Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Media Contact:
Diana Roth, Senior Communications Manager
roth@trustarts.org | 412-471-8717
BNY Mellon Presents JazzLive April Images
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Announces
BNY Mellon Presents JazzLive
Celebrates Jazz Appreciation Month this April!
Featuring Free Live Jazz and Series’ Premier of Multi-Media Events,
Special Performance by Grammy Nominated Jazz Artist, and
2022 JazzLive Legacy Award Presentation
Pittsburgh, PA−The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announces the BNY Mellon Presents JazzLive will showcase local, regional, and national jazz musicians each Tuesday this April at the Greer Cabaret Theater in Pittsburgh’s Cultural District. Thomas Wendt and Hugo Cruz will premier their special Jazz Appreciation Month multi-media events for the series featuring live performance, video, recorded music, and a presentation about the history of jazz. JazzLive concludes the celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month on Tuesday, April 26 with a free jazz performance by the Dr. Alton Merrell Quartet, followed by a ticketed event that includes a presentation of the 2022 JazzLive Legacy Award and performance by Christian Sands Quartet featuring Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Christian Sands.
“We are excited to celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month and pleased to present these very special live music and educational performances,” shares Terri Bell, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. “These outstanding musicians will provide great entertainment and you’ll also gain a deeper understanding of this very important American art form.”
BNY Mellon Presents JazzLive – April 2022
Greer Cabaret Theater, Theater Square
655 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
April 5, 2022
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
52nd Street: America’s Cultural Crossroads – Presented by Thomas Wendt
A multi-media event featuring live performance by the Thomas Wendt Quintet, historical video, recorded music, and a presentation.
About the presentation:
During the 1940s, New York City's W 52nd Street was much more than where the new music of the day, BeBop, flourished. It was also one of the very first places that interracial jazz groups played, and interracial audiences listened to them. From Art Tatum and Stuff Smith to Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, America's music and culture were changing in the 1940s, and 52nd Street was the crossroads. This program will be a journey through the groundbreaking music and history that made this era so special.
Thomas Wendt has been playing the drums professionally since the age of 14. A graduate of The Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, he has studied with master drummers Roger Humphries, Joe Harris, and Kenny Washington. Thomas maintains a busy freelancing schedule with Pittsburgh’s top jazz artists such as Dwayne Dolphin, Joe Negri, Sean Jones, David Budway, Kenia, the Latin jazz group, Salsamba, and the newly re-formed Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra. He has also played with many visiting international artists like David “Fathead” Newman, Donald Byrd, James Moody, Jimmy Heath, Clark Terry, Benny Golson, Phil Woods, Freddy Cole, Monty Alexander, Bill Watrous, Paquito D’Rivera, Curtis Lundy, Wycliffe Gordon, Ann Hampton Calloway and Javon Jackson. In 2008, Thomas played on the Emmy Award winning soundtrack for the PBS documentary, “Fly Boys” and in 2010 he recorded an album featuring trombonists Jay Ashby and Steve Davis, entitled Mistaken Identity. Thomas has also recorded albums with Gene Ludwig, Sandy Staley, Salsamba, David and Maureen Budway, and Joe Negri. Recently, he has been working with Jazz legend Hubert Laws and has appeared with him at the Litchfield Jazz Festival and the Miami Jazz Festival. In 2013, Thomas performed with pianist Alan Broadbent for the Nyack NY Library Concert Series. In addition to teaching at City Music Center, Thomas has been on the faculty at the Afro-American Music Institute in Homewood since 1998 and Duquesne University since 2016.
April 12, 2022
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
The History of Cuban Jazz – Presented by Hugo Cruz
A multi-media event featuring live performance by Hugo Cruz and Caminos, historical video, recorded music, and a presentation.
About the presentation:
Cuban jazz history is an enormous universe of sounds, rhythms, and ways of living, and since its birth, has shared a significant connection with American jazz. In 1930, Mario Bauza, a brilliant Cuban composer, arranger, and saxophonist moved to New York and pioneered the partnership between Cuban and American jazz music after falling in love with the Big Band swing. After becoming the art director of Machito y sus Afro Cubans, his career was dedicated to bringing together notable American and Cuban jazz artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Cab Calloway, Chano Pozo, among many others. Eventually, the American jazz style found its way into the melodies and rhythms of Cuban music on the island, in the sounds of bands such as Orchestra Cubana de Musica Moderna, creating a fusion that to this day continues to flourish and evolve. “Out of all the music of this hemisphere that has come into jazz, Cuban music has maybe had the biggest impact on our music.” —Dizzy Gillespie, Buscando a Chano Pozo This presentation on Cuban jazz will highlight the important milestones of the development of Cuban jazz from 1930 to the present.
Hugo Alexander Cruz Machado is a Cuban-born, award winning, internationally renowned drummer and composer who has performed in South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Mexico, Venezuela, and the United States. He is the leader of the group Caminos, who have made appearances at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival 2019, Fábrica de Artes in Havana, Cuba, Highmark First Night Pittsburgh 2020, Pittonkatonk Festival, City of Asylum, The Frick Museum, Musicalidades, Market Square, and Con Alma.
Caminos fuse rhythms and melodies of Afro-Cuban, Cuban, and American music, in an original contemporary expression that honors traditional Cuban form.
