Phoenix Rising: 100 years of jazz
PHOENIX RISING 100 YEARS OF JAZZ is the latest music project from internationally acclaimed jazz bassist Alan Lewine featuring world-renowned jazz musicians like HOWARD ALDEN, DENNIS ROWLAND and LOUISE BARANGER, in a 7 piece band alongside some of Arizona’s top players. This concert will illustrate how each generation of players had to subvert the dominant paradigm and reinvent music! Over 2 sets, hear the groundbreaking jazz hits of the last hundred years. Music from trad (Dixieland), the Swing Era, Django Reinhardt’s gypsy jazz, Bebop, Brubeck, Ornette, Trane and beyond.
Proceeds of this concert will benefit Ability360, Arizona's largest center for independent living, which empowers people with disabilities to live independent lifestyles within the community. Phoenix Rising likewise promotes the capabilities of people who might be perceived as having disabilities. Alan lost a leg at only 21 and has walked on crutches for over 45 years. And he has been a gigging musician for nearly as long, performing across the US and in Europe with 18 albums as a leader, sideman and producer and founder of Owlsong Productions. Alan is well aware of the perceptions sometimes held of people who have or appear to have disabilities. But he never let that stop him. Alan says, “I let my bass do the walking.”
Get to know the artists:
Singer DENNIS ROWLAND of Detroit is still best-known for his association with the Count Basie Orchestra, followed by a busy solo career. He remembers hearing Joe Williams sing "Every Day" with Count Basie on record regularly when he was five or six and it made a strong impression. Rowland worked as both an actor and a singer locally for a few years in the mid-'70s. The young singer was in Williams' spot during the last seven years (1977-84) of Basie's life, touring the world with the classic orchestra. After that period ended, Rowland worked as an actor on stage, settled in Phoenix, Arizona and began recording as a leader for Concord in 1995. Branching beyond the swing/blues/ standards repertoire more recently, Rowland's second Concord album (Get Here) had some R&B-ish numbers and selections open to the influences of pop and funk. His main strength, however, rests with his swinging style and appealing voice which is best displayed on his third Concord disc, Now Dig This, a tribute to Miles Davis. Silenced for a few years by a stroke, Dennis is singing again with soul and suave power he has always brought to his shows.
Seven-string guitar master HOWARD ALDEN comes from California, inspired by Armstrong, Basie and Goodman, and guitarists Barney Kessel, Django Reinhardt and George Van Eps. In 1979 Alden moved east with vibraphone legend Red Norvo. In New York Alden’s skills were quickly sought out by a glittering array of jazz stars, including Joe Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, as well as pop/rock icons Steve Miller and Jay Geils. He’s been a regular part of George Wein’s Newport Jazz Festival All-Stars since 1991. Howard’s playing for Woody Allen’s movie “Sweet and Lowdown” sparked a world-wide Gypsy Jazz revival. He’s also been sought out to perform and record with classical/jazz violin virtuoso Nigel Kennedy. And genre-defying guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke has this to say about Guitar, Howard’s recent solo recording on K2B2 records; “It's the best recording of the seven-string guitar I've ever heard!” In 2009 DOWNBEAT magazine named Howard “a Modern Maestro”, one of the 75 Greatest Guitarists of all time.
Born in Hollywood, CA, LOUISE BARANGER eventually relocated to New York City with her trumpet and flugelhorn and has toured the world with a wide range of stars, including the big bands of Harry James, Nelson Riddle, Jack Wilson and Ray Anthony as well as with Bobby Womack, BJ Thomas, The Temptations, The four Tops, Dionne Warwick, Steve Allen, Buddy Greco, Carol Lawrence, George Burns, Clark Terry, Joan Rivers, Milton Berle, Candice Bergen, Sammy Davis, Jr., the Fifth Dimension, and a host of others. Her many television credits include appearances on Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, A PBS tribute to Harry James, Dallas, Falcon Crest, The Flash, Fox Studios TV Logo, Barry Manilow’s Big Fun On Swing Street (with Gerry Mulligan, Carmen McRae and Stanley Clarke), The Bobby Vinton Show and a host of jingles. Film credits include Blake Edwards’ Mickey and Maude, Mark Rydell’s For The Boys, and Dennis Dugan’s Brain Donors. She has performed in the orchestra pit of a number of Broadway shows and appeared numerous times at Carnegie Hall. As a leader she played the 1999 Emmy Awards, the Millennium New Year’s Eve Celebration at Boston’s Symphony Hall, and jazz concerts featuring trombone great Carl Fontana. Louise has extensive teaching experience and has given master classes in Japan, Argentina, Peru, Germany, and across the U.S.
Drummer DOWELL DAVIS – “D” to his fellow players, has graced national and international stages with his drumming since 1983. Having professionally played a variety of musical styles from Zydeco to Jazz, Funk to Blues, and Rock to R & B, “D” has an innate understanding of grooving. He is a clinician at the Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences in Tempe and Gilbert, AZ, and also lays drum tracks for the Line 6 Amp Company. He has toured with George Benson, Jimmy Smith, Buckwheat Zydeco, Mark Whitfield, Terrance Simien, and Wayne Toups. He has also performed with Francine Reed, Poppa John DeFrancesco, Joey DeFrancesco, Nick Manson, Jack McDuff, Stevie Wonder, Marion Meadows, Joanie Sledge (of Sister Sledge), Wessell Andersen, Wynton Marsalis, Jermaine Stewart, David Torkanowski, Carl Lewis, Skip Scarbourough,Lonnie Youngblood, Khani Cole, George Young, Artie Shroek, Patti Austin, David Garfield, Michael O’Neill, and Randy Waldman. Dowell has also worked with some heavy bassists: Reginald Veal, Jimmy Woody, George Porter, Mel Brown, John Clayton, Stanley Banks, Bobby Vega, Ed Frieland, and Chuck Rainey.
