Esplanade's Mosaic Music Festival returns!

Written by The Esplanade Co Ltd

Page 3 of 8 ESPLANADE CONCERT HALL Sat, 8 Mar 08 Montreux Jazz Special Concert - Lee Ritenour & Friends (USA) "Impeccable, highly listenable, intriguing music." - The Hollywood Reporter In a prolific career spanning three decades, Lee "Captain Fingers" Ritenour has established himself as one of the world's leading jazz guitarists. From playing his first session with The Mamas and the  Papas at the age of 16, backing Tony Bennett and Lena Horne at 18, becoming a sought-after session player in the mid-70s, playing lead guitar with 70s jazz-rock band Steely Dan, and embarking on a  rising solo career at 24, Lee shot to fame with a portfolio that now includes some 3,000 sessions,  notable performances with icons like Sergio Mendes, Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins  and Pink Floyd, milestone work in the 90s as a founder of soul-jazz supergroup Fourplay, and over 30 albums and collaborations. Along the way, he has picked up 17 Grammy® nominations, earned  several gold albums, numerous no 1 spots in guitar polls and music charts, and awards such as the prestigious Alumnus of the Year award from the University of Southern California. From a penchant for the relaxed styles of Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and Barney Kessel in his early days, to a love for Brazilian music in the 80s, Lee has developed over the years his own distinctive sound and fluid style melding straight-ahead jazz, fusion, reggae, bebop, instrumental pop and  Brazilian into a smooth, sparkling, musical liquid gold. Experience the magic of Lee's guitar as he  performs with Grammy®-award-winning R&B and jazz fusion pianist/songwriter/vocalist Patrice  Rushen (keys), Yellowjackets' Will Kennedy (drums) and Melvin Davis (bass). Esplanade Concert Hall, 7.30pm (90mins, no intermission) $58*, $88**, $118 (Limited concessions for students, NSF and senior citizens: $40*, $60**) In collaboration with Montreux Jazz Festival Sun, 9 Mar 08 An Evening with Broken Social Scene (Canada) "Stunning third album from Toronto's underground supergroup. An effervescent rush of melody, invention and magic." - Mojo "Absolutely stunning." - NME Through raucous jangling, spacey melodies, hyper-kinetic beats, and ragged lullabies, meet the aptly named music collective Broken Social Scene. At its core are Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning who started the group in 1999. Kevin was an unknown musician who specialised in lovely bedroom instrumentals. Brendan was a vet of  almost-made-its who became a prominent Toronto after-hours DJ. In the dead of winter 1999-2000, the duo worked on their debut, Feel Good Lost, a recording that would set up an important template for BSS's growth. Around this pair orbited friends and talents from bands like Metric, Stars, and Do Make Say Think to name a few. BSS was a side project, an escape, an experiment, and for awhile, BSS was whoever showed up, playing whatever was written the day before. Till now, with over 18 members, the line-up of the band changes from leg to leg - no BSS tour ever being the same. In 2002, BSS released You Forgot It In People to rave reviews and toured the US, Europe and Japan. Kevin then co-founded record label and management company, Arts & Crafts, which became home to the Juno award winning band and its satellite acts. In 2005, the band released Broken Social Scene, a fitting title for the band's third full-length record, as the album was an apt aural representation of the band's friendship - messy, overrun, irregular but spirited, passionate, honest and hopeful. Esplanade Concert Hall, 7.30pm (90mins, no intermission) $58* (sold out), $88**, $118 (Limited concessions for students, NSF and senior citizens: $40* (sold out), $60**) Mon, 10 Mar 08 Kurt Elling Artist-in-Residence (USA) "The standout male jazz singer of our time." - The New York Times Once dubbed by Jon Hendricks of the famed jazz vocal group, Lambert Hendricks and Ross, as jazz's "next Man On Fire", Kurt Elling is singer, poet, intellectual and beatnik, all rolled into one hot, gifted package. Known for his renowned technical facility, emotional depth and rich baritone voice that spans four octaves, Kurt has garnered accolades from critics around the world, including seven Grammy® nominations, and was named Male Jazz Vocalist of the Year six years in a row by Down Beat  magazine. Considered one of the pre-eminent contemporary voices in vocalese today, Kurt sets the solos of Wayne Shorter, Dexter Gordon, Pat Metheny and others to his own compelling and spiritual lyrics, infusing them with passion, humour, and a startling intellectual depth, and often incorporating  references from writers such as Rilke, Proust, Neruda and Roethke. In this one-night-only concert, Kurt will present a mixture of songs from his debut album on Concord Records, Nightmoves, as well as several songs from his previous albums on Blue Note Records. On Nightmoves, Kurt features a collection of compelling interpretations and standards that take the listener on a journey from twilight to dawn, through pieces that range from seductive bossa nova tunes, to colourful swingers, to sumptuous ballads. Kurt delicately sets an Ellington composition "I Like The Sunrise" to lyrics based on the ancient writings of Rumi, a 13th-Century poet, as well as ingeniously pairing the unlikely combination of a Keith Jarrett composition with a