Dear Fellow TJS Member –
We at TJS hope that you had a GREAT Thanksgiving and want to wish you and your family a Happy Holiday Season.
The Holidays are a time for an interesting combination of reflection on the past year, and anticipation of the New Year to come. So it is with this letter. We brought some spectacular talent to Tucson in 2013, and its worth reflecting on those performances. Below is a brief synopsis, and I invite you to visit our website where we’ve archived photos and news articles of these memorable artists at tucsonjazz.org.
In April we brought Charles McPherson to the Berger Center to play the music of Charles Mingus. McPherson was part of Mingus’ band in the ’60s, and he was backed up for this Tucson gig by The Jeff Haskell Trio including Scott Black and Pete Swan.
Memorial Day weekend started our Summer Series at Loews Ventana Canyon. First up was The Gabriel Ayala Quintet just back from the Innauguration and The Vatican, playing his unique style “Jazzmenco.” Next on July 5 we had the singing duo of Cheryl Bentyne of the Manhattan Transfer with award-winning songwriter Mark Winkler singing their style of “West Coast Cool” backed up by the Sly Slipetsky trio. Wrapping up the Summer Series was the high energy sounds of Sylvan Street playing their brand of jazz and rock fusion.
In 2013 we wanted to continue our tradition of “Jazz Under the Stars,” returning to St Phillips Plaza. For the first concert, we brought Delphine Cortez and Joel Robin with their quintet down from Phoenix. Next up was Kitty Margolis from San Francisco singing her style of “Straight-Up with a Twist” jazz, backed up again by the Sly Slipetsky Trio. Last at St Phillips was a spectacular performance of Motown and other hits of that era by Joe Bourne and his 9-piece high energy band.
We continued our Fall Series at the Westin La Paloma, with A Tribute to George Shearing including three of the original members of the his Quintet. Next was Big Band Extravaganza with Pete Christlieb, 20-year tenor sax veteran of the Johnny Carson Tonight Show orchestra under Doc Severinson, John Allred on trombone, backed up the University of Arizona Studio Jazz Ensemble led by Jeff Haskell and Moisés Paiewonsky. We ended the Fall Season with piano virtuoso Fred Hersch and his trio at the Temple of Music and Art.
We are very proud of our 2013 concert season, and hope you had a chance to enjoy as many of these performances as possible. In the next couple months, the Board will be planning our future strategy, including our 2014 Calendar of events. As exciting as 2013 was, we look forward to planning an even more exciting 2014. We always need help on the board, including marketing, event promotion and production. So if you’d like to be part of this exciting planning process, please volunteer your skills, we’d love to have you. Also please consider renewing your membership if it has lapsed. Your dues are appreciated, and are critical to the continuation of our program.
On behalf of the whole Board of Directors, we’d like to wish you a happy and healthy Holiday Season, and look forward to announcing our calendar of events for 2014.
A Fellow Jazz Fan
Mark Slivinski