Audiences around the country have heard the sounds of the Phoenix Chorale through broadcasts on NPR’s Performance Today. Local audiences can catch the group at several live shows, which will take place all across the Valley.
TIM TRUMBLE
■ Benny Green, Tempe Center for the Arts, Oct. 31: A child protégé of Oscar Peterson (who John Mehegan took Goldenthal to hear at the Village Vanguard when he was 11), this great pianist has worked with Ray Brown, Betty Carter, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard and Diana Krall. “I’m especially looking forward to hearing Valley vocalist Delphine Cortez perform with Benny at this concert,” Goldenthal says.
Joey DeFrancesco
Joel Robin Goldenthal,
■ The Reed Family, Jazz in AZ at ASU Kerr Cultural Center, Nov. 30: The beloved Reed Family, including Francine, will share their unique holiday show for the first time under Jazz in AZ auspices. “With R&B, jazz and gospel notes, this show is a crowd pleaser and guaranteed sellout,” Goldenthal says, so get your tickets now!
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JAZZ IN AZ
orn and raised in Queens, New York, Goldenthal began piano at 7, picked up jazz by ear at 9 and studied on scholarship at 11 with John Mehegan, who headed the jazz department at Juilliard and wrote several books on improvisation. Goldenthal has played jazz piano professionally in the Valley since 1975 while working in nonprofit development, advertising and marketing. He’s been with the nonprofit Jazz in AZ for about five years, furthering its efforts to present live jazz and cultivate its future through parties, concerts, youth education, scholarships and community outreach. Here are four shows Goldenthal predicts will help burnish jazz’s reputation.
B ■ Lang Lang, guest soloist with The Phoenix Symphony, Oct. 26: Bruffy wants to see the Chinese virtuoso perform but can’t, because he’ll be conducting the concert above. He saw Lang Lang recently at the Grammys in Los Angeles dueting with jazz icon, Herbie Hancock. “Stars in two worlds, they played each other’s styles with such flexibility and panache,” he says, adding with a chuckle, “Perhaps we can ask him to come over after his concert and accompany us.”
■ “Joey DeFrancesco with Brian Bromberg,” Mesa Arts Center, Nov. 8: Master of the Hammond B-3 organ, DeFrancesco reaffirms for Bruffy the connections of what he does with choral repertoire and the traditions of American jazz. “We all make the same sounds, pitches and durations,” he says. “We all deal with sound in time.” ■ “The Best of Balanchine,” Ballet Arizona with The Phoenix Symphony, June 12-14, 2009: “I like rule breakers,” Bruffy says. Phoenix Chorale, 602-253-2224; phoenixchorale.org
■ McCoy Tyner Quartet, Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts at the Celebrity Theatre, Jan. 17, 2009: The legendary Philadelphia pianist has helped shape contemporary jazz as a member of the legendary John Coltrane Quartet and on his own. “I’m excited about McCoy Tyner coming to the Valley,” Goldenthal says. “Our local jazz scene is better in many respects than some of the larger cities today, such as Chicago. This is important because having America’s original art form—jazz— prominent in our cultural mix makes us a more attractive place to visit, work and live.” Fall 2008 43