While a resident of Cuba, Hugo toured regularly with Síntesis, a leading Afrocuban rock-fusion group with traditional influences. He won the award as the “best drummer” at the Festival de Tambor at the Guillermo Barreto in Memoriam, Havana, Cuba. While performing with Síntesis, the group won a special award at Cubadisco, Cuba’s equivalent of the GRAMMYs. Hugo has performed in Havana’s largest jazz festival, Jazz Plaza, with acclaimed artists Dave Weckl and Victor Goines. He is a graduate of the Instituto de Superior de Artes, the leading arts university of Cuba.
Hugo has recorded with many of Cuba’s leading musicians, such as Sintesis, Aire de Concierto, Adrian Berazain, Interactivo, Zule Guerra, Mayco de Alma, among others. In Pittsburgh, he performs with several projects, including the Afro Yaqui Music Collective, and has been a guest teaching artist at the Afro American Music Institute and the University of Pittsburgh.
April 19, 2022
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Teddy, Charlie and the Integration of America’s Bandstand – Presented by Thomas Wendt
A multi-media event featuring live performance, video, recorded music, and a presentation.
About the presentation:
America's music, jazz, is a true "fusion" of different ethnic and cultural elements. In the mid-1930s, when Jazz was America's popular music, American society was still extremely segregated. But when clarinetist Benny Goodman hired pianist Teddy Wilson in the spring of 1936, and then hired vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and guitarist Charlie Christian shortly thereafter, America's music would never sound or look the same. The program will musically trace the integration and innovation that took place on America's bandstand in the mid to late 1930s.
April 26, 2022
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
JazzLive performance
Dr. Alton Merrell Quartet
Dr. Alton Merrell is a world class pianist, composer, and educator based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His musical artistry is a unique blend of lyrical melodies, rich harmonies, and fluid technique that spans multiple music genres including jazz, gospel, classical, pop, and rhythm and blues. His music is known to take listeners on spirit-filled excursions that deeply touch the soul.
Currently, Dr. Merrell leads his own instrumental jazz group, "The Alton Merrell Quartet," as well as his own gospel jazz vocal group “Dr. Alton Merrell & Impact.” In both groups, Dr. Merrell incorporates diverse musical styles in the repertoire to minister love to people worldwide.
He is a current member of the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra and has also performed with, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, Cleveland State Jazz Heritage Orchestra, Pittsburgh Concert Chorale, YSU All-Star Alumni Jazz Ensemble, Warren Philharmonic Orchestra, and the OMEA Intercollegiate All-Star Jazz Ensemble.
April 26, 2022
8:00 p.m.
Special ticketed event:
2022 JazzLive Legacy Award Presentation
Performance by Christian Sands Quartet
Acclaimed jazz pianist Christian Sands is one of the most in-demand pianists working in jazz. For his stunning most recent Grammy-nominated album, Be Water (2021), Sands took inspiration from water’s tranquility and power and mused on the possibilities offered by echoing its fluidity and malleability. “…Christian Sands plays with a restrained touch and a rolling command across the entire keyboard.”—The New York Times states. The music of Be Water flows with the same mesmerizing tranquility and awesome power of its namesake.
Information
The BNY Mellon Presents JazzLive on Tuesdays this April take place at the Greer Cabaret Theater, Theater Square, 655 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh’s Cultural District, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. BNY Mellon Presents JazzLive events are free, unless otherwise noted for special ticketed events.
For more information visit TrustArts.org/JazzLive or call 412-456-6666.
For information about venue entry requirements, visit: www.TrustArts.org/Welcome.
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The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s BNY Mellon Presents JazzLive series has enabled the Trust to showcase hundreds of regional performers in the heart of the Cultural District since 2004. JazzLive is a year-round free live jazz series taking place at indoors at Theater Square Complex and outdoors at Agnes R. Katz Plaza. Open to the public, this popular Pittsburgh Cultural Trust music series showcases some of the region’s finest jazz musicians every Tuesday from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the heart of the Cultural District. Bob Studebaker has been the resident MC since the series’ inception. Bob is a native of Pittsburgh and began playing jazz on the radio in the late ‘70s. A few of Bob’s career highlights that have supported the music scene include multiple Golden Quill Awards from the Western Pennsylvania Press Club, lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, and host of JazzWorks a nationally distributed music service heard on stations across the nation.
Vimeo | #JazzLivePGH
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s JazzLive Legacy Award, established in 2018, is presented to a regional jazz artist who represents the community of professional musicians and singers who contribute to the jazz scene in Pittsburgh. The BNY Mellon Presents JazzLive series has enabled the Trust to showcase hundreds of these regional performers in the heart of the Cultural District since 2004. Through this award, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust recognizes the jazz artists whose legacy and contribution to jazz will never be forgotten. To learn more about past recipients of the JazzLive Legacy Award, visit: TrustArts.org/JazzLive
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has overseen one of Pittsburgh’s most historic transformations: turning a seedy red-light district into a magnet destination for arts lovers, residents, visitors, and business owners. Founded in 1984, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is the cultural and economic revitalization of a 14-block arts and entertainment/residential neighborhood called the Cultural District. The District is one of the country’s largest land masses “curated” by a single nonprofit arts organization. A major catalytic force in the city, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a unique model of how public-private partnerships can reinvent a city with authenticity, innovation, and creativity. Using the arts as an economic catalyst, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has holistically created a world-renowned Cultural District that is revitalizing the city, improving the regional economy, and enhancing Pittsburgh’s quality of life. Thanks to the support of foundations, corporations, government agencies and thousands of private citizens, the Trust stands as a national model of urban redevelopment through the arts.
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