well known Frank Sinatra favourite "Leaving Again/ In The Wee Small Hours", among other surprising musical feats. Kurt Elling is Mosaic Music Festival 2008's Artist-in-Residence. In addition to his concert, please look forward to his poetry showcase, Lyrics, at the Singapore Art Café. There will also be one masterclass and workshop, which he will conduct personally, as well as a jam session and the debut guest appearances with "Captain Fingers" Lee Ritenour on 8 March in the Montreux Jazz Special Concert. Esplanade Concert Hall, 7.30pm (90mins, no intermission) $58*, $88**, $118 (Limited concessions for students, NSF and senior citizens: $40*, $60**) Explorations: Workshop by Kurt Elling Sat, 8 Mar 08, Recital Studio, 3pm (60 mins) $15 (Students, NSF, senior citizens and Kurt Elling's ticket holders: $10) Explorations: Vocal Master Class by Kurt Elling Sun, 9 Mar 08, Rehearsal Studio, 2pm (120 mins) $100 (Candidates are pre-selected) Tue, 11 Mar 08 Raul Midón (USA) "When you witness someone who is really good, like singer-songwriter Raul Midón, it's a profoundly moving experience. But more than that, it redefines the whole notion of what "good" means. Midón just walks on with his guitar and sings his deceptively simple songs, and the entire club is enthralled." - The Guardian With just him, his voice and a steel-stringed guitar, Raul Midón delivers music so rich and full it  astonishes even as it satiates. Through virtuosic slap-guitar playing that often produces the effect of a full-blown rhythm section and a voice that truly sings as well as perfectly mimics the sound of horn instruments, Raul delivers  powerful songs of humanism and beauty with perfect clarity. His incredible gift as a songwriter, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist have stirred fans and critics to fervour, inspiring such accolades as "a hair raising, show-stopping voice and dazzling guitar technique" - The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and "everything about Midón reveals a strong, individual  and totally musical mind at work. Awesome." - The Guardian. His strongly percussive and soulful style reveals hints of his vast musical influences in folk-rock, soul, blues pop, samba, doo-wop, flamenco, funk, jazz and more. But the results are so lush, inventive and full of brio that his music truly cannot be defined. The New Mexico-born, New York-based writer/vocalist/guitarist burst onto the scene in 2005 with his audaciously original debut album, State of Mind, and he's followed it up with an even more  memorable song cycle, one that substantiates the depth of his talent and the degree of his  dedication. A World Within a World, the title of the new album, might refer to the status of pop music within the culture as a whole; it could also describe the expansive interior realm that this single minded artist, blind from birth, has created with his imagination. Esplanade Concert Hall, 7.30pm (75 mins, no intermission) $58*, $78** (Limited concessions for students, NSF and senior citizens: $40*, $60**) Explorations: Raul Midón Workshop Mon, 10 Mar 08, Recital Studio, 9pm (60 mins) $15 (Students, NSF, senior citizens and Raul Midon's ticket holders: $10) Wed, 12 Mar 08 Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra featuring GILSON LAVIS and guest vocalists RUBY TURNER & LOUISE MARSHALL (UK) The man loves music. It's as simple as that... whether he is playing it with his superb Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, or chatting about it to music greats and newcomers alike, or casting each member of his band in the spotlight on stage, or introducing new musical talent of all genres in his legendary and groundbreaking TV music shows. On stage, the charismatic English pianist, composer and band leader's energy and enthusiasm are infectious. Rollicking, stomping, rolling and tripping in a big-hearted,irrepressibly joyous whoop of boogie woogie, rhythm & blues, swing, reggae, ska, blues and pop, with his super-fast fingers dancing on the ivories, Jools and his orchestral ways get audiences dancing. Performing with Jools is long-time collaborator and acclaimed drummer Gilson Lavis - who first played the drums with Jools as a teenager in New Wave band Squeeze and then went on to partner Jools in The Jools Holland Big Band which grew into the 19-piece The Rhythm & Blues Orchestra - as well as guest vocalists, renowned soul vocalist Ruby Turner and silken-voiced newcomer Louise Marshall. Esplanade Concert Hall, 7.30pm (90 mins, no intermission) $58*, $88**, $118 (Limited concessions for students, NSF and senior citizens: $40*, $60**) Thu, 13 Mar 08 Múm (Iceland) With chimes, crunches, taps, distortion, sibilant cooing and sweet, warped melodies, the music of múm, fey and haunting, tucks you away in a magical place somewhere between snow-blanketed fjord and enchanted birch forest. From the same country that brought the world Bjork, the midnight sun and Keiko the killer whale, múm was formed in 1998. What set the band apart from its peers was its sorcerous integration of analogue and digital technologies combining instruments and percussion alongside electronic washes, beats, dingdongs, beep-beeps, found sound sand field recordings. múm has released acclaimed albums, remixes and singles. It has also composed its own soundtrack for the Eisenstein film, Battleship Potemkin, composed music for a radio play, worked with the  National Dutch Chamber Orchestra to create a performance