ETIENNE CHARLES
San Juan Hill: A New York Story
Created by composer and trumpeter Etienne Charles, it is an immersive multimedia creation that celebrates a vital chapter of New York’s past. Through music, visuals, and first-person accounts, this powerful work shines a light on the historic communities of the area where Lincoln Center stands today. Blending diverse musical styles—including ragtime, jazz, stride piano, swing, blues, mambo, paseo, Antillean waltz, calypso, funk, disco, and Hip-Hop—with historical film and compelling narratives, the work showcases the myriad cultures that migrants brought to New York from the American South and the Caribbean.
He is joined by the University of Miami’s Frost Symphony Orchestra, where Charles teaches and serves as the Director of the Frost Studio Jazz Band, and special guests, this piece is a testament to the enduring spirit and forgotten stories of a community that helped shape the city’s cultural landscape.
The Program:
Lenape | Where Two or More are Gathered | Zora & Percy | Swing Culture | The Destroyer | Riot 1905 | Negro Enchantress — The Story of Hannah Elias | Charleston at the Jungles | Urban Removal — 1949–1959 | House Rent Party
Creole Soul:
Etienne Charles ~ Trumpet
Godwin Louis ~ Alto, Soprano Saxophones
Tori Trinity Flute
Christian Sands ~ Piano
Alex Wintz ~ Guitar
Lino Piquero Bueno ~ Bass
Brenten Handfield ~ Drums
Feature:
University of Miami Frost Symphony Orchestra
Maestro Gerard Schwarz ~ Director
Special Guests:
DJ Logic ~ Turntables
Eljon Wardally, Carl Hancock Rux ~ Spoken Word
Tickets: Currently No Availability
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Letellier was born October 11, 1957 in the United States. After attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts in 1975, the following year he wrote his first compositions and arrangements. He began as a pianist playing in warm-up bands for artists such as Phil Woods, Gary Burton, and Steve Swallow. Returning to Berklee in 1983, he graduated two years later with a Superior Prix in Film Music Composition.
Moving to San Francisco, California he worked as a freelance pianist in the jazz and salsa genre from 1986 until 1990. His successful session work attracted film executives and he was hired to compose music for films and corporate videos. In 1987 George served as a music editor on the Academy Award-nominated short film Liru, and in 1988 in Oakland, California, established a film production company where he worked not only as a composer but a producer.
In 1991, Letellier moved to Portugal, accepting a job offer as a professor of composition in Porto, Portugal. There he composed two ballets and was a session musician. He collaborated with saxophonist Mario Santos and formed the George Letellier Quartet which toured all across Portugal.
By 1995 he relocated to Luxembourg and began working as a music composer, session musician and taught private lessons. With the Opus 78 Big Band, he collaborated in arranging the tunes of Frank Sinatra and turning them into large philharmonic ensembles for performing.
From 1997 until 2003, he went into education serving as Director of Jazz Studies at the Esch Conservatoire, wrote three publications on jazz theory and formed the original Consabora Salsa Orchestra with Harri Jokiharra. Since 2001, Letellier has taught jazz at L’Ecole de Musique in Echternach, Luxembourg.
Pianist, composer, and educator George Letellier continues to function as a session pianist, and has performed in hundreds of jazz concerts and theatrical productions in Luxembourg, the United States, Europe, and India.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gregory Charles Royal was born on October 10, 1961 IN Washington, D.C. As a student at Howard University he received the 1982 DownBeat Magazine Student Music Award for Jazz Vocal Group and Graduate College Outstanding Performance in the Jazz Instrumental Soloist Category. He graduated from Howard University with a Master of Music in Jazz Studies.
Royal went on to play with the Duke Ellington Orchestra for a decade beginning in 1989, then with Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, Slide Hampton and his World of Trombones, and Howard University Jazz Ensemble. He has appeared onstage as a trombonist with the Broadway shows Five Guys Named Moe and Jelly’s Last Jam.
He has written and appeared in a play God Doesn’t Mean You Get To Live Forever, which was presented at the Baruch Performing Arts Center. and at Theatre Row on 42nd Street in New York. Royal also wrote and appeared in the short film World’s Not for Me. The film won the Harlem Spotlight Best Narrative Short Award at the Harlem International Film Festival in 2016.
Trombonist, composer, writer Chuck Royal, who is the co-founder of The BeBop Channel Corporation, the former parent owner of JazzTimes, continues to pursue his career in music.
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RON CARTER FEATURING BILL FRISELL
Ron Carter is among the most original, prolific and influential bassists in jazz with more than 2,000 albums to his credit. Beginning his career in the 1960s with Jaki Byard and Eric Dolphy, Cannonball Adderley, and a five year stint with the Miles Davis’ Quintet, Ron also performed and recorded with notables including Bill Evans, B.B. King, and Dexter Gordon. Ron Carter’s various ensembles, big band to trio, feature a who’s who of the finest players on the NYC scene with, “an absolute commitment to musical sublimity [that] exudes refined elegance and sonic power.” (amazon.com)
Bill Frisell’s career as a guitarist and composer has spanned more than 40 years and many celebrated recordings, whose catalog has been cited by Downbeat as “the best recorded output of the decade.”
Tickets: $45.76 ~ $61.21
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Mark Jay Levine was born on October 4, 1938 in Concord, New Hampshire and began playing the piano at the age of five, trombone in his early teens. Attending Boston University, graduating with a degree in music in 1960, he also studied privately with Jaki Byard, Hall Overton and Herb Pomeroy.
Moving to New York City in the Sixties he freelanced and then played with musicians Houston Person, Mongo Santamaría, and Willie Bobo from 1971 to 1974. Levine then moved to San Francisco, California and played with Woody Shaw for two years. His debut album was made as a leader for Catalyst Records in 1976.
He went on to play with the Blue Mitchell/Harold Land Quintet, Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, Bobby Hutcherson, Luis Gasca, and Cal Tjader. From 1980 to 1983, he concentrated on valve trombone, but then returned to playing mainly the piano. He then led his own bands, and recorded for Concord as a leader in 1983 and 1985. From 1992 Mark was part of Henderson’s big band. He created a new trio in 1996 and recorded it for his own, eponymous label. His Latin jazz group, Que Calor, was formed in 1997.
He put on his educator hat in 1970, teaching in addition to private lessons at Diablo Valley College, Mills College, Antioch University in San Francisco, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Sonoma State University, and the JazzSchool in Berkeley. Levine wrote two method books: The Jazz Piano Book, and The Jazz Theory Book.
Pianist, trombonist, composer, author and educator Mark Levine, whose album Isla was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album, died of pneumonia on January 27, 2022 at the age of 83.
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