Continued from page 3 Jazz Vocal (France), two German Echo Awards, two Dutch Edison Awards, and has been nominated for a Grammy award fifteen times. He has had a 14-year run atop the DownBeat Critics and Readers polls and has won twelve Jazz Journalists Awards for “Male Vocalist of the Year.” Elling’s dynamism is enhanced exponentially by the fact that he consistently generates new vocal material by writing and recording signature and definitive lyrics to the compositions of foundational jazz composers like of John Coltrane, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, and Joe Zawinul. Additionally, Kurt Elling has co-created multi-disciplinary performances for Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater and The City of Chicago. Jazz At Lincoln Center saw the world premiere of The Big Blind, an entirely new jazz musical-in-progress Elling is co-writing with collaborator Phil Galdston (Save The Best For Last). National Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky declared that “In Kurt Elling’s art, the voice of jazz gives new spiritual presence to the ancient, sweet and powerful bond between poetry and music.” Elling has toured the world in a variety of contexts, including UNESCO-sponsored “International Jazz Day” performances in Havana, Cuba, St. Petersburg, Russia, Melbourne, Australia, and in Washington DC. He has twice performed at the White House, including a performance in collaboration with the late Marvin Hamlisch and the National Symphony Orchestra for President Obama’s first State Dinner. He has served as Artist-In-Residence at the Monterey and Singapore Jazz Festivals. As a music industry leader, Elling spent six years serving as a Trustee and two years as Vice Chairman of The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. His latest album, SuperBlue, was released in 2021 to critical acclaim.
KRIS JOHNSON
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etroit-based artist Kris Johnson is an award-winning trumpeter, composer, and educator. As the leader of The Kris Johnson Group, he has recorded several studio albums including Odd Expressions, Journey Through a Dream, and The
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Unpaved Road with Lulu Fall. Many of his projects in recent years have combined his music with technology and often address poignant themes, including his 2020 self-produced and entirely selfperformed audio-visual album SAFE, which features his abstract illustrations and animation and explores childhood memories. In 2021, Johnson compiled the music produced for a social media series, which examines the idea of breaking free from generational trauma, into an album, #looptherapy, vol. 1. Lighter in mood but no less impressive is his series of videos with the Kris Johnson Big Band, a project dreamed up in 2020, which uses clever video editing to create a an entirely virtual large ensemble, the players of which were gathered from Johnson’s diverse circle friends and professional contacts from around the globe. Johnson has a keen sensitivity to the nuances of film and a knack for storytelling through music, as is evident in his award-winning film scores for various web series, documentaries, short films, feature films, and two full-length musicals. Johnson journey as an educator began with his own education at Michigan State University, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Jazz Studies in 2005 and 2007, respectively. He has gone on to serve in the role of Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Utah from 2015-2019; a Project Director for Pontiac School District, leading a U.S. Department of Education Arts in Education — Model Development and Dissemination Grant; and as the Education and Digital Programming Manager for the Motown Museum. Additionally, he has served on the teaching faculty at The Ohio State University, Detroit Symphony Orchestra Civic Youth Ensembles, and as an Artistic Liaison for JazzEd Detroit through a partnership with ArtOps and the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation. Currently, Johnson is the Director of Michigan State University’s Community Music School — Detroit.