piece in 2005 upon invitation by the Holland Festival, delivered legendary DJ sets, and performed at Belgium's Fat Cat Festival, SXSW in Austin, Texas, Japan's Summer Sonic Festival, and Bestival on the Isle of Wight. Esplanade Concert Hall, 7.30pm (90mins, no intermission) $58*, $78** (Limited concessions for students, NSF and senior citizens: $40*, $60**) Fri, 14 Mar 08 The Roots (USA) "... A hip-hop band that strikes a very funky balance between righteousness and humor, between headbanging grooves and truth-telling." - Rolling Stone With none of the bling, the songs about pimpin', or the hi-shine production gloss of today's rap stars, legendary Grammy®-award-winning rap group The Roots, one of the world's best and Philadelphia's finest, always takes audiences back to what's real and truly fine in the best of hip-hop. Grounded in ol skool freestylin' and the bone-deep funk-soul feel that gives hip-hop its groove, the group has stayed at the forefront of hip-hop reinvention for almost two decades with its  progressiveness. Constantly woven into its basic hip-hop groove are elements of rock, punk, hardcore, speed metal, electronica, drum and bass... Add to this some of the smartest, sharpest narratives in the history of rap, and the result is top notch,incisive, edgy material that works your brains and hips. The Roots is also one of a few crews in the world to perform with a full live band. Besides founding duo Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter spitting killer rhymes and Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson laying out drum funk and jungle beats, the crew includes original member Kamal Gray on keys, Kirk "Captain Kirk" Douglas murder on guitar, Owen Biddle on bass, Frank Walker on percussion, and introducing, on sousaphone, Damon "Tuba Gooding, Jr." Bryson. The group has released acclaimed albums and worked with Alicia Keys, Nelly Furtado, Dice Raw, Talib Kweli, Jill Scott and Jay-Z. Esplanade Concert Hall, 7.30pm (90 mins, no intermission) $58*, $88**, $118 (Limited concessions for students, NSF and senior citizens: $40*, $60**) Fri, 14 Mar 08 11th Hour - Sondre Lerche & The Faces Down (Norway) "A ridiculously talented, outrageously gorgeous 25-year-old who's already released...albums of zingy, part-Elvis Costello, part-Prefab Sprout, classic pop." - Guardian Unlimited The songs of Sondre Lerche are built for happy listening. Mostly pop-rock with light, wry lyrics, clean melodies, simple arrangements and a cool Nordic  sweetness, they lie in that shimmering, amorphous space between pensivenessand good cheer. In this and several other ways, they sometimes bring to mind the music of the new romantics of the 80s, an era Sondre often pays homage to. At 18, after practicing his singing-songwriting as a young teenage in Bergen nightclubs, he broke into the Norwegian pop scene with his first album, Faces Down (2001), a compilation of melodic,  80s-influenced, folk-pop originals that became an instant hit on Norwegian charts and was listed in American magazine Rolling Stone's top-50-albums of-2002 list. Subsequent albums, Two Way Monologue (2004), Duper Sessions (2006) Phantom Punch (2007), and the Dan in Real Life  soundtrack (2007) revealed a growing maturity and additional influences. Esplanade Concert Hall, 11pm (60mins, no intermission) $58 (Limited concessions for students, NSF and senior citizens: $40) Sun, 16 Mar 08 Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Band (USA) "He combines a jazzer's sense of adventure with an untainted respect for the complex and varied rhythmic cores of the complete range of Latin musical dance styles." - All About Jazz Real dance music - that's the kind Eddie Palmieri plays. His myriad interpretations of Latin jazz music are bona fide Cuban rhythm and unadulterated energy, delivered with eloquence and fantastic musicianship, and designed to get the dancers within us out on the floor. The Harlem-born, nine-time Grammy winner has long been admired by the world as one of the foremost Latin pianists of the last half-century. His musical career spans over 50 years as musician and band leader of salsa and Latin jazz orchestras, composer, arranger and all-round music-maker with an impressive discography of over 32 titles. Dedicated to keeping the tradition of Latin jazz thriving, but also renowned for combining Latin rhythms with jazz piano and instrumental solos, Eddie has continued to roll on with stylistic innovations over the years, creating classic Tico albums, mixing salsa with R&B,pop, rock, Spanish vocals and jazz improvisation, and jumping from dancehall to free jazz. His Latin sound and vast talent have taken him through Europe, Japan and Latin America, showcasing his assemblage of seasoned musicians and a kaleidoscope of musical styles as spirited as his own personality. Esplanade Concert Hall, 7.30pm (90mins, no intermission) $58*, $88**, $118 (Limited concessions for students, NSF and senior citizens: $40*, $60**) Explorations: Jazz Piano Workshop by Eddie Palmieri Sun, 16 Mar 08, Theatre Studio, 2pm (60 mins) $15 (Students, NSF, senior citizens and Eddie Palmieri's ticket-holders: $10) In this workshop, learn more about Latin grooves as well as Eddie's solid interpretation of Afro-Caribbean music and its confluence with jazz arranging skills and Eddie's luminous musical career. << Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next > End >>

 

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