 |
|
Saturday, July 24, 2pm Sponsored by Eisbach Facial Plastic Surgery, PC
NEA Jazz Master, Toshiko Akiyoshi is a Japanese American jazz pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader who, over the course of a six-decade career, has made a unique and vital contribution to the art of big band jazz. A major figure in jazz composition, she has received 14 Grammy nominations and holds the honor of being the first woman to win the Best Arranger and Composer awards in Down Beat magazine’s Readers Poll. Her music is distinctive for its textures and Japanese influence merged with a strong jazz base. In 1984, she was the subject of a documentary film entitled Jazz Is My Native Language and was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2007. Akiyoshi formed her first big band in the early 1970s in Los Angeles with her husband, saxophonist/flutist Lew Tabackin. They later relocated to New York City and reformed the band, the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra. They later relocated to New York City and reformed the band, the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra. In tonight’s jazz festival performance, Ms. Akiyoshi will perform with her quartet featuring Lew Tabackin, saxophone and flutes; Boris Koslov, bass; and Mark Taylor, and will also direct the Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra performing her music. The AJO is led by Bobby Shew, who was lead trumpeter in the Akiyoshi-Tabackin Big Band in Los Angeles in the 1970’s.
This event is supported by NEA Jazz Masters Live, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. FREE
|
