FULL PROGRAM:
Classical composer, conductor, jazz and world music pioneer, improvising multi-instrumentalist, author and raconteur David Amram hosts an evening celebrating his 59 years in the Village, with the World Premiere of “Greenwich Village Portraits,” dedicated to the memories of his friends playwright Arthur Miller, singer Odetta and author Frank McCourt, all of whom he first met in the Village.
 
For the first half of the evening, in addition to “Greenwich Village Portraits,” classical virtuoso saxophonist Ken Radnofsky, who has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony, will also perform excerpts from Amram’s saxophone concerto homage to another old friend, Ode to Lord Buckley, in addition to other chamber works, all composed during the years Amram lived on 6th Ave and 11th Street in the heart of Greenwich Village. The first half of this evening will also celebrate the release of the new CD of Amram’s classical compositions for saxophone, “Ode to Lord Buckley” performed by Ken Radnofsky, and released by Newport Classic Ltd Recordings and Films.
 
The second half of the evening will celebrate Amram’s collaborations with Village musical icons, since his seminal performances in 1955 with Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton and Oscar Pettiford.
 
Amram’s quartet will be joined by surprise guests from the worlds of jazz, Latin, Native American, Middle Eastern and global folk music, in addition to a reading from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road with music, celebrating Amram’s collaborations with Kerouac in New York City’s first-ever jazz-poetry readings, pioneered by Kerouac and Amram in the Village in 1957.
 
During the evening’s festivities, Amram will also be inviting some outstanding new young artists of today to join him in a tribute to the Village of the past and present, and a salute to its future.
 
In a recent interview, Amram noted, “I hope that the evening Greenwich Village Portraits” will create the same joyous feeling to everyone who will come and share what I felt when I first visited the Village as a teen-ager during World War ll. When I saw the artists on the street as well as in the coffee houses, sketching portraits while having incredible conversations with their customers and all the passers-by, heard music being played everywhere and was made dizzy by the intoxicating aroma of food being cooked, I knew I wanted this place to be my home someday….and a few years later, in the Fall of 1955, I moved to the Village.”
 
Amram muses, “Wherever I may be in my world travels and tours, in my heart and mind Greenwich Village is still my home and always will be. The evening at Le Poisson Rouge on February 16, with the World Premiere of my new formal composition, in addition to all the spontaneous one-time only collaborations for the second half of the evening, will be a valentine and thank you note to this special place and a shout out to all the great people I have met and continue to meet every day that I am here.”

DAVID AMRAM, composer/instrumentalist/host: the “Renaissance Man of American Music” (Boston Globe), has composed more than 100 orchestral and chamber music works, written many scores for Broadway theater and film, including the classic film scores Splendor in The Grass, The Manchurian Candidate, and Pull My Daisy (with his long-time collaborator Jack Kerouac as narrator); and two operas, including the ground- breaking Holocaust opera The Final Ingredient, and has conducted more than 75 of the world’s great orchestras. A pioneer player of jazz French horn, who has appeared on more than fifty albums as a leader or sideman, Amram is also a virtuoso on piano, numerous flutes and whistles, percussion, and dozens of folkloric instruments from 25 countries, as well as being an inventive, funny improvisational lyricist and singer. Among the hundreds of artists with whom he’s collaborated include Leonard Bernstein, (who chose him as The New York Philharmonic’s first composer-in-residence, in 1966), Dizzy Gillespie, Arthur Miller, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Thelonious Monk, Langston Hughes, Odetta, Dustin Hoffman, Lionel Hampton, Arturo Sandoval, Elia Kazan, Charles Mingus, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Steve Martin, Betty Carter, Pete Seeger, Johnny Depp, Mary Lou Williams, Paquito d’Rivera, Paddy Chayefsky, Tito Puente, Frank McCourt, and Joseph Papp, who chose him as the first composer-in-residence of “Shakespeare in the Park” (1956-1968). Andrew Zuckerman’s book and feature film documentary Wisdom: The Greatest Gift One Generation Can Give To Another, features David as one of the World’s 50 Elder Thinkers and Doers; and the feature film documentary DAVID AMRAM:The First 80 Years will have its DVD release in April, 2014.

