Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edgardo “Dado” Moroni was born October 20, 1962 in Genoa, Italy and started playing piano at age four. A self-taught musician, by his mid-teens he was playing professionally around Italy and by age 17 had recorded his first album.
Throughout the 1980s Dado worked mostly in Europe and played a long stint as part of former Duke Ellington bassist Jimmy Woode’s trio at Widder Bar in Zurich, Switzerland. At 25, in 1987 he served as a juror at the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition.
He moved to the U.S. in 1991 and became part of the New York jazz scene. He appeared regularly as a leader and sideman at Blue Note, Birdland, and the Village Vanguard. During this period he recorded several CDs.
Moroni has played with Freddie Hubbard, Clark Terry, Zoot Sims, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Ray Brown, Ron Carter, Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, Hank Jones, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Alvin Queen.
Based in Italy, Dado continues to perform worldwide. In 2007 he won the Italian Jazz Awards as Best Jazz Act. 2009 had him named Best Italian Jazz Pianist in the Top Jazz referendum sponsored by Musica Jazz magazine. The following year he was appointed Professor of Jazz Piano at Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory of Music in Turin, Italy.
Pianist, composer and educator Dado Moroni continues to perform, record and teach.
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ARTURO O’FARRILL
Born in Mexico and raised in New York, Arturo O’Farrill is a prolific pianist, composer, and passionate promoter of Latin music and its cultural heritage. The son of Latin jazz musician, arranger and bandleader Chico O’Farrill, and pianist, composer, and director for the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra.
He is best known for his contributions to contemporary Latin jazz, more specifically Afro-Cuban jazz, having received Grammy Awards and nominations, though he has trained in other forms such as free jazz and experimented briefly with hip hop.
grew up in New York City. Arturo’s professional career began with the Carla Bley Band and continued as a solo performer with a wide spectrum of artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Belafonte.
In 2007, he founded the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the performance, education, and preservation of Afro Latin music.
Arturo has performed with orchestras and bands including his own Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and Arturo O’Farrill Sextet, as well as other Orchestras and intimate ensembles in the US, Europe, Russia, Australia, and South America.
Tickets: $40.00 General Admission | Dinner & Show $85.00
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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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The Jazz Voyager
With so much good music in the city the Jazz Voyager is remaining but this time to midtown on the West Side to 44th between 8th and 9th Avenues. There resides the second iteration of the historic venue Birdland. The original venue was located on 52nd Street off 7th Avenue that was named after Charlie Parker and hosted the greatest names in jazz.
From trio to big band, 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, the Miles Davis’ Quintet, Bill Evans, B.B. King, and Dexter Gordon.
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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The Jazz Voyager
There’s nothing like New York City anytime of year but autumn is one of the best. The Jazz Voyager is staying put this week in the Village at the Washington Square Hotel. Just a short walk from the hotel is the legendary Village Vanguard, home to their long-running orchestra which was started by Thad Wilson and Mel Lewis, the iconic basement location that has hosted decades of the greatest and up and coming jazz musicians and vocalists.
Ethan Iverson is holding down the piano bench for this week’s entertainment along with saxophonist Sam Newsome, trumpeter Johnathan Finlayson, Jacob Garchik on trombone, bassist Peter Washington and drummer. His residency lasts through Sunday, October 5th with two sets each night. As usual I’ll be at the second seating.
Cover: $40.00
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