BARD SUMMERSCAPE ADDS JAZZ TO ITS MENU OF FESTIVAL OFFERINGS, WITH TWO OF NEW YORK’S FINEST JAZZ ENSMBLES PERFORMING AUGUST 26 AND 27

SEASON’S FINAL WEEKEND FEATURES VINCE GIORDANO'S NIGHTHAWKS AND JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER’S AFRO-LATIN JAZZ ORCHESTRA, LED BY ARTURO O’FARRILL Annandale-on-Hudson NY – The third annual Bard SummerScape festival introduces jazz to the mix this year. Programmed by artistic advisor Wynton Marsalis, Bard's Jazz weekend presents Vince Giordano's Nighthawks and Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra giving one concert each in Bard's Sosnoff Theater on August 26 and 27 respectively. Vince Giordano's Nighthawks is an eleven-piece orchestra that has become one of New York's most sought-after jazz bands. Giordano – on aluminum bass, tuba, and bass saxophone – leads the Nighthawks as they recreate the full sound and good-time ambiance of red-hot, swing-era big bands. As a kid, Giordano found a treasure of 78 rpm records in his grandmother's attic – from grand opera to Joe "King" Oliver – and soon learned to play tuba, string bass, and bass saxophone. By the age of 15 he was a working musician. His band's rousing, buoyant, eminently danceable music was been featured in the Academy Award-winning film "The Aviator" and on NPR's "Prairie Home Companion," as well as at black-tie galas at the Waldorf Astoria, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and New York City Ballet, and in gigs at the Rainbow Room, Times Square Grill, Carlyle Hotel, and Copacabana. Vince and his band are renowned on the New York scene for their commitment to preserving and authentically presenting 1920s jazz. Almost every piece the Nighthawks perform is inspired by, and arranged from, original golden-era jazz recordings by all the greats of the past. Arturo O'Farrill, son of the legendary Cuban composer/bandleader Chico O'Farrill and musical director of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, listened to jazz from earliest babyhood. As a youngster he played in an award-winning jazz band at New York's High School of Music and Art with future luminaries Marcus Miller and Omar Hakim, and continued his studies at the Manhattan School of Music and the Brooklyn College Conservatory before joining Carla Bley's band at age 19. Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, led by pianist Arturo O'Farrill, was created at the urging of Wynton Marsalis. Sporting 18 sizzling soloists from the Latin jazz scene, the ensemble plays the classics of the Afro-Latin jazz tradition and commissions the classics of tomorrow. Its regular home turf is the stunning Rose Theater at the Time-Warner Center on New York City's Columbus Circle, but the group also tours extensively. Last season the band played in locales from Shanghai to the Bronx, with Fort Worth, San Antonio, Atlanta and L.A. in between. Said Jazz Times of one of the orchestra's recent concerts, "There's nothing you can do with such an exhilarating performance except submit, with pleasure." Vince Giordano's Nighthawks Friday, August 26, 8:00 pm Sosnoff Theater Tickets: $55, $40, $25 Lincoln Center Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra Saturday, August 27, 8:00 pm Sosnoff Theater Tickets: $55, $40, $25 For more information about Bard SummerScape or the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, contact: (845) 758-7950 or visit the following websites: http://fishercenter.bard.edu http://summerscape.bard.edu # # #

This event was last updated on 08-29-2005

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