy
Hiro Honshuku & Yuka Kido’s Love To Brasil Project
Jason Palmer Quintet
OddSong, featuring vocalist Rebecca Shrimpton
John Kordalewski Trio
Kevin Harris Project
Krewe de ROUX
MIXCLA
Monica Pabelonio Quartet
Novick Nieske Duo
Paul White Music
Planet Pluto
Rebecca Cline Trio
Receita de Samba (Recipe of Samba)
Samuel Batista Quartet
The Unity Ensemble
Tim Ray Trio
Yoron Israel Connection
The 25 ensembles will play the same set of contemporary and classic jazz compositions curated by celebrated Boston composer, bandleader and saxophonist Ken Field, with each ensemble approaching the presentation in their own unique style. The sets will close with each ensemble performing a selection from their own repertoire.
“In the spirit of improvisational jazz, I hope the participating ensembles will have fun creating (and audiences will be intrigued to hear) their diverse interpretations of these great compositions, all of which are connected to Boston by title, composer, or back-story,” said Field. “I have tried to include music that spans a broad range of musical styles and time periods, focusing on songs with interesting melodies or harmonies.”
Jazz Along the Charles is sponsored by Leslie & Howard Appleby, Amy & Joshua Boger, the Stephanie L. Brown Foundation, Donna & Michael Egan, and the Barr Foundation through its ArtsAmplified initiative. This concert is produced in cooperation with the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Esplanade Association.
For more information visit www.jazzalongthecharles.org.
About Celebrity Series of Boston:
Celebrity Series of Boston was founded in 1938 by pianist and impresario Aaron Richmond. Over the course of its 79-year history, Celebrity Series has presented an array of the world’s greatest performing artists, including Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie, Diana Krall, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arturo Toscanini, Ignace Paderewski, Artur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Andrés Segovia, Kirsten Flagstad, Marian Anderson, Luciano Pavarotti, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Martha Graham, Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mstislav Rostropovich, and the New York City Opera Company.
From orchestras and chamber ensembles, vocal and piano music, to dance companies, jazz, spoken word, and more, Celebrity Series has been bringing great artists to Boston’s major concert halls for eight decades. The Celebrity Series of Boston believes in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life experience, transform lives and build better communities. Through its Arts for All! community programs, the Celebrity Series seeks to build a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, lifelong, shared experience–on stages, on streets, in neighborhoods–everywhere.
The Celebrity Series of Boston, Inc. receives generous support from Leslie & Howard Appleby, Amy & Joshua Boger, the Barr Foundation, the Boston Cultural Council, The Boston Foundation, the Stephanie L. Brown Foundation, Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation, Deloitte LLP, Donna & Michael Egan, Foley & Lardner LLP, the French-US Exchange in Dance, Gabor Garai & Susan Pravda, David & Harriet Griesinger, Zachary Haroutunian and the Garbis & Arminé Barsoumian Charitable Foundation, in memory of Blanche & George Jones, Paul L. King, the Liberty Mutual Foundation, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, Eleanor & Frank Pao, The Peabody Foundation, Melinda and James Rabb, the Cynthia and John S. Reed Foundation, the Royal Little Family Foundation, the Stifler Family Foundation, Belinda Termeer, Michael and Susan Thonis, Tufts Health Plan, Nancy Richmond Winsten, Anonymous, and many others.
