The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts Announces 2019-20 Jazz Roots Concert Series Line-up

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County is proud to announce the 2019-2020 JAZZ ROOTS season– six extraordinary, curated evenings of live music in the Center’s Knight Concert Hall that celebrate jazz’s rich history of fusion and cross-pollination. The Arsht Center is also proud to welcome new JAZZ ROOTS presenting partner, EFG CAPITAL. EFG is a global private banking group headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland with regional headquarters in Miami.

The start-studded line up for JAZZ ROOTS 2019-2020 is as follows:

BRITISH INVASION – LATIN STYLE

Band leader/trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, singer/songwriter Lucy Woodward, singer Kate Reid, Shelly Berg and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra

Hosted by Golden Globe nominee Malcolm McDowell

Friday, November 1, 2019 at 8 p.m.

Knight Concert Hall

The 12^th anniversary season of JAZZ ROOTS begins with a Latin and British musical mix starring ARTURO SANDOVAL, LUCY WOODWARD, KATE REID, and SHELLY BERG featuring the HENRY MANCINI INSTITUTE ORCHESTRA. The evening will also serve as a welcome to the new JAZZ ROOTS presenting partner, EFG Capital. The concert is an exciting twist on British-influenced jazz with new arrangements and orchestrations of The Beatles, Sting and more.

A protégé of the legendary jazz master Dizzy Gillespie, ARTURO SANDOVAL was born in a small town on the outskirts of Havana, Cuba, just two years after Gillespie became the first musician to bring Latin influences into American jazz. He has since evolved into one of the world’s most acknowledged guardians of jazz trumpet as well as a renowned classical artist, pianist and composer. SANDOVAL has been awarded 10 GRAMMY® Awards, 19 GRAMMY®nominations, six Billboard Awards, an Emmy Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2018, his landmark album Ultimate Duets included collaborations with musical legends including Stevie Wonder, Pharrell Williams, Al Jarreau, and Celia Cruz to name a few. Joining SANDOVAL that evening will be London native LUCY WOODWARD whose performances USA Today hails as “a string-kissed slice of retro British pop by a versatile singer/songwriter”; vocalist KATE REID;Steinway piano artist and multi-GRAMMY®nominated arranger and producer SHELLY BERG; and Golden Globe nominee and world-class actor MALCOLM MCDOWELL who will serve as the evening’s host.

AIN’T NO STOPPIN’ THE BLUES

Starring blues legends Mavis Staples with opener Charlie Musselwhite

Friday, December 13, 2019 at 8 p.m.

Knight Concert Hall

AIN’T NO STOPPIN’ THE BLUES promises to be an incredible night of jazz with two of America’s blues legends together on one stage. Multi-GRAMMY®Award winners MAVIS STAPLES and CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE join forces in a special performance that skillfully blends American jazz with rhythm and blues. “[Mavis Staples is] blessed with a soul-stirring voice that deserves classification as a national treasure,” according to Billboard and “Harmonica virtuoso Charlie Musselwhite raises the level of emotional expression on his instrument beyond even the masters he learned from,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

STAPLES has been the solid rock of American music. Not many musicians can exist outside of a scene and genre, yet weave themselves into the fabric of soul, R&B, jazz, gospel, rock and blues the way STAPLES has for over six decades. Her roots stem from gospel and R&B which transformed into the world-renowned group with her siblings, The Staple Singers. The Staple Singers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2018 and received the GRAMMY®Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.  STAPLES won the GRAMMY®Award in the category of Best Americana Album in 2011 and in 2016 for Best American Roots Performance. She was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2017 and she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Arts Awards in 2018.

A member of the Blues Music Hall of Fame with 35 Blues Music Awardsand11 GRAMMY®nominations, American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader MUSSELWHITE has truly earned legendary status as one of blues music’s most important artists.MUSSELWHITE led his own blues band and, in 1966, released the legendary "Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's Southside Band." Since then, he has released over 25 albums and has been a guest artist on albums by many other notable musicians including Bonnie Raitt, INXS, Tom Waits, The Blind Boys of Alabama and Ben Harper, among others. Musselwhite’s collaboration with Ben Harper on "Get Up!" took home the GRAMMY® for Best Blues Album in 2014.

