British singing and piano sensation Jamie Cullum brings his eclectic mix
of jazz, pop and rock-influenced music to the opening night celebration
of the CareFusion Newport Jazz Festival* on Friday, August 6, at 8:00
pm at the International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport Casino. The
evening opens with the saxophonist/singer Grace Kelly.
The festival continues August 7 and 8 at Fort Adams State Park; Cullum is set to perform on the Fort Stage on Saturday. Tickets and more information are available at newportjazzfest.net.
Get
a sneak preview of Jamie Cullum in performance when he appears on The
Bachelorette on Monday, May 31, at 8:00pm on ABC. For more information,
visit http://abc.go.com/shows/the-bachelorette. Jamie Cullum, who has
played guitar and piano since age eight, developed an avid interest in
jazz from his older brother. He was inspired by piano icons Oscar
Peterson and Dave Brubeck and spent some of his formative years living
in Paris, where he honed his abilities performing in jazz clubs. Cullum
will perform selections from The Pursuit, his first album in four years,
as well as some of his favorite jazz standards and his own originals.
His latest music embraces the full range of his diverse talents and
far-flung musical passions. While it covers more stylistic ground than
anything he's done previously, the album offers the same musical
fluency, emotional commitment and lyrical wit that helped to make
Cullum's prior releases Twentysomething and Catching Tales international
crossover hits selling more than four million combined copies
worldwide. He recorded his first album, Heard It All Before, at age 19,
followed by Pointless Nostalgic.
After
spending two years touring in support of Catching Tales, Cullum
retreated from the spotlight and spent much of the next two years
working on a variety of musical and non-musical endeavors. He and his
older brother and frequent collaborator, Ben, joined forces for a dance
music project, “BC vs. JC," that found the brothers creating melodic
dance music in clubs across England. Jamie also contributed to albums
for Pharrell Williams, the Count Basie Orchestra, Japan's Soil &
Pimp Sessions, Norway's Beady Belle and France's Camille, as well as
spent time as a Goodwill Ambassador to Ethiopia for UNICEF. Cullum's
highest profile side projects saluted his courtship with Hollywood,
beginning with the animated Disney feature Meet The Robinsons, in which
Jamie was the singing voice of Frankie The Frog. He followed with his
vocal on the Golden Globe-nominated “Best Original Song" from the John
Cusack film Grace Is Gone, and culminated in his co-writing and
performing with Clint Eastwood for the Golden Globe-nominated “Best
Original Song" from 2008's Gran Torino. Now, he's back on the road
celebrating The Pursuit at concert across Europe and the United States.
Eighteen-year-old
Grace Kelly's career is definitely on the fast track. Wynton Marsalis
(who performs on the Fort Adams Stage on Sunday) was so impressed with
her three-night stand as guest of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
in November 2008 that he invited her to join the ensemble at the Kennedy
Center in Washington, DC. Harry Connick, Jr. heard her in a master
class and invited her to sit in with his band and she has been a
featured guest on NPR's Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland. In addition,
Grace has received numerous honors including The Boston Music Awards'
“Outstanding Jazz Act," WCVB-TV's “Five Bostonians to Watch," Downbeat
Critics Poll's youngest ever “Alto Saxophone Rising Stars," the Boston
Phoenix's “Best Jazz Act in Boston" in the 2009 Best Music Poll (for the
second consecutive year) and three ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award. To
this astonishing list of credits, Kelly adds Mood Changes, the fifth
release on her PAZZ label. The album mixes six standards with four Kelly
originals. She is particularly excited about the strides that Mood
Changes reveals in her band leading skills. “There's nothing like
playing my own music with my own band," she acknowledges. She also
enjoyed critically acclaimed success on her previous album, Gracefulee,
which has dominated the DownBeat Student Awards over the past four
years. A student at Boston's Berklee College of Music, Grace enjoys “...
playing all the time and just living music all day." Her College is
also represented at the festival by the Berklee Global Jazz Institute
Septet on Saturday afternoon.
George
Wein made history 56 years ago when he started the festival era with
the Newport Jazz Festival. Along with his company, New Festival
Productions, LLC, Wein continues to present the best in established and
rising stars, this year including Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea Freedom
Band with Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride & Roy Haynes, Ahmad
Jamal, Wynton Marsalis, Maria Schneider Orchestra, Chris Botti, Jason
Moran's Bandwagon, Jon Faddis Quartet, Gretchen Parlato, Fly, Julian
Lage Group, JD Allen Trio, David Binney Third Occasion Quartet, Darcy
James Argue's Secret Society and many more.
allaboutjazz.com
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