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Cambridge CityMusicFest lineup

SHIRLEY HORN, GATO BARBIERI and the PERSUASIONS on TAP!
Saturday & Sunday September 21st & 22nd
Tickets on Sale Thursday, July 11

Cambridge, MA, The Cambridge Community Foundation proudly announces that SHIRLEY HORN, GATO BARBIERI, THE PERSUASIONS and six of the finest Cambridge area based musical groups will be featured at the first annual Cambridge CityMusicFest, a citywide celebration, scheduled to take place on the fall weekend of Saturday, September 21 and Sunday, September 22, 2002 at various indoor and outdoor concert locations in Cambridge. (Please note that there will not be any events on Friday, September 20 as previously announced due to scheduling problems.)

This brand new festival, produced by Eric Preusser of artmusicproduction, will kick off on Saturday, September 21 at Sanders Theater (45 Quincy Street in Harvard Square, Cambridge) in style with AN EVENING WITH SHIRLEY HORN at 8:30 P.M.

TICKET INFORMATION:

AN EVENING WITH SHIRLEY HORN will take place at 8:30 P.M. at SANDERS
THEATER, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Reserved seat tickets are priced at $100.00 [VIP seating and VIP cocktail party at 7:00 to 8:00P.M. at Sanders Theater, includes autographed copy of a Shirley Horn CD for first 50 VIP seat purchases], Other seating $36.50, and $27.50 at Saunders Theater will be available as of July 11. Ticket information below:

The Harvard Box Office   Office for the Arts at Harvard   phone: 617.496.2222   TTY: 617.495.1642   www.fas.harvard.edu/~tickets

1350 Massachusetts Avenue Holyoke Center Arcade Cambridge, MA 02138 Daily hours: 12pm – 6pm

GATO BARBIERI IN CONCERT will take place at 7:30 P.M. at KRESGE AUDITORIUM at MIT located at 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Tickets at $25.00 for general admission seating will be available as of July 11 by phone and at Ticketweb.com. To charge by phone, call 866-468-7619.

Click to purchase tickets for "Gato Barbieri in Concert". or call (866) 468-7619

THE PERSUASIONS are considered the Kings of a cappella by their fans worldwide. They have had an incredible career adapting songs into their own inimitable arrangements. Not only have Jerry Lawson, Jayotis Washington, Jimmy Hayes, Joe Russell, and most recently added member Ray Sanders been cited as pioneers of the popular a cappella scene, influencing such groups as Boyz II Men, Take 6 and Rockapella, they have never rested on their Muhammad Ali status in the world of unaccompanied music. With nearly 8,000 performances, over 20 records spanning the genres of gospel, Christmas music, children's music, the music of Frank Zappa and the Grateful Dead, and multiple TV specials under their collective belts, The Persuasions show no signs of slowing down.

OTHER ARTISTS appearing with The Persuasions in the outdoor concerts include Too Human and Manuel Santos & Bambule in Harvard Square, The Herman Johnson Quartet and Wannetta Jackson in Central Square, and The Hilary Noble Band and Wildest Dreams in East Cambridge.

FEATURED ARTIST INFORMATION:
When Shirley Horn sings a song, she changes the way we hear it forever. Widely regarded as the premiere singing pianist in jazz since Nat "King" Cole, Horn shows her unique alchemy to classic and contemporary songs on You're My Thrill, her eleventh recording for Verve. This recent release also reunited Horn with Johnny Mandel, who produced and orchestrated Horn's Here's to Life (1992), her best-selling and most popular album to date.

The festival will take to the streets on Sunday, September 22nd when concerts will be featured in three outdoor locations on three stages around the City of Cambridge; in Harvard Square, Central Square and East Cambridge, all beginning at 12:00 P.M. and ending around 5:00 P.M. THE PERSUASIONS will perform at all three locations (at different hours of course!) along with some of the finest locally-based jazz, rhythm and blues, Latin and world music artists.