CUBA: NEW PERSPECTIVES

Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra with opening act Diego Figueiredo

Friday, January 10, 2020 at 8 p.m.

Knight Concert Hall

ARTURO O’FARRILL is coming to Miami with his acclaimed Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. O’Farrill seamlessly combines the grandeur of big band jazz with the sounds of Latin music. According to The New Yorker, “Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra is one of the best jazz orchestras in existence, a powerhouse outfit!” Opening for O’FARRILL will be multi-instrumentalist DIEGO FIGUEIREDO who is a star on the rise in the guitar world.

O’FARRILL, a pianist, composer, and educator, was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. He is the founder and artistic director of the nonprofit Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance which is dedicated to the performance, education, and preservation of Afro-Latin music. His debut album with the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Una Noche Inolvidable, earned a GRAMMY® nomination in 2006 and his next album, Song for Chico, earned a GRAMMY®Award for Best Latin Jazz Album in 2009. In addition, O’FARRILL was the winner of the Latin Jazz USA Outstanding Achievement Award and a Cubadisco Award for The Offense of the Drumin 2015. O’FARRILL’s well-reviewed and highly praised “Afro-Latin Jazz Suite” from the album CUBA: The Conversation Continues (Motéma)took the 2016 GRAMMY® Award for Best Instrumental Composition and the 2016 Latin GRAMMY® Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. His powerful “Three Revolutions” from the album Familia-Tribute to Chico and Bebo was the 2018 GRAMMY® Award (his sixth) winner for Best Instrumental Composition.

A CENTURY OF JAZZ GIANTS

Kurt Elling sings Armstrong, Eckstine, Cole and Hendricks

Friday, February 21, 2020 at 8 p.m.

Knight Concert Hall

Declared “the standout male vocalist of our time” by The New York Times, KURT ELLING is renowned for his singular combination of robust swing and poetic insight. ELLING will be singing jazz favorites from Louis Armstrong, Billy Eckstine, Nat ‘King’ Cole and Jon Hendricks.

Whether transforming timeless standards or crafting his own enthralling originals, ELLING balances elegant lyricism and technical mastery with emotional depth and keen observations into the human condition.Hehas garnered unprecedented accolades, including a 14-year run atop the DownBeat Critics Poll, a dozen GRAMMY® nominations, and eight Jazz Journalists Association Awards for “Male Singer of the Year.”

DAVE GRUSIN & FRIENDS

Friday, March 20, 2020 at 8 p.m.

Knight Concert Hall

DAVE GRUSIN is an arranger, composer, pianist, and one of the top 10 film scorers of his generation. For the last 60 years, GRUSIN has been composing for the big screen and now has a filmography of over 100 titles. His compositions are heard in many historical films such as The Goonies, Tequila Sunrise, Hope Floatsand The Firm, to name a few. GRUSIN’s compositions have earned multiple GRAMMY®awards including Best Arrangement on an Instrumental, Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals and Best Album Original Score. In 1988, he received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score for the film The Milagro Beanfield War. Most recently in 2011, GRUSIN released his concert album and DVD An Evening with Dave Grusin, which featured himself along with the 75-piece Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.

AN EVENING WITH BRANFORD MARSALIS

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis and the Branford Marsalis Quartet with opening act Veronica Swift

Friday, April 24, 2020 at 8 p.m.

Knight Concert Hall

Saxophonist BRANFORD MARSALIS is one of the most influential and revered figures in contemporary music. The NEA Jazz Master, GRAMMY®Award winner and Tony Award nominee is equally at home performing concertos with symphony orchestras and sitting in with members of the Grateful Dead, but the core of his musical universe remains the BRANFORD MARSALIS QUARTET. After more than three decades of existence with minimal personnel changes, this celebrated ensemble is revered for its uncompromising interpretation of a kaleidoscopic range of bothoriginal compositions and jazz and popular classics. After the GRAMMY®-nominated Upward Spiral, in which guest vocalist Kurt Elling was seamlessly integrated into the group, the Quartet has followed up with The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul, its most emotionally wide-ranging and melody driven collection to date. John Zeugner captured the impact of the Quartet in live performance in a recent concert review, calling it “casually confident, professional, cerebral, and supercharged with energy. The Branford Marsalis Quartet…was all of those adjectives and more.”

