[members-announce] Donal Fox: "Monk and Bach" Regattabar April 15-16

[dawn singh]

Dawn Singh Publicity
75 Rossmore Road #4 • Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 • 857-544-0739 • (f) 
617-395-7743
dawn at dawnsinghpublicity.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE					March 4, 2005
CONTACT:	Dawn Singh
		857-544-0739
		dawn at dawnsinghpublicity.com


Composer Pianist Donal Fox Performs Monk and Bach at the Regattabar 
April 15-16

“Boston has a long history of turning out innovative musicians whom the 
rest of us are too long in discovering.  Think of Jaki Byard, Sam 
Rivers and Alan Dawson, among many others, and add to the list Donal 
Fox, a remarkable pianist who has positioned himself on the cutting 
edge of jazz by incorporating classical techniques and melodies.  He is 
best known for virtuoso duets with Oliver Lake and David Murray, but 
the pinnacle of his achievement is found in his blending of Monk and 
Bach, in his vivid reimaginings of the Modern Jazz Quartet, and in such 
dazzling original works as “Scarlatti Jazz Suite” and “Italian Concerto 
Blues.”Donal is one of a small handful of musicians who embody the 
promise of jazz’s future.”
Jazz Critic, Gary Giddins, author of “Weather Bird:
Jazz at the Dawn of its Second Century”


	Innovative pianist and composer, Donal Fox, will present a brilliant 
and genre-defying program of music by James Brown, Robert Schumann, 
Thelonious Monk, Astor Piazolla, J.S. Bach, Stevie Wonder, Domenico 
Scarlatti and Donal Fox at the Regattabar in Cambridge on Friday and 
Saturday, April 15 and 16th, at 7:30 and 10 pm.  Joined by Miles Davis 
alum, Al Foster, on drums, and John Lockwood on bass, Fox’s virtuostic, 
swinging style crosses a wide spectrum from classical to jazz and is 
poetic, hip and ultimately contemporary.
	Fox is an internationally acclaimed composer, pianist and improviser 
in both the jazz and classical fields.  His numerous awards include a 
1997 Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition, a 1998 Fellowship from 
the Bogliasco Foundation (Italy), and 1999, 2001 and 2003 nominations 
for a CalArts/Alpert Award in the Arts.
	Fox served as the first African American composer-in-residence with 
the St. Louis Symphony from 1991-92.  In the 1993-94 season, Mr. Fox 
was a special guest artist at the Library of Congress in a program that 
was recorded by National Public Radio and was a visiting artist at 
Harvard University where he received a Certificate of Recognition from 
the President of Harvard for his contribution to the arts.
	In 2003-2004 , Fox was featured concert artist with the American 
Composer Orchestra Improvise Festival where he gave the New York 
premiere of T. J. Anderson’s piano concerto, Boogie Woogie Concertante, 
with the MSM Jazz Philharmonic at LaGuardia Concert Hall and the world 
premier with the Harvard University Wind Ensemble directed by Thomas 
Everett.  The concerto was written especially for Mr. Fox and asks for 
him to improvise all the solo passages and cadenzas in the 
eight-movement work with spontaneous interactive dialogue with the 
orchestra.  Fox will perform the Atlanta premier at the Schwartz Center 
for the Performing Arts at Emory University on Thursday, March 3, 2005.
  	Fox’s exciting and innovative “Jazz Duet Series” has included 
concerts, recordings and collaborations with Oliver Lake, John 
Stubblefield, Billy Pierce, David Murray, Elliott Sharp, Regina Carter, 
Stefon Harris, Al Foster, Gary Burton, John Patitucci, and poet Quincy 
Troupe to name a few.  He has recorded as composer and pianist for New 
World Records, Evidence Records, Music & Arts, “Passin' Thru Records, 
Yamaha’s Original Artist Series, and Wergo Records.  Jazz journalist 
Bill Beuttler of the Boston Globe named Fox as one of his Top Ten Jazz 
Acts of 2004 in the company of Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, and Ron 
Carter.  Fox will embark on an extensive European festival tour with 
his “T.S. Monk to J.S. Bach” project in 2005.
	Al Foster, master drummer, was a member of the Miles Davis group for 
thirteen years.  Davis said about him, “ for what I wanted in a 
drummer, Al Foster had it all."
  	Foster has also performed with Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, McCoy 
Tyner, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, 
Charlie Haden, Randy & Michael Brecker, Bill Evans, George Benson, 
Kenny Drew, Carmen McRae, Stan Getz, Toots Thielemans, Dexter Gordon, 
and Chick Corea.  He has toured extensively with Herbie Hancock, Sonny 
Rollins, and Joe Henderson.
	Tickets to Donal Fox:  Monk and Bach are $20 on Friday, April 15, and 
$22.50 on Saturday, April 16.  Showtimes are 7:30 and 10 pm.  The 
Regattabar is located at the Charles Hotel, One Bennett Street, Harvard 
Square, Cambridge, MA.  For information and reservations, call 
617-395-7757 or order tickets online at www.regattabarjazz.com
	For more information on Donal Fox, contact Dawn Singh at 857-544-0739 
or dawn at dawnsinghpublicity.com.
JPEGS available
B&W/color
Quotes
“ An innovative composer and virtuoso pianist.”
						Billy Taylor

“Coruscating improvisation.”
						Richard Dyer, Boston Globe


“One of the most exciting musical personalities on the current scene.”
						Lloyd Schwartz, Boston Phoenix

“Triple-threat talent:  composer, performer and improviser.”
						Anthony Tommasini, Boston Globe

“His music is unlike that of anyone else, while at the same time it 
evokes McCoy Tyner, Art Tatum, the intensity of Coltrane and of the 
blues, shades of Bach and Cuban music.  In other words, his 
compositions have an inherent solidity, not like music which fluctuates 
to fit current fashions.”
						Jean Szlamowicz, Jazz Hot, France

Master of improvisation a the piano:  Donal Fox makes ‘Bach swing.’”
						Der neue Tag, Germany

“Fox’s performance was simply great.  He showed himself a brilliant 
technician and an exquisite magician at the keyboard.  From Bach’s 
Preludium emerged a tango by Astor Piazolla as if it were the most 
natural thing in the world and out of Arnold Schoenberg’s Fantasia for 
Violin op. 47, he created a veritable blues piece.”
						Mittelbayrische Zeitung, Germany

“Fox is a virtuoso, his command of classical, jazz, and contemporary is 
profound; profound enough to keep all-star drummer, Al Foster, of the 
Miles Davis (Comeback) Band and bassist, Kenny Dais, (formerly of the 
“Tonight Show”) straight, straight and playing their hearts out to keep 
up with the seemingly four-handed Fox.”
						Matthew Berger, Boston Tab

He’s created an area almost of is own, he straddles classical 
composition with jazz injecting rhythm questions that compliment both 
sides.  It’s the closest thing today to the old John Lewis, Milton 
Jackson Modern Jazz Quartet.”
						Fred Taylor, Artistic  Director,
						Tanglewood Jazz Festival, USA, and
						founder of the famed Paul’s Mall-Jazz
						Workshop, Boston

“Composer/pianist, Donal Fox, has an extraordinary musical reach–Latin 
vamps, New Orleans second line marches, free-jazz explosiions, Monk 
taken to the out-there edges of Schoenberg and Webern, a lyric take on 
Bach or Chopin or jaz trio.  He’s got the all-over power of McCoy Tyner 
and the superb keyboard marksmanship of Ellington and Horowitz”
						Jon Garelick, Boston Phoenix


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