Jane Ira Bloom Quartet ellington fellowship series Willie Ruff, Director march 27 2009 Jane Ira Bloom soprano sax, electronics Dawn Clement piano, Fender Rhodes Mark Helias bass Jaz Sawyer drums
Robert Blocker, Dean
march 27, 2009 · 8 pm Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall
Jane Ira Bloom Quartet Jane Ira Bloom soprano saxophone and live electronics Dawn Clement piano, Fender Rhodes Mark Helias bass Jaz Sawyer drums
Mental Weather was created with generous support from the Chamber Music America’s New Works: Creation and Presentation Program, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
jane ira bloom saxophone & electronics
Jane Ira Bloom is a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz, as well as the possessor of “one of the most gorgeous tones and hauntingly lyrical ballad conceptions of any soprano saxophonist” (Pulse). Her continuing commitment to “pushing the envelope” in her music has led to collaborations composing for and performing with such outstanding jazz/world music artists as Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell, Kenny Wheeler, Rufus Reid, Bob Brookmeyer, Julian Priester, Jerry Granelli, Min Xiao-Fen, Mark Dresser, Matt Wilson, Bobby Previte, and Fred Hersch. She has composed and performed site specific works at such diverse venues as the National Air and Space Museum’s Einstein Planetarium, Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, MOMA, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Town Hall, the Kennedy Space Center, the Houston Astrodome, and the Kennedy Center as well as performances at clubs and jazz festivals worldwide. She is the recipient of numerous composition and performance grants including a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition. Winner of the 2007 Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Award for lifetime service to
jazz, the 2008 Jazz Journalists Association and Downbeat International Critics Poll for soprano sax, the International Women in Jazz Masters Award, and the IAJE Charlie Parker Fellowship for jazz innovation, Bloom was the first musician ever commissioned by the NASA Art Program and was honored by having an asteroid named in her honor by the International Astronomical Union (asteroid: 6083janeirabloom). Bloom’s affinity for other art forms has lead to collaborations with other innovative artists such as actors Venessa Redgrave, Joanne Woodward, dancer/ choreographer Carmen de Lavellade, director Jonathan Sayles, painter Dan Namingha, and lighting designer James F. Ingalls. She scored a new work for DeLavallade and her jazz quartet for the 2007 Fall for Dance Series at City Center in NYC. She has composed for the Pilobolus, Philadanco, and Paradigm Dance Companies, the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, and the American Composers Orchestra, premiering new works for large ensemble involving her signature movement techniques. She received Doris Duke/CMA New Jazz Works awards for the creation of
jane ira bloom saxophone & electronics
“Chasing Paint,” a series of compositions inspired by Jackson Pollock’s action painting, and for the “Mental Weather” suite for her current jazz quartet. She has recorded and produced 13 albums of her music dating from 1977 to the present. In 1976 she founded her own record label and publishing company while in New Haven (Outline Music) and later recorded for ENJA, CBS, and Arabesque Records. Her latest CD, Mental Weather, appears on her original Outline label.
She has been on the faculty of the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City since 1998. She holds degrees from Yale University (BA 1976) and the Yale School of Music (MM 1977) and studied composition with David Mott, Martin Bresnick, and Robert Moore and saxophone with woodwind virtuoso Joseph Viola. Jazz critic Nat Hentoff has called Bloom an artist “beyond category.” Bill Milkowski has described her as “a true jazz original...a restlessly creative spirit, and a modern-day role model for any aspiring musician who dares to follow his or her own vision.”
Bloom has been the subject of a number of media profiles; she has been featured on Website: www.janeirabloom.com CBS TV’s Sunday Morning, Talkin’ Jazz on NBC-TV, Inside Space on the USA’s Sci-Fi channel, TIME Magazine’s Women: The Road Ahead special issue, in the publication Jazzwomen: Conversations with Twenty-One Musicians on Indiana University Press, in the Library of Congress Women Who Dare 2007 calendar, in Life Magazine’s “Living Jazz Legends,” in Gilles Corre’s French TV documentary Women in Jazz, on NPR’s Morning Edition, Jazzset, Live From the Kennedy Center with Dr. Billy Taylor, and in the documentary film Reed Royalty hosted by Branford Marsalis.
