[members-announce] TANGLEWOOD JAZZ FESTIVAL 2007

[dawn singh]

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 30, 2007


BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PRESENTS 2007 TANGLEWOOD JAZZ FESTIVAL, TO  
TAKE PLACE
AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 2, 2007 IN LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS

FEATURED PERFORMERS INCLUDE RANDY CRAWFORD & JOE SAMPLE, KURT ELLING,
AHMAD JAMAL, PONCHO SANCHEZ LATIN BIG BAND, HANK JONES, ROBERTA  
GAMBARINI,
JIMMY HEATH, MARIAN MCPARTLAND

Cunard Line Comes Aboard as the Official Cruise Line of the Boston  
Symphony
Orchestra and Sponsor of the Tanglewood Jazz Festival

The Boston Symphony Orchestra will present its annual Labor Day Weekend
Tanglewood Jazz Festival August 31-September 2 at the Orchestra's  
summer home
in the Berkshire Mountains in Lenox, Massachusetts.  Jazz greats  
highlighting
this year's festival include  Randy Crawford & Joe Sample, Kurt  
Elling, Ahmad
Jamal, the Poncho Sanchez Latin Big Band, Hank Jones, Roberta  
Gambarini, Jimmy
Heath, and Marian McPartland.  All shows will be held in Seiji Ozawa  
Hall.

Opening the festival Friday, August 31, at 8 p.m. will be the Poncho  
Sanchez
Latin Jazz Band.  One of the most popular Latin jazz groups in the  
world today,
the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band pays homage to the glories of a  
half-century
tradition that was born when Afro-Cuban rhythms merged with bebop.  
The program
will feature selections from  Do It! , the latest in a long series of  
releases
that began on the Concord Picante label in 1982 and features a duet  
between the
trombone and tenor sax. Two tracks on the CD feature the entire nine- 
member
Tower of Power, the high-octane symbol of the funk era of the 1970s.   
Another
two tracks boast guest artist and legendary South African musician Hugh
Masekela.

Poncho Sanchez's life story has become a well-known part of Latin
jazz lore.  He was born in Texas on October 30, 1951 into a large
Mexican-American family but grew up in the Los Angeles area, where he  
heard a
broad range of Latin and non-Latin popular music. Inspired by the  
conga playing
of Cuban great Mongo Santamaria, he honed his skills as a  
percussionist and
broke into the limelight at the age of 23 when he joined vibraphonist  
Cal
Tjader's famed Latin jazz ensemble in 1975.  Poncho performed with  
him until
Tjader's untimely death in 1982. A year later, he began his  
unprecedented
23-year relationship with Concord Records, which has produced two dozen
recordings, a Grammy Award, and several Grammy nominations.

On Saturday, September 1, the lineup will kickoff at 3 p.m. with a  
live taping of NPR's
'Piano Jazz' with host Marian McPartland on her sixth year at  
Tanglewood.  Her
guest for this year's taping will be announced at a later date. Ms.  
McPartland
has interviewed more than 500 musicians and performers including  
Norah Jones
(recorded live at Tanglewood), Diana Krall, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy  
Gillespie,
Rosemary Clooney, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Brad Mehldau, Ray  
Charles, Carmen
McRae, and even William F. Buckley.  