PARADISE 2021-2022 SEASON
ORCHESTRA HALL SERIE S
PARADISE JAZZ SERIES BIG BAND WITH SPECIAL GUEST KURT ELLING FEAT. TERENCE BLANCHARD | DIRECTED BY KRIS JOHNSON FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 2022 AT 8 PM AT ORCHESTRA HALL
PARADISE THEATRE
MADE POSSIBLE WITH SUPPORT FROM
rchestra Hall sat vacant from 1939 to O 1941, but under new ownership it entered a new era under a new name: the Paradise
Terence Blanchard, Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair
PARADISE JAZZ SERIES Friday, April 30, 2022 at 8 p.m. Orchestra Hall
PARADISE JAZZ SERIES BIG BAND Terence Blanchard, special guest Kurt Elling, special guest Kris Johnson, musical director Lulu Fall, vocals Caleb Curtis, alto saxophone Kasan Belgrave, alto saxophone Marcus Elliot, tenor saxophone Rafael Leafar, tenor saxophone Kaleigh Wilder, baritone saxophone Omar Lateef, trumpet Anthony Stanco, trumpet Allen Dennard, trumpet Solomon Parham, trumpet Trunino Lowe, trumpet Corey Wallace, trombone Vincent Chandler, trombone Kenneth Gill, trombone Khristian Foreman, trombone Jon Dixon, piano Sasha Kashperko, guitar Darell ‘Red’ Campbell, bass Nate Winn, drums Lauren Johnson, percussion
Program to include arrangements by Kris Johnson: Peter Kobia - Kamau Kenyatta Can’t Hide Love - Skip Scarborough The Blues Walk - Clifford Brown All My Love - Marcus Belgrave Strength In Numbers - Kris Johnson Wandering Wonder (featuring Terence Blanchard) - Terence Blanchard Yes or No (featuring Terence Blanchard) - Wayne Shorter Round Midnight (featuring Lulu Fall and Terence Blanchard) - Thelonious Monk No One Even Cares (featuring Lulu Fall) - Lulu Fall and Kris Johnson With special guest Kurt Elling performing: Steppin’ Out - Joe Jackson, arr. Michael Abene You Are Too Beautiful - Rodgers and Hart, arr. Michael Abene I Like the Sunrise - Duke Ellington, arr. Michael Abene Resolution (with Terence Blanchard) John Coltrane, arr. Bob Mintzer
MADE POSSIBLE WITH SUPPORT FROM
NO PHOTOGRAPHIC, VIDEO, OR AUDIO RECORDING EQUIPMENT ALLOWED ON PREMISES WITHOUT EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER, INC.
Theatre. The revamped venue became one of Detroit’s premier stages for jazz, blues, and R&B performers throughout the 1940s. The theater got its name from Paradise Valley, the area just across Woodward Avenue that was home to a large percentage of Detroit’s African American community and the city’s principal Black entertainment district. The Paradise was as important to Detroit as the Apollo Theater is to Harlem. Opened with a concert by Louis Armstrong on December 26, 1941, the Paradise Theatre hosted superstars like Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, and many more. Its decade-long run ended in 1951, when it closed as the big band era waned. Commemorating 80 years since Orchestra Hall reopened as the Paradise Theatre in 1941, witness the debut of the Paradise Jazz Series Big Band. Directed by Kris Johnson (Grammy-nominated trumpeter and composer) with special guest performances by Terence Blanchard (Grammy-winning trumpeter and composer) and Kurt Elling (named “the standout male vocalist of our time” by The New York Times), the newly formed ensemble is compromised of top Detroit musicians and special guests from around the country. The Paradise Jazz Series Big Band will perform original arrangements by Kris Johnson featuring the music of Terence Blanchard, Detroit composers, Wayne Shorter, and more.
TERENCE BLANCHARD
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rumpeter, bandleader, composer, and educator Terence Blanchard has served as the DSO’s Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Chair since 2012. Blanchard has performed and recorded with many of jazz’s superstars and currently leads the celebrated E-Collective. He is also well-known for his decades-long collaboration with filmmaker Spike Lee, scoring more than 15 of Lee’s movies since the early 1990s. 2018’s BlacKkKlansman ea rned Blanchard his first Academy Award nomination, with a second Academy Award nomination in 2021 for Da 5 Bloods. In and out of the film world, Blanchard has received 14 Grammy nominations and six wins, as well as nominations for Emmy, Golden Globe, Sierra, and Soul Train Music awards. A New Orleans native, Blanchard was childhood friends with Wynton Marsalis and studied jazz at Rutgers University. He was invited to play with the Lionel
Hampton Orchestra in 1982 and later joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. He debuted his first solo recording in 1991 and has released more than a dozen acclaimed albums since; he has appeared as a collaborator or sideman on a dozen more. Blanchard’s latest album with The E-Collective, Absence, features music written and inspired by jazz legend Wayne Shorter and was released by Blue Note Records in August 2021. Blanchard has held artistic leadership positions at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, Monterey Jazz Festival, Berklee College of Music, and Henry Mancini Institute at the University of Miami.
KURT ELLING
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enowned for his singular combination of robust swing and poetic insight, two-time Grammy winner Kurt Elling has secured his place among the world’s foremost jazz vocalists. The New York Times proclaimed Elling, “the standout male vocalist of our time.” Over a twenty-five year career of touring and recording, Elling has won three Prix du