dawn clement piano, Fender Rhodes
national Martial Solal Jazz Piano Competition in Paris, France (2002), Earshot Jazz awards for Best Emerging Artist (2000), Best Jazz Quartet and Best Album for her performance with the legendary trombonist Julian Priester (In Deep End Dance 2003), and a nomination for Earshot Jazz Record of the Year (2004) for Hush. She has performed with such notable artists as Pharaoh Sanders, Nancy King, Ingrid Jensen, Louis Moutin, Hadley Caliman, Buddy Catlett, John Clayton, Reed Whitwell, Mercer Ellington, Mark Helius, Mark Dresser, Over the last seven years, Dawn has performed and Bobby Previte. in some of the world’s most premier venues such as Carnegie Hall, Le Conservatoire Dawn’s sound has been heard extensively on Superieur, Paris, and Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, as the radio. She has had interviews and live well as numerous clubs (including Sweet performances on Seattle’s KEXP (Sonarchy Rhythm, Tonic, and Iridium), art museums, Radio), KBCS (The Don and Bud Show) and theaters. In addition to her work with and KUOW (The Beat), and her music Jane Ira Bloom, Dawn has toured the U.S. with a regularly receives radio play around the number of projects including the Sabella world. She has also been featured in articles Consort (2000-2003), and the Rubin/Clement for 5/4 Magazine, All About Jazz (New York Piano Dialogues (2000-2002), for which she and Italy), Earshot Jazz (Seattle), Jazz Times, received a King County Arts commission and Hot House. Dawn is currently on the Grant (2002). In August of 2003, Dawn faculty of Cornish College of the Arts and released her first album, Hush, on Conduit maintains a rigorous performance schedule. Records. Other highlights include performing at the Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.) as one of the top five finalists in the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition (2006), an invitation to compete at the Third InterPianist/composer Dawn Clement is an active performer most often heard in Seattle and New York in various collaborations. Current projects include performing and touring with Jane Ira Bloom, promoting the release of a new CD entitled Mental Weather, in addition to a project with Julian Priester and a trio recording with Matt Wilson and Dean Johnson (Break on origin records). Dawn is also actively working on a song project with Brooklyn-based artist Jon Solo.
mark helias bass
Bassist/composer Mark Helias is seen regularly at venues in New York City ranging from The 55 Bar to Carnegie Hall. After his studies with Homer Mensch at Rutgers University and Yale School of Music, he embarked on an international performance career with the Anthony Braxton Quartet in 1977. Since then he has enjoyed long musical associations with Edward Blackwell, Anthony Davis, Dewey Redman, Marcel Khalife, Ray Anderson, Don Cherry, and Gerry Hemingway. Eleven albums of his music have been released since 1984, including Split Image, The Current Set (1987), Desert Blue (1989) Attack The Future, (1992) Loopin’ the Cool (1995), Fictionary (1998), Come Ahead Back (1998) New School (2001), Verbs of Will (2004), Atomic Clock (2006), and the newly released Strange Unison (2008). A prolific composer, Helias has written music for two feature films as well as chamber pieces and works for large ensemble and big band. He has been producing recordings for other artists on the Gramavision, Enja, New World, Sound Aspects, and Avant/diw labels. His trio Open Loose with Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey, has become an archetypal improvising ensemble on the New York
scene. Mr. Helias performs solo bass concerts and can also be heard in the innovative bass duo, The Marks Brothers, with fellow bassist Mark Dresser. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, The New School and SIM (School for Improvised Music) and is committed to broadening the scope of musical education.
jaz sawyer drums
Jaz Sawyer was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He began playing drums at age 2 and learned to play the trumpet and bass before beginning music studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division 13 years later. While still in his teens, he participated in Stanford Jazz Workshop’s programs for several years and was a member of the San Francisco Youth Orchestra for two years before graduating from the San Francisco School of the Arts. Mr. Sawyer has worked with such luminaries as Wynton Marsalis, Abbey Lincoln, George Benson, Randy Weston, Irvin Mayfield, Bobby Hutcherson, Jacky Terrasson, Phil Lesh and Friends, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Jane Ira Bloom, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and Mlumbo. He is a versatile musician, performing and producing in genres including jazz, classical, Afro-Cuban, Caribbean, and soul, and has studied the origins of various percussion instruments. At 30, Sawyer holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from New School University in New York City, and a Master of Public Administration & Public Policy Degree from the Metropolitan College of New York. In addition to being CEO of Pursuance Records, a groundbreaking record company dedicated
to presenting fresh, exciting talent from a wide spectrum of contemporary music, including jazz, classical, hip-hop and world music, he is actively involved in community outreach by conducting music workshops and events for youth from the West to East Coasts. Website: www.myspace.com/PursuanceRecords
upcoming Visit music.yale.edu for full listings
yale school of music Robert Blocker, Dean 203 432 4158 Box Office concerts@yale.edu E-mail Us
concerts & media Vincent Oneppo Director Dana Astmann Assistant Director Monica Ong Design Manager Tara Deming Operations Manager Christopher Melillo Operations Assistant Manager Danielle Heller Box Office Coordinator Kelly Yamaguchi-Scanlon Accomodations & Travel Brian Daley Piano Curator William Harold Piano Curator
recording studio Eugene Kimball Director / Recording Engineer Jason Robins Assistant Recording Engineer
March 30 wei-yi yang 8 pm, Sprague Hall bach: French Overture in B minor · Brahms: Fantasies Op. 116 • and a collection of birdsonginspired music for piano by Janácek, Ravel, Granados, Tchaikovsky, Couperin, Liszt, and Messiaen. Tickets $10-$18, students $5
April 2 new music new haven 8 pm, Sprague Hall, Free Ezra Laderman, artistic director. Program features faculty composer Martin Bresnick’s Caprichos Enfaticos. Plus Ted Hearne: music for brass quintet, 3 oboes, and 2 bassoons; Andrew Norman: Lost Time for solo piano; Polina Nazaykinskaya: Three Fairy Tales for mezzosoprano; and Naftali Schindler: Violin Duet.
April 4 yale philharmonia 8 pm, Woolsey Hall, Free Shinik Hahm, music director · Featuring Mahler’s epic Fifth Symphony as well as Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, conducted by Farkhad Khudiyev, and Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto, with Woolsey Concerto Competition winner Ashley Bathgate.