Berkeley Choro Ensemble In Concert with special guest Howard Alden Saturday 6 August at 8:00pm The Berkeley Hillside Club is delighted to welcome The Berkeley Choro Ensemble, a quartet of brilliant local artists, in a concert of Brazilian music. Joining the ensemble will be famed 7-string jazz guitarist, Howard Alden. Don't miss these remarkable artists performing in our historic and acoustically-excellent hall. The Artists:
Berkeley Choro Ensemble Harvey Wainapel - sax & clarinet
Jane Lenoir - flute
Ricardo Peixoto - guitar
Brian Rice - percussion special guest artist Howard Alden - 7-string guitar About the Concert:
Berkeley Choro Ensemble joins forces with famed jazz guitarist Howard Alden to present a diverse program of compositions showcasing a history of Brazilian Popular Music. The group will perform works by some of the great composers in Brazil , including Pixinguinha, Baden Powell, Ernesto Nazareth, and others. Alden will also perform solo readings of jazz standards.
About the Berkeley Choro Ensemble: The Berkeley Choro Ensemble (pronounced "shoro"), is a group of world-class musicians from the SF Bay Area that made its debut in January, 2010, at the Berkeley Public Library. The group celebrates the music, culture and history of Brazil, with a special emphasis on the Choro genre, a style of music which emerged in the 1800's in Brazil, fusing the music of Brazil's European immigrants and the native music of Brazil's indigenous and African-Brazilian population. In particular, the choro sound is somewhat akin to a combination of European classical music, ragtime, and blues. Historically, the choro style influenced Brazil's most famous classical composer, Heitor Villa Lobos, to compose some of the world's most hauntingly beautiful music, the Bachianas Brasileiras. Our repertoire also includes samba, bossa nova, jazz, and the music of Northeast Brazil. About Howard Alden: Howard Alden's website Berkeleyside article by Andy Gilbert
Artist Bios: From a family of professional musicians, flutist Jane Lenoir grew up in Tampa, Florida, and left home at 15 as a SCHOLARSHIP student to the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and then to Oberlin Conservatory of Music. A performer comfortable in many diverse styles, Jane appears regularly as a soloist, chamber player, orchestral musician, and jazz performer. She first began her study of Brazilian music in 2006, and has since performed with Marcos Silva, Jovino Santos Neto, Hermeto Pascoal, and recorded with Carlos Oliveira and Ceilia Medeiros, Live at Anna's Jazz Island and Brazilian Choro 2009. In 2010 she visited Brazil and studied with Hermeto Pascoal, Jovino Santos Neto, Paulo Sergio Santos, Allessandro Pennezzi and Ted Falcon. She is principal flutist with the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra in Grass Valley, and also performs with Sexteto Matiz, an Afro-Cuban ensemble, and numerous jazz, and new music and chamber ensembles in styles ranging from early music (baroque flute) to free improvisation. Saxophonist/clarinetist Harvey Wainapel (pronounced "wine-apple") has performed with the likes of McCoy Tyner, Joe Lovano, Ray Charles, Dave Brubeck, and Joe Henderson. Besides working with these and numerous other leaders, Wainapel has toured extensively under his own name, and has performed in 22 countries. His heavy involvement with the music of Brazil has led to performances with top-level musicians such as Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Dori Caymmi, Guinga, and Jovino Santos Neto. Wainapel was a featured soloist on two CDs that were final nominees for Latin Grammy Awardsâ„¢ "Best Latin Jazz Recording" (with Jovino Santos Neto in 2004 and with Mark Levine in 2003). Harvey has been called "one of the most promising and versatile players of his generation" (All Music Guide to Jazz 1998)
Originally from Rio de Janeiro and based in the Bay Area, guitarist/composer Ricardo Peixoto is among the top representatives of Brazilian guitar in the US, with a fluid melodic style and a keen compositional sense. His performances explore Brazil's rich and diverse traditions, both in his original work as well as in arrangements of Brazilian classics. His approach is grounded both in the jazz and Brazilian music traditions, but always ventures well beyond their borders, combining rich melodies, sophisticated harmonies, and the unmistakable rhythms of Brazil. Ricardo came to the US on a scholarship to the Berkeley School of Music in Boston, and later continued his studies in classical guitar at the SF Conservatory of Music. He has recorded, performed, and collaborated with, among others, Claudia Villela, Flora Purim and Airto, saxophonist Bud Shank, percussionist Dom Um Romão, Toots Thielemans, Dori Caymmi, Guinga, guitarist Carlos Oliveira, Harvey Wainapel, Marcos Silva and Terra Sul. He has performed throughout the US, Europe, Canada, Japan and Brazil. Percussionist Brian Rice graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy and Oberlin College Conservatory of Music with a B.M. in Percussion Performance and Ethnomusicology. A well-rounded musician, Brian is a highly acclaimed performer, educator and recording artist adept at numerous musical styles ranging from classical and jazz, to Latin, Afro-Cuban, and Brazilian, to contemporary and experimental music. Brian's study of the Brazilian pandeiro began in 1986 when the Sao Paulo State University percussion ensemble visited Oberlin and percussionist/composer Carlos Stasi, then a student at SPSU, gave Brian a quick pandeiro lesson after the concert. Since then Brian's obsession with the pandeiro has led him to study with Guello, Marcos Suzano, Airto, Claudio Bueno and Clarice Magalhaes, and his prowess on the instrument has led him to perform with numerous Brazilian artists including, Jovino Santos Neto, Paulo Sergio Santos, Danilo Brito, Dudu Maia and Jorge Alabe. It was studies with Marcos Suzano that inspired Brian to expand his use of the pandeiro outside the Brazilian music world and apply it to Balkan, Celtic, Middle Eastern, Spanish, and Cuban music with great effect. Howard Alden was born in Newport Beach, California in 1958. He began playing the 4-string tenor guitar and banjo at age ten. After hearing recordings of Barney Kessel, Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt and other jazz guitar greats, he got a six-string guitar and started teaching himself to play that as well. As a teenager he played both instruments at various venues in the Los Angeles area. He studied guitar with Jimmy Wyble when he was 16. In 1977–78 he studied jazz guitar at the Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood with Howard Roberts, where he eventually assisted Roberts in organizing and preparing his curriculum materials. Alden then conducted some of his own classes at GIT. Alden made his first trip to the east coast in the summer of 1979, playing in a trio led by the legendary vibraphonist Red Norvo for three months at Resorts International in Atlantic City. Alden moved to New York City in 1982 to play an extended engagement at the Café Carlyle with jazz pianist/songwriter Joe Bushkin. Soon afterward, he was discovered by Joe Williams and Woody Herman. In 1983 he was already collaborating with Dick Hyman, when he appeared with him and a host of other musicians at Eubie Blake's one-hundredth birthday concert. In 1988, Alden signed with the Concord Jazz record label and recorded many albums with them over the following fifteen years as a leader and sideman. Alden recorded the guitar performances for Sean Penn's character Emmet Ray in Woody Allen's 1999 film Sweet and Lowdown, and taught Penn how to mime the performances for the film. The score also featured Bucky Pizzarelli on rhythm guitar and arrangements by pianist Dick Hyman.