Monday, September 12, 2016

Jazz Festival set for Sept. 24 at Park Central Square

(From the City of Springfield)

Springfield, Missouri continues a great season of live music downtown with the 7th Annual Jazz Festival, coming up Sept. 24 at Park Central Square.

The festival includes seven hours’ worth of free live music at the Bear State Outdoor Stage on Park Central East, beginning at noon. The lineup promises a variety of grooves from the Missouri State University Jazz Ensemble, the Richard Bruton Quartet, the Arthur Duncan Trio, Kyth Trantham Trio with Kristi Merideth, Hamm/Aho Quartet with Christin Bohrisch and the Missouri Jazz Orchestra (MOJO).

The excitement continues inside the historic Gillioz Theatre at 7:30 p.m., as the Gillioz Center for Arts & Entertainment proudly presents “An Evening with Pat Metheny with Antonio Sanchez, Linda Oh, and Gwilym Simcock.”

Tickets are $34 - $47.50 and all tickets are reserved seating. Call 417-863-9491 with any questions, or visitgillioztheatre.com.

Metheny was born in Lee's Summit on Aug. 12, 1954 into a musical family. Starting on trumpet at the age of eight, Metheny switched to guitar at age 12. By the age of 15, he was working regularly with the best jazz musicians in Kansas City, receiving valuable on-the bandstand experience at an unusually young age. Metheny first burst onto the international jazz scene in 1974.

Over the course of his three-year stint with vibraphone great Gary Burton, the young Missouri native already displayed his soon-to-become trademarked playing style, which blended the loose and flexible articulation customarily reserved for horn players with an advanced rhythmic and harmonic sensibility -a way of playing and improvising that was modern in conception but grounded deeply in the jazz tradition of melody, swing, and the blues.

With the release of his first album, “Bright Size Life” (1975), he reinvented the traditional "jazz guitar" sound for a new generation of players. Throughout his career, Metheny has continued to redefine the genre by utilizing new technology and constantly working to evolve the improvisational and sonic potential of his instrument.

Metheny's versatility is nearly without peer on any instrument. Over the years, he has performed with artists as diverse as Steve Reich to Ornette Coleman to Herbie Hancock to Jim Hall to Milton Nascimento to David Bowie. Metheny’s body of work includes compositions for solo guitar, small ensembles, electric and acoustic instruments, large orchestras, and ballet pieces and even the robotic instruments of his Orchestrion project, while always sidestepping the limits of any one genre.

As well as being an accomplished musician, Metheny has also participated in the academic arena as a music educator. At 18, he was the youngest teacher ever at the University of Miami. At 19, he became the youngest teacher ever at the Berklee College of Music, where he also received an honorary doctorate more than 20 years later (1996).

He has also taught music workshops all over the world, from the Dutch Royal Conservatory to the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz to clinics in Asia and South America. He has also been a true musical pioneer in the realm of electronic music, and was one of the very first jazz musicians to treat the synthesizer as a serious musical instrument.

Years before the invention of MIDI technology, Metheny was using the Synclavier as a composing tool. He also has been instrumental in the development of several new kinds of guitars such as the soprano acoustic guitar, the 42-string Pikasso guitar, Ibanez’s PM series jazz guitars, and a variety of other custom instruments.

Over the years, Metheny has won countless polls as "Best Jazz Guitarist" and awards, including three gold records for (Still Life) Talking, Letter from Home, and Secret Story. He has also won 20 Grammy Awards spread out over a variety of different categories including Best Rock Instrumental, Best Contemporary Jazz Recording, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, Best Instrumental Composition at one point winning seven consecutive Grammies for seven consecutive albums. In 2015, he was inducted into the Downbeat Hall of Fame, becoming only the fourth guitarist to be included (along with Django Reinhardt, Charlie Chrisitan and Wes Montgomery) and its youngest member.

Metheny has spent much of his life on tour, often doing more than 100 shows a year since becoming a bandleader in the 1970s. Today, he continues to be one of the brightest stars of the jazz community, dedicating time to both his own projects and those of emerging artists and established veterans alike, helping them to reach their audience as well as realizing their own artistic visions.

“We are thrilled to have a musical legend like a Pat Metheny come to Springfield as part of our Jazz Festival,” said City Manager Greg Burris. “In just seven short years, the Springfield Jazz Festival turned into a destination event that we expect to grow in popularity as much as the Birthplace of Route 66 Festival.”

Burris said he’s grateful for partners, such as the Gillioz Center for Arts & Entertainment, Bear State Bank, Springfield Regional Arts Council, the Downtown Springfield Community Improvement District and Missouri State University for continuing to introduce the Springfield community to a variety of jazz artists every year.

“It’s more than just about the music, Burris explains. “It’s about celebrating the work of great artists, but it’s also about celebrating cultural diversity.”

The Springfield Jazz Festival was an idea springing from the FieldGuide 2030, the community’s strategic plan. The vision for the Global Perspectives & Diversity Chapter is for the Springfield region to become a welcoming community that celebrates our differences by valuing a commitment to service and economic prosperity; through innovation and creativity; with knowledge and leadership; and that improves quality of life for all.

Jazz is a musical art form with African and Western European colonial roots, which dates back to the 19th century. Long before the Civil Rights Act, long before Brown vs. The Board of Education, and long before President Truman's integration of the armed forces, black and white jazz musicians were breaking social taboos in order to share and learn from each other. Experts, in fact, say the creation of jazz was due to a melting pot of sorts: the combination of European musical tradition and African musical tradition.

The Springfield Jazz Festival is a wonderful opportunity for Springfield Public Schools students to be exposed to a variety of professional jazz musicians, said Gwen Marshall, equity and access specialist with the district. This year, select jazz musicians – one from each of the five Springfield public high schools – will be recognized at the festival for their involvement in jazz studies.

“Jazz music moves you, it lifts you, it soothes you, it twirls you around, its rhythm keeps you alive,” Marshall said.

Festival Partners• Bear State Bank
• The Network
• Springfield Regional Arts Council
• It's All Downtown.com
• Springfield Public Schools
• Downtown Springfield Association
• Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts
• Missouri State Jazz Studies
• Missouri State Office of Multicultural Programs
• City of Springfield.

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