Photo credit: Rebekah WilleyTwo of the region’s most exciting, accomplished vocal artists, Wanda Houston and Samirah Evans kick-off the Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend, teaming-up for an evening of classic jazz and blues duets. Their repertoire and styles run the gamut, from blues-flavored to straight-ahead jazz and popular tunes.
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Diego Figueiredo is an extraordinary, fast-rising star among the world’s greatest jazz guitarists. He provides a new, fresh approach to uniting technique and emotion in a fusion of Brazilian music and jazz. His superb technique, timing and imagination have made him one of the hottest international names on the scene today. His concerts have been a great success in more than 50 countries around the world.
Diego has released 23 CDS, 3 DVDs and a book, and he has received awards at the Montreux Jazz Festival as one of the greatest guitarists in the world. A brilliant musician who keeps the tradition of the true essence of Brazilian music, at the same time he can be modern and innovative, Diego teams-up frequently with tenor saxophonist and clarinetist extraordinaire Ken Peplowski to deliver a lively, updated look at the Bossa Nova sound. Read More →
Frank Vignola is one of the most extraordinary guitarists performing before the public today. His stunning virtuosity has made him the guitarist of choice for many of the world’s top musicians, including Donald Fagen, Wynton Marsalis, Tommy Emmanuel, the Boston Pops, and guitar legend Les Paul, who named Vignola to his “Five Most Admired Guitarists List” for the Wall Street Journal. Vignola’s jaw dropping technique explains why the New York Times deemed him “one of the brightest stars of the guitar”.
Pianist, composer, arranger and trumpeter Jeff Holmes is a nationally published and commissioned composer/arranger, and a multiple recipient of National Endowment For The Arts Jazz Composition Grants. He has written music for renowned jazz musicians including John Abercrombie, Max Roach, Sheila Jordan, Yusef Lateef, Rufus Reid, and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.
In addition to its impressive library of big-band standards and originals, the Jeff Holmes big band’s repertoire will include a tribute to Leonard Bernstein, whose 100th birthday is being celebrated this year by many musical organizations across the globe. Bernstein’s music touched all genres, from classical to pop, opera to jazz, and Hollywood.
The Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend celebrates Ella Fitzgerald’s centennial birthday with a concert of arrangements she performed with Count Basie, Duke Ellington and others. Leading the way is the Vermont Jazz Center Big Band, a 16-piece ensemble of area professionals, directed by Rob Freeberg. Acclaimed vocalist Wanda Houston will front the band for this tour-de-force of the great American songbook.
Dubbed “The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century…and perhaps the first jazz artist to become a household name. One of today’s outstanding interpreters of vocal jazz and blues, Wanda Houston has loved and sung along with Fitzgerald’s music since she was a young girl. Originally from Chicago, Wanda grew up singing gospel music in church and with her family’s theater group. She has led an active career as an actress performing on the grand stages of Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Broadway. Like Fitzgerald, she is a great singer as well as a superb storyteller; she colors the spaces between her songs with fascinating stories of her youth and the trials and tribulations of life on the road.
One of the longest-standing, best-known and highly-respected traditional jazz groups, The New Black Eagle Jazz Band returns to the Berkshires after a three-year hiatus. Celebrating their 45th anniversary in 2016, the band has dozens of recordings to its name, including a Grammy nomination. Of their prowess and creativity, the late N.Y. Time critic John S. Wilson wrote that the band is “So far ahead of other traditional bands…there is scarcely any basis for comparison.”
In 2009, the Black Eagles teamed-up with famed guitarist Duke Robillard for a recording called “Nothing But the Blues.” After many years, they are reunited exclusively for the Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend.