Celebrating 65 years of great jazz in Monterey with an all-star lineup including Dee Dee Bridgewater and Kurt Elling
Courtesy photo.
SUMMARY
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- UCSB Arts & Lectures presents the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour
- Sunday, January 29 | 7:00 p.m. | Campbell Hall
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- The all-star ensemble will perform featuring Tony and Grammy Award-winning NEA jazz master Dee Dee Bridgewater and fellow Grammy Award-winning vocalist Kurt Elling
- Jazz Series Lead Sponsor: Manitou Fund
- Directed by visionary pianist Christian Sands
- $20–$50 General Public / $15 All Students (Current student ID required)
- Tickets & Info: www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) presents the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour, Sunday, January 29 at 7 p.m. at Campbell Hall. The Monterey Jazz Festival celebrates its 65th year as one of the world’s longest running and most iconic music events with a must-hear, once-in-a-lifetime touring ensemble. Multiple-Grammy-winning vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater, among the “best-rounded and unique jazz vocalists singing today” (All About Jazz), and Kurt Elling, “the standout male jazz vocalist of our time” (The New York Times), scat, swoon, and soar as they bring swing standards, moody ballads, bop favorites, and Latin hits to life. The hard-swinging band is led by pianist Christian Sands, with rising-star saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin (Missy Elliott, Alicia Keys), and the well-oiled rhythm section of bassist Yasushi Nakamura (Wynton Marsalis, Hank Jones) and drummer Clarence Penn (Betty Carter, Maria Schneider).
View Dee Dee Bridgewater’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert
ABOUT MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL
MJF’s mission is to inspire the discovery and celebration of jazz, anchored by an iconic festival.
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Over the course of a multi-faceted career spanning four decades, Grammy and Tony Award-winning jazz giant Dee Dee Bridgewater has ascended to the upper echelon of vocalists, putting her unique spin on standards, as well as taking intrepid leaps of faith in re-envisioning jazz classics. The two-time Grammy-winner most recently won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee. She earned her first professional experience as a member of the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Louis Big Band, and throughout the 1970s she performed with jazz legends Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie, and others. Awarded a NEA Jazz Master Fellowship in 2017, Bridgewater’s voice combines the voluptuousness of Sarah Vaughan with the sweet, girlish clarity of Ella Fitzgerald. Bridgewater has performed at MJF six times since 1973.
Renowned 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 25-year career of touring and recording, Elling has won three French Prix du Jazz Vocal awards, two German Echo Awards, two Dutch Edison Awards, and has been nominated for 15 Grammys. Elling had a 14-year run topping the DownBeat Critics and Readers polls and has won 12 Jazz Journalists Awards for “Male Vocalist of the Year.” Elling’s voice is instantly recognizable, and he is a virtuoso improvisor and a compelling storyteller. The Guardian (UK) named Elling “one of jazz’s all-time great vocalists.” Elling has performed at MJF six times, including acting as Artist-in-Residence in 2006 and was the vocalist in the MJF on Tour All-Stars in 2009-2010.
Voted as the winner of the 2020 DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Alto Saxophonist and Up and Coming Artist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association, charismatic and dynamic saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin fuses traditional conceptions of jazz, hip-hop, and soul. Benjamin’s electric presence and fiery sax work has shared stages with legendary artists, including Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, The Roots, and Macy Gray. Benjamin’s album Pursuance is an intergenerational masterpiece that takes one on a journey through the lineage of the music with the works of John and Alice Coltrane. Her new album, Phoenix, out in late January 2023, features Patrice Rushen, Dianne Reeves, Angela Davis, and Wayne Shorter, and was produced by Terri Lyne Carrington. Benjamin has performed at MJF twice since 2016.
Pianist and MJF on Tour Music Director Christian Sands is a two-time Grammy nominee. Growing up in New Haven, Connecticut, he started playing professionally at the age of 10 and received his Bachelor of Arts and master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. A protégé of Dr. Billy Taylor, Sands began a six-year association with bassist Christian McBride in 2009, and has followed in Dr. Taylor’s footsteps by encouraging, inspiring, and advocating for the preservation and history of jazz. As Monterey Jazz Festival’s Artist-in-Residence from 2020-2022, Christian launched his online video series “Welcome to the Sands Box,” interviewing his friends and favorites from the jazz world. Christian Sands’ third recording for Mack Avenue Music Group, Be Water, captures and establishes him as a forceful leader in composition and conceptual vision. Sands has performed at MJF five times since 2014 and acted as MJF on Tour’s musical director in 2018-2019.
Bassist Yasushi Nakamura is one of the most commanding voices on bass today. Born in Tokyo, Nakamura moved to Seattle, Washington and received his bachelor’s degree in jazz performance from Berklee College of Music, and an artist diploma from the Juilliard School. He has recorded or performed with Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Hank Jones, Dave Douglas, Emmet Cohen, and many others, and is a member of the American Patchwork Quartet. As an educator, Nakamura has led master classes and summer intensive courses at Juilliard, The New School, Koyo Conservatory, Osaka Geidai, and Savannah Swing Central. In 2016, Nakamura released his debut album A Lifetime Treasure and his second record, Hometown, received the 2017 Album of the Year award from JazzLife magazine. Nakamura has performed at MJF many times since 2004 and was the bassist in MJF on Tour in 2018-2019.
The charismatic and dynamic Clarence Penn is one of the busiest jazz drummers in the world, a leader of multiple bands, a composer, a prolific producer, and an educator. Penn currently leads several ensembles and is a member of the American Patchwork Quartet. His most recent “rhythmically intoxicating” recording is 2014’s Monk: The Lost Files on Origin Records. Since 1991, when he arrived in New York City, Penn has placed his unique blend of mega-chops, keen intellect, and heady musicianship at the service of a staggering array of A-list–a chronological short-list includes Ellis and Wynton Marsalis, Betty Carter, Stanley Clarke, Steps Ahead, Makoto Ozone, Michael Brecker, Dave Douglas, Maria Schneider, Luciana Souza, Richard Galliano, and Fourplay. Penn’s impressive discography includes several hundred studio albums (including the Grammy-winning recordings 34th and Lex by Randy Brecker and Concert in the Garden and Sky Blue by Maria Schneider.) Penn recently joined the University of Central Florida Department of Music as an assistant professor of jazz percussion, having previously taught with the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music, the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Saint Louis College of Music in Rome, Italy, and Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Intensive Jazz Institute. Penn has performed at MJF multiple times since 1992.
About UCSB Arts & Lectures
Founded in 1959, UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) is the largest and most influential arts and lectures organization between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A&L annually presents more than a hundred public events, from critically acclaimed concerts and dance performances by world-renowned artists to talks by groundbreaking authors and film series at UCSB and Santa Barbara-area venues. With a mission to “educate, entertain and inspire,” A&L also oversees an outreach program that brings visiting artists and speakers into local classrooms and other venues for master classes, open rehearsals, discussions and more, serving K-12 students, college students and the general public.
Tickets are $20–$50: General Public / $11: All Students (Current student ID required) (includes facility fee)
For tickets or more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535 or purchase online at www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.
Special Thanks to KCSB 91.9 FM
Jazz Series Lead Sponsor: Manitou Fund
UCSB Arts & Lectures gratefully acknowledges our Community Partners the Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli for their generous support of the 2022-2023 season.