Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Eric Marienthal was born on December 19, 1957 in Sacramento, California but moved with his family to San Mateo, California when he was two years old. He was taught music while in school and picked up the saxophone in the fourth grade. His father bought him a $400 Selmer saxophone and enrolled him in Corona Del Mar High School. Throughout his education, he learned to play guitar, flute, clarinet and piano.

After graduating from high school he studied saxophone at the Berklee College of Music. By the time he left Berklee, Eric had achieved the highest proficiency rating given by the school. He began his professional career in 1980 with New Orleans trumpeter Al Hirt. Heading west he settled in Los Angeles, California and became a member of the Chick Corea Elektric Band. He recorded six albums with that band and two of them won Grammy Awards.

Marienthal has also written instructional books, including Comprehensive Jazz Studies & Exercises, The Ultimate Jazz Play Along, and The Music of Eric Marienthal. He has made instructional videos, Play Sax From Day One, Modern Sax and Tricks of the Trade. He occupies the lead alto chair of Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, playing alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, and piccolo.

Grammy Award-nominated alto saxophonist Eric Marienthal continues to perform and record.

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NÉSTOR TORRES

Néstor Torres, a Latin Grammy Award-winning flautist and Grammy nominee, returns to the Arsht Center for a very special Live on the Plaza. The show will feature music from Torres’ five Grammy-nominated albums as well as his latest release and first big-band recording, Dominican Suite, a groundbreaking collaboration with renowned producer and arranger Corey Allen. This will be an exciting, dynamic, soulful and romantic evening of Latin rhythms, rich harmonies and seductive melodies as only Torres can deliver.

Live on the Plaza is a series of outdoor concerts on our Parker and Vann Thomson Plaza for the Arts.

Please note: Tables can be purchased for 1, 2, 3 or 4 guests. Ticket prices are per person. Locations are assigned in the order of purchase in parties of up to four guests based on reservation type.

Doors open at 6 p.m. with light bites and beverage service.
Happy hour pricing available until 7 p.m.
Performance starts at 7:30 p.m.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Pekka Juhani Pöyry was born on December 10, 1939 in Helsinki, Finland and became interested in jazz music at school and began studying the violin and clarinet. However, he was more taken with playing the alto saxophone, having been inspired by Charlie Parker. In addition, he played the flute and soprano saxophone.

After graduating with a Master of Laws in 1966, Pöyry decided to become a professional musician. In the same year he represented YLE, Finland’s national public broadcasting company at EBU’s concert in London, England. By the mid-1960s, he had his own quartet with pianist Eero Ojanen, bassist Teppo Hauta-aho and drummer Reino Laine. Joining the group was Norwegian-Finnish singer Pia Skaar to form a quintet, going on to perform at festivals and gain recognition from the likes of Bill Evans.

Increasingly interested in progressive rock and jazz fusion in the late 1960s and 1970s, with his later groups he attempted an international breakthrough, including the Reading Festival in England in 1973. However, his band Tasavallan Presidentti, broke up in 1974.

By 1975, Pekka was touring northern Europe with the North Jazz Quintet, later joining the orchestra of Heikki Sarmanto, later the UMO Jazz Orchestra, playing in what was then Yugoslavia, as well as,  Poland, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States with other bands.

Saxophonist and flutist Pekka Pöyry, was part of the Pekka Pöyry Quartet and Quintet, being a manic depressive committed suicide and transitioned in Helsinki on August 4, 1980. The Pekka Pöyry Award is named in his honor and given to young, talented saxophonists in Finland since the early-1980s.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jesper Thilo was born on November 28, 1941 in Copenhagen, Denmark to a pianist-actress mother and architect father. He started to play clarinet at age 11 and from 1955 to 1960 he played clarinet and trombone in various amateur Dixieland jazz bands with the occasional paid jobs as a musician. Early he knew that he wanted to become a professional jazz musician but to get an education he chose to study classical clarinet at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.

While at the Academy, Thilo joined Arnved Meyer’s orchestra from 1960 to 1964 and again from 1967 to 1974 and it was Meyer who convinced him to shift to saxophone. He would go on to play with Ben Webster, Benny Carter, Harry Edison, Roy Eldridge and Coleman Hawkins. During this part of his career his virile swing style was chiefly inspired by Webster and Hawkins and his own quintet which he put together in 1965 and co-lead with Torolf Mølgaard and Bjarne Rostvold.

From 1966 to 1989, he was a member of the DR Big Band under bandleaders Palle Mikkelborg and Thad Jones. He mainly played alto saxophone but occasionally also tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone, concert flute, clarinet or bass clarinet. Through the Eighties, Jesper played in Ernie Wilkins’ Almost Big Band. Other collaborators have included Wild Bill Davison and Niels Jørgen Steen.

By 1989, leaving the DR Big Band and Ernie Wilkins’s orchestra he led his own bands with Søren Kristiansen, Olivier Antunes, Hugo Rasmussen og Svend-Erik Nørregaard. He first recorded as a leader for Storyville Records in 1973 and in the 1980s on Storyville his sidemen at various times included Kenny Drew, Clark Terry and Harry “Sweets” Edison, and appeared on the Miles Davis album Aura.

Considered to be one of the top European straight-ahead jazz musicians of the post-1970 period, tenor saxophonist, alto saxophonist, clarinetist and flutist Jesper Thilo continues to perform and record.

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NESTOR TORRES

n evening with world-class jazz flautist and Latin Grammy winner Nestor Torres and his ensemble, performing Latin jazz, pop and other genres. Nestor Torres is a Puerto Rican flautist. He studied at Berklee College of Music, Mannes School of Music in NYC and later at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. His career includes collaborations with Herbie Hancock, Tito Puente and Gloria Estefan, to mention a few. He has released 18 CDs and has earned 4 Latin Grammy nominations, 1 Latin Grammy Award, and a Grammy nomination. His playing incorporates Latin jazz, pop, straight-ahead jazz and classical styles. One of his most notable albums, Dances, Prayers & Meditations for Peace, is based on his improvised performances in various houses of worship near Ground Zero in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was commissioned to compose the album’s title track, which he performed for the Dalai Lama during the spiritual leader’s visit to Miami.

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