October 18, 2006 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
Lara Hoyt, Coordinator for Public Relations and Alumni Affairs
Eddie Palmieri with Rutgers Jazz New Brunswick, NJ – Legendary Latin jazz artist Eddie Palmieri will play with elite Rutgers jazz students at Nicholas Music Center on Tuesday, November 28 at 8 p.m. Along with Palmieri, the performance will feature top student jazz groups at Mason Gross School of the Arts: the Rutgers Jazz Ensemble, directed by Ralph Bowen, and the Scarlet Knights Jazz Trombones, directed by Conrad Herwig. The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Latino Arts and Culture at Rutgers and the New Jersey Jazz Society. The New Jersey Jazz Society will present Palmieri with its Lifetime Achievement Award to celebrate his outstanding achievements in and contributions to the field of Latin jazz. Palmieri is one of the foremost Latin jazz pianists of the last half century. His career spans more than 50 years as a composer and bandleader of salsa and Latin jazz orchestras. This year, he was awarded his eighth Grammy Award for his most recent release, Listen Here!, in the category of Best Latin Jazz Album. Palmieri has received multiple honors in recognition of his distinguished career. In 1988, the Smithsonian Institution recorded two of his performances for their catalog of the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., a rare public honor. In 1991, Billy Taylor awarded him the Eubie Blake Award. He is among the few Latin musicians recognized by the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico and the New York State Assembly. The 1998 Heineken Jazz Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico, paid tribute to his contributions as a bandleader with an honorary doctorate degree from the Berklee College of Music. In 2002, Yale University awarded him the Chubb Fellowship—a distinction usually reserved for international heads of state—in recognition of his work in building communities through music. Born in Spanish Harlem in 1936, Palmieri began piano studies at an early age, as did his celebrated older brother, the late salsa legend and pianist Charlie Palmieri. At age 11, he made his classical debut at Carnegie Hall. He began his professional career as a pianist in the early 1950s with Eddie Forrester's Orchestra. In 1955 he joined Johnny Segui's band. He spent a year with the Tito Rodriguez Orchestra before forming his own band, the legendary Conjunto La Perfecta, in 1961. La Perfecta featured a trombone section (led by the late Barry Rogers) in place of trumpets, which was highly unconventional for Latin music. It was known as "the band with the crazy roaring elephants" for its unique orchestration of two trombones, flute, percussion, bass and vocalist. With an infectious and soaring sound, Palmieri's band soon joined the ranks of Machito, Tito Rodriguez, and the other major Latin orchestras of the day. Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for students with ID. Nicholas Music Center is in the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center, 85 George Street (between Route 18 and Ryders Lane), on the Douglass campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
For more information on any Mason Gross event, visit www.masongross.rutgers.edu or call the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center ticket office at 732-932-7511.
About the Rutgers Jazz Ensemble The Rutgers Jazz Ensemble, directed by Ralph Bowen, is the top student jazz ensemble at Mason Gross School of the Arts. The Ensemble has performed at the Blue Note, Town Hall, and Symphony Space, and in Japan by invitation of the Governor of the Fukui Prefecture. The group boasts a notable alumni list including Terrence Blanchard, Ralph Peterson, Steve Nelson, Harry Pickens, Michael Mossman, Jerry Weldon, Harry Allen, Jeff Rupert, Yoron Israel, Ken Filiano, Derrick Gardner, Sean Jones, Terrell Stafford, Lee Hogans, Brad Leali, Jim Brenan, Adam Cruz, Frank Lacy, Rob Bargad, John Chin, Misha Piatigorsky, Noah Bearman, Earl McDonald, Orrin Evans, Roger Lent, Riley Mullins, Kenneth Davis, and Dave Shumacher.
About the Scarlet Knights Jazz Trombones The Scarlet Knights Jazz Trombones is one of the elite groups in the Rutgers Chamber Jazz Ensemble program and was founded in 2005 by its director, Conrad Herwig. The group comprises five trombonists and a jazz rhythm section. It earned the first runner-up position in the 2006 International Trombone Association and Eastern Trombone Workshop jazz competitions, second only to Juilliard. Members of the group have garnered individual honors in the Thelonius Monk Competition, International Trombone Association, and Eastern Trombone Workshops. The Scarlet Knights Jazz Trombones performs the music of John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, Dizzy Gillespie, Eddie Palmieri and many other jazz and Afro-Caribbean greats, as well as recreating and orchestrating some of the most classic jazz trombone repertoire. About the Center for Latino Arts and Culture (CLAC) The Center for Latino Arts and Culture's mission is to research, document, interpret and promote Latino/a, Hispanic, Caribbean, and Latin American arts and culture. Through its programming and publications, CLAC seeks to advance the appreciation and understanding of Latino/a artistic production, scholarship, and cultural traditions. CLAC presents arts and humanities programs university wide for faculty, students, staff and the broader community beyond the university. Programs are designd to advance academic excellence, support Latino/a artists, further documentation of Latino/a scholarship and foster cross-cultural affiliations. CLAC accomplishes this through research publications and presentation of artists' productions and humanities scholarship. About the New Jersey Jazz Society (NJJS) The New Jersey Jazz Society is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to the performance, promotion and preservation of jazz in the state of New Jersey. Founded in 1973, it produces a weekend jazz festival each June, as well as other concerts and events, and publishes a monthly journal, Jersey Jazz. In addition, it provides funding for the Pee Wee Russell Scholarship, which is awarded annually to an outstanding student of jazz at Rutgers. About Mason Gross School of the Arts Founded in 1976, Mason Gross School of the Arts is the arts conservatory of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and is home to the departments of dance, music, theater arts, and visual arts. Its faculty and alumni rosters include arts professionals recognized nationally and internationally. The school's enrollment of 625 undergraduates across four departments and 250 graduate students across three departments, combined with a faculty of 140, assures students the opportunity to work closely with accomplished artists within their fields.
About Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey A comprehensive research institution with more than 50,000 students on three main campuses in New Brunswick, Newark and Camden, Rutgers comprises one of the major state university systems in the nation. Chartered in 1766 in New Brunswick as Queen's College, Rutgers is the eighth oldest institution of higher learning in the nation and now comprises 29 degree- granting divisions, including 16 offering graduate programs of study.
|