The festival concludes at 7:30 pm with GATO BARBIERI IN CONCERT at Kresge Auditorium, 77 Massachusetts Avenue at MIT in Cambridge. To hear Gato Barbieri play is to hear an artist of rare artistry, remarkable honesty and unbridled passion. Born in Rosario, Argentina, Gato was established in the early 70's as a major new voice. His music is characterized by a driving, impassioned, yet sensuous and grainy tone that give his unique sound immediate identification. His sensual sound is beautifully evident on his highly acclaimed film score of Last Tango In Paris. Nat Hentoff has attested to the life affirming, surging spirit of his performances, with their supple range of colors, rhythms, soaring melodies . . . Gato, in sum, is among the least abstract of musicians, because he is so explosively, specifically alive.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE CAMBRIDGE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION AND THE AGENDA FOR CHILDREN:
The festival is subtitled, To Benefit Our Kids since the proceeds will benefit the citywide Agenda for Children, an initiative of the Cambridge Kids Council in collaboration with the Cambridge Community Foundation, the Cambridge Health Alliance, City Manager and the Schools, Human Services, Library, and Police Departments, aimed at addressing the needs of Cambridge children. This partnership is addressing the most crucial of these priorities:
a) All children and their families will be able to read.
b) Children and youth (from birth to 18) will have access to supervised
activities in nurturing and safe environments at all times, in particular out-of-school time (after school) programs.

Because the Agenda for Children benefits all, it is gratifying to see Cambridge institutions - universities, colleges, schools, city government departments, business associations, private companies, and citizens throughout the city, pull together to produce the CityMusicFest. It will be a win-win occasion for music lovers, Cambridge spirit, and our future, the children of Cambridge.

SNAPSHOT BIOS OF LOCAL BANDS:
TOO HUMAN: Hailing from New York, Ellen Schwartz and Roger Bruno had music in their lives from a very early age. Over the years they both explored different musical genres and instruments, but what remained constant was singing, the song and the passion. They eventually became professional songwriters in Los Angeles, on staff with publishing giant Warner/Chappell Music, where they had their songs recorded by a broad spectrum of recording artists including Cher, Pat Benatar, Teddy Pendergrass, Martha Davis, Angela Bofill, Anne Murray, and Nancy Wilson. When they moved back east and became Too Human, with Ellen on guitar, keyboards, and vocals and Roger on percussion, keyboards, and vocals, and the occasional addition of Studio Stu a bebopping washtub bass player, their diverse musical influences merged to create a sound that has been described as edgy, blues/jazz influenced contemporary folk.

MANUEL SANTOS & BAMBULE: Guatemalan classical guitarist and vocalist Manuel Santos has won the hearts and interest of audiences throughout his travels. Santos gained his inspiration 12 years ago in Guatemala by the Latin musical movement known as Nueva Cancion/New Song. His musical quest is to personally stylize and unify the multi-cultural expressions of folkloric and contemporary Latin America by setting romance, poetry and politics to the rich and historic Latin rhythms such as zamba from Argentina, son mutuno quajira from Cuba, pasillo cumbia from Colombia, rumba flamenca from Spain, cueca and tonade from Chile, joropa pasaje from Venezuela and el son from Guatemala.

HERMAN JOHNSON QUARTET: Tenor and soprano saxophonist Herman Johnson’s Quartet features Webster Roach on electric bass, Frank Wilkins on keyboards and Les Cleveland on drums and this legendary and fiery Boston band plays a heady mix of R&B hits and straight ahead jazz standards, with soul. One of Herman Johnson's claims to fame is that his band played at Cambridge's Ryles Jazz Club for a whopping 17 years.

WANNETTA JACKSON: An accomplished vocalist, Wannetta Jackson thrills audiences with her renditions of well known rhythm and blues, jazz and popular songs. Wannetta came to Boston in 1975 to study at Berklee College of Music and since then, she has been featured at every major venue in the Boston area as well as, The Boston Globe Jazz Festival and opening for Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette. To a festival audience of more than 40,000 people, Wannetta sang a tribute to Aretha
Franklin and received stellar reviews. The Boston Globe said; Wannetta Jackson’s tribute to Aretha Franklin earns our respect.

HILARY NOBLE & CONCLAVE: Strongly influenced by Latin jazz, Noble’s music nonetheless resists categorization. He himself is hard to pigeonhole, being equally at home on the saxophone and on Afro-Latin percussion. His melding of progressive jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythm flows naturally from trying to reconcile his two instrumental voices. Noble is a dynamo onstage, alternately leading the charge with his forceful horn playing on multiple saxophones and mixing it up with the rhythm section on percussion. A recent Jazz Review article described his recent album, Noble Savage as both magical and a tour de force.

WILDEST DREAMS: Wildest Dreams members hail from Europe, South America, Japan and the U.S., melding their diverse music and cultural experiences into a dynamically fresh sound. The group has created an exciting world beat style featuring powerful vocals, contagious rhythms and a message of harmony that blends elements of Afro-pop, reggae, calypso and funky soul. Fronted by the spirited vocals of Alice Johnson, (described by the late maestro Leonard Bernstein as "Superb!"), Boston-based Wildest Dream has performed at festivals, theaters, clubs, colleges and special events throughout the Northeastern U. S. since 1989.

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