TICKET INFORMATION

JAZZ ROOTS 2019-2020 series subscriptions, which include tickets to all six performances, are on sale to the public beginning Thursday, April 18 at 10 am with seating priority given to renewing subscribers. Subscribers can save up to 29% with six-show packages ranging in price from $220-$724*. Subscriptions can be purchased by calling (305) 949-6722 or online at arshtcenter.org/jazz. Single tickets, if available after the subscription campaign ends, will go on sale later this summer.

JAZZ ROOTS 2019-2020 is presented by the Arsht Center with generous support from EFG Capital, Baldwin Richardson Foods, Quint Family Foundation, Steinway & Sons, the official piano of the Adrienne Arsht Center, Sterling Vineyards and EAST Miami. WLRN 91.3 and JAZZIZ Magazineare media sponsors. 

“We are excited to begin this new partnership with the Arsht Center and its groundbreaking JAZZ ROOTS series,” said Marcelo Coscarelli, CEO of EFG Capital. “EFG has a long standing and prominent commitment to the arts at both a global and regional level and as an organization, we celebrate the distinctive qualities that make jazz such an exceptional art form, such as creativity and innovation.  This important collaboration will allow us to further strengthen our global jazz credentials, which include the EFG London Jazz Festival, build our profile in the region and connect with the arts community in Miami."

"Entering its 12^thseason of critically-acclaimed series and education initiatives, JAZZ ROOTS continues to present world-renowned jazz performances for Miami Jazz lovers to enjoy. Since JAZZ ROOTS began in 2008, more than 100,000 guests have enjoyed the comprehensive jazz programming and 9,200 students have participated in the integrated education program that is essential to the mission of the series,” said Liz Wallace, vice president, programing of the Arsht Center. “In EFG we have a new partner with a global interest in jazz, whose support will help us to continue the Jazz Roots series’ high artistic merit and help us to invest in future generations with the valued education component.”

“As an artist and educator for the past 40 years, I am honored to continue to be a part of this amazing series. It presents world-class jazz to South Florida’s audiences and educates students about America’s music which is a mission I am very dedicated to. I look forward to working with the Arsht Center as we continue to carry on this key mission,’ said Dean Shelly Berg, JAZZ ROOTS artistic advisor. 

ABOUT JAZZ ROOTS

JAZZ ROOTS is an institution in Miami music and has been credited with revitalizing America’s art form in the region. More than 100,000 people have attended the annual six-part concert and educational series, which has also benefited more than 9,000 high school jazz music students who have participated in the JAZZ ROOTS: Sound Check educational program. JAZZ ROOTS was co-created by the Adrienne Arsht Center in 2008 in collaboration with the late music industry entrepreneur Larry Rosen and since then has presented a rich variety of thematically based concerts exploring the spectrum of jazz. The series has featured more than 160 of the greatest living jazz artists/ensembles on the scene today and has introduced Miami audiences to rising stars and local talent. JAZZ ROOTS has showcased every unique style and incarnation of jazz – from Latin jazz and fusion to bossa nova and straight ahead, as well as presented tribute programs honoring American icons Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald and John Coltrane. Since its inception, the series has included jazz superstars such as Jon Batiste, George Benson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, Paquito D’Rivera, Michael Feinstein, Dave Grusin, Keith Jarrett, Eddie Palmieri, and Sonny Rollins, Chucho Valdés as well as world-class ensembles, including the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, the Count Basie Orchestra, and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. Quincy Jones has heralded JAZZ ROOTS as “the most important new jazz and educational series in America!”This history-making series has sold out dozens of concerts.

JAZZ ROOTS also features JAZZ ROOTS: Sound Check an in-depth educational partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools which has brought more than 9,000 high school music students to the Center for a complimentary and unique behind-the-scenes experience including: a pre-concert sound check; a Q&A session with featured artists followed by a workshop with a local jazz expert that will highlight the music, the artistic process and the practical skills needed for a career in the arts; and free entry to the evening’s performance. The JAZZ ROOTS education program is presented by Baldwin Richardson Foods, and made possible in part by EFG International, the Green Family Foundation, Quint Family Foundation and Citizens Interested in Arts.