ANDREW “ANDY” GROSS is a jazz saxophonist and educator who has earned a BFA in Jazz and Contemporary Music and a Masters in Music Performance. He has studied with well-known jazz musicians, including Chris Potter, Rufus Reid, Rich Perry, Tony Malaby, Dewey Redman and Reggie Workman. Andrew performs regularly with the Phoenix Symphony and works freelance with many local jazz and contemporary music groups and ensembles. He has played on numerous recordings including three of his own. Andrew has been a featured soloist on GCU Faculty Recitals, the GCU Thunder Big Band and Mesa Community College Big Band.
Hope Morgan was raised within the rich jazz culture of New York City and moved to Austin Texas in the late 1970s.
Over the last forty years Hope has performed primarily throughout Texas and Mexico. Hope had the opportunity to learn from jazz greats such as Archie Shepp, Stanley Cowell, Marlon Brown, Ken McIntyre, Max Roach Gene Ramey and of course the late, great Betty Carter.
Her ability to swing with her original vocal stylings with a solid sense of jazz’s vocal tradition clearly highlight a unique vocal presence on the jazz scene.
Trombonist MARK WITT studied at the University of North Texas then joined the Army in 1980. He was a soloist with the 76th Army Band until 1984, then secured a position as the second trombone player for the Stockton Symphony in 1985. After moving to Chicago in 1987, Mark played with many notable latin and jazz musicians, then on cruise ships for several years until he moved to the Phoenix area in the early ‘90s. He was a founding member of the Swingtips, a local group that recorded and toured extensively. He graduated from ASU in 1998 with a degree in music education. He currently works days as the band director for Granada East School in West Phoenix. Besides teaching, he keeps a busy schedule as musician playing a wide variety of music with many different bands and artists from stage to church and theater work. He has played with Ray Charles, Shirly Jones, Sherry Lewis, Mary Jones, Dick Clark, Jay Leno, Wayne Newton, Bill Watrous, Monte Procopio, CC Ryder Express, Power Drive, City Lights, and many others and currently with Carmela Ramirez y Más and the Superstition Jazz Orchestra. He also writes and arranges, some of which can be heard on Ghost Note Recording and Fervor Records.
ALAN LEWINE has played upright bass professionally since 1978 and has performed and recorded all over the U.S., and in Europe, Israel, Cuba and Mexico. He also studied and played traditional west African percussion with Obo Addy, Balinese gamelan with I Nyoman Suadin, Cuban music with Alfredo Averhoff, afro-pop with Armand Ntep and Spanish flamenco with Julián Vaquero and Victor Monge. A review from the Jazz Society of Oregon called Alan “a composer and a scholar in jazz's many-splendored forms” and Jazz Scene wrote “Lewine possesses a dark sound, powerful and forboding.” His early mentor was Milt “Judge” Hinton and later Charlie Haden, Leroy Vinnegar, Ray Brown, John Clayton, Lynn Seaton and Bruce Gertz. He has appeared as leader, sideman or producer on 18 records since 1986 (his first album of originals with a seven piece “little big band” was reviewed in Cadence as “intelligent and well-paced”), and most recently the recombinant world fusion record Sephardic Treasures in collaboration with Ana María Ruimonte and seven other musicians in three countries and Africana Soy recorded in Havana and Philadelphia featuring Ana María Ruimonte and Huberal Herrera on songs of slavery and liberation by Ernesto Lecuona. As a sideman, Alan has performed with Richie Cole, Joe Henderson, Clifford Jordan, Henry Threadgill, Vinnie Golia, Anita O'Day, Sheila Jordan, Andrew Hill, Mose Allison, Roy Hargrove, Sweets Edison, Mickey Roker, Stephane Grappelli and many others. 3 © 2023, Owlsong Productions Inc.
Sponsorship options to benefit ABILITY360:
DONOR CIRCLE - $75
• Program listing—Sponsor name in 1 line text
JAZZ SPONSOR - $150
• 2 Reserved seats
• Program recognition—Sponsor name in 1 line text
UPWARD BOUND SPONSOR - $500
• 4 Reserved Seats
• Program recognition—Sponsor name/small logo and 1 line text
• Sponsor small logo (camera ready) on promotional posters and fliers.
PHOENIX RISING SPONSOR - $1000
• 6 Reserved Seats
• Program recognition—Quarter page display (camera ready from sponsor)
• Sponsor medium logo (camera ready) on promotional posters and fliers.
• Sponsor company logo on website and electronic promo with link.
• Sponsor thanked in live announcement from stage.
PHOENIX FLYING SPONSOR - $2500
• 6 Reserved Seats near front and center
• Program recognition—Half page display (camera ready from sponsor)
• Sponsor large logo (camera ready) on promotional posters and fliers.
• Sponsor company logo on website and electronic promo with link.
• $50 gift certificate for use at merch table (CDs, Tshirts, Berets, Caps etc.) or Owlsong online store.
• Sponsor thanked in live announcement from stage.
FREEDOM SPONSOR (only 2 available) - $5000
• 10 Reserved Seats near front and center
• Program recognition—Full page display (camera ready from sponsor)
• Sponsor major logo (camera ready) on promotional posters and fliers.
• Sponsor company logo on website and electronic promo with link.
• $100 gift certificate for use at merch table (CDs, Tshirts, Berets, Caps etc.) or Owlsong online store.
• Sponsor thanked and acknowledged twice in live announcements from stage.
• Sponsor name included in press release.
• Sponsor logo on sleeve of official TShirt (camera ready)
Contact:
Alan Lewine: 202.251.3622
PhoenixRising@owlsong.com