KEN RADNOFSKY, saxophone: has appeared as soloist with leading orchestras and ensembles throughout the world, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and New York Philharmonic under the direction of Maestro Kurt Masur (Debussy Rhapsody); Dresden Staatskapelle; Boston Pops; Taipei and Taiwan symphonies; New World Symphony; BBC Concert Orchestra; Oregon Symphony; Marlboro Festival; Portland String Quartet; and Moscow Autumn, a Russian new music festival. Radnofsky made his Carnegie Hall debut some years earlier with the New York premiere of Gunther Schuller’s Concerto, performed by the National Orchestral Association. The world premiere of the Schuller piece was also performed by Radnofsky with the Pittsburgh Symphony, with both of the highly-acclaimed performances conducted by the composer. David Amram’s Concerto, Ode to Lord Buckley, is also dedicated to Radnofsky, who premiered the work with the Portland Symphony under the direction of Bruce Hangen. He has also performed on numerous occasions for the Boston Symphony Orchestra over the last 30 years. Current solo CD releases include Debussy Rhapsody with the New York Philharmonic (Teldec 13133); Radnofsky.com (Boston Records 1043, with conductor (Hangen); Fascinatin’ Rhythms(Boston Records 1044); Donald Martino’s Saxophone Concerto (New World 80529-2); Michael Colgrass’ Sax Concerto Dream Dancer (Mode 125); and Elliott Schwartz Mehitabel’s Serenade (Sax Concerto) (Albany-Troy 646). He is the featured saxophone soloist with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in Franz Waxman’s A Place in the Sun, under the direction of John Mauceri (Philips 4321092).

BOBBY SANABRIA – drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, recording artist, producer, filmmaker, conductor, educator, activist, multi-cultural warrior and multiple Grammy nominee – has performed with a veritable Who’s Who in the world of jazz and Latin music, as well as with his own critically acclaimed ensembles. His diverse recording and performing experience includes work with such legendary figures as Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Paquito D’Rivera, Charles McPherson, Mongo Santamaría, Ray Barretto, Marco Rizo, Arturo Sandoval, Roswell Rudd, Chico O’Farrill, Candido, Yomo Toro, Francisco Aguabella, Larry Harlow, Henry Threadgill, and the Godfather of Afro-Cuban Jazz, Mario Bauzá.

Damien Francoeur-Krzyzek’s teaching and performing career incorporates his unique and diverse background as a pianist, classical singer, linguist, and opera coach. A faculty member of New England Conservatory since 2007, he has also served on the music staff of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis since 2008.
 
Formerly the Principal Coach of Boston Lyric Opera, he prepared 13 productions for that company over four consecutive seasons, including Dvořák’s Rusalka, for which he served as Czech diction coach. Additionally, Francoeur-Krzyzek has worked as rehearsal pianist for Opera Colorado, and diction coach for Opera Boston’s The Bartered Bride and Béatrice et Bénédict.
 
In addition to his academic and operatic duties, Francoeur-Krzyzek has privately coached professional singers for roles at national and international opera companies. He has studied and coached more than a dozen languages to date, including Russian, Dutch, Catalan, and Polish. An active performer, Francoeur-Krzyzek collaborates regularly with vocalists and instrumentalists throughout New England.

Born in Brooklyn N.Y. Earl received his first musical training from his father (a very gifted amateur musician) who saw to it that the entire family became proficient at playing brass instruments. While attending the High School of Music & Art he studied trombone with John Clark, Jack Jeffers, Alan Raph and Benny Powell. It was during this period that he also developed relationships with composer William S.Fischer and tubaist Howard Johnson. At Mannes College of Music he studied Bass trombone with Simone Karasick and tuba with Thompson Hanks, and later studied arranging with Slide Hampton and Bob Brookmeyer. He also studied privately with the famous brass teacher Carmine Caruso. Since then he has played with Gil Evans, the Apollo stage band, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Taj Mahal, Lester Bowie, The Band, Stevie Wonder, McCoy Tyner, Carla Bley, George Russell, Lou Rawls, Jeffrey Osborne, Deniece Williams, the Count Basie Orchestra, the Ellington Orchestra, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra (with whom he was associated for over 20 years), Slide Hampton, George Gruntz, the Mingus Big Band, Cecil Taylor, the Carnegie Hall Jazz band, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, Chico O’Farrill, Renée Manning and others.
 
Continue reading at afrolatinjazz.org…
 
Her debut in the jazz world as the singer with the Mel Lewis Orchestra (from 1983-1989) was the longest tenure of any vocalist associated with that organization . By chance, Mr. Lewis heard Renée performing at Mikell’s . He invited her to sit in with his band at the Village Vanguard and after a standing ovation hired her as his vocalist on the spot. Since then she has proven to be an incredibly versatile singer. Many, however associate her with big bands and the blues. Her big band associations and collaborations have included the Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Orchestra, The George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, Dukes’ Men as well as a large ensemble project with Lester Bowie and Earl McIntyre. Recently she appeared with the Mingus Big Band at the Fez and the Iridium.
 
Testimony to her skills comes in the form of the number of musicians who have asked her to sit in at various engagements. These include Jon Faddis, Sir Roland Hanna, Mark Murphy, Howard Johnson and Joe Williams. Ms. Manning appeared as a guest soloist in the concert presentation of the George Gruntz opera “Cosmopolitan Greetings”, a production done with the Cologne Radio Orchestra. Here she teamed up with Don Cherry, Mark Murphy, Sheila Jordan, Howard Johnson and Ray Anderson.
 
Continue reading on Renee Manning’s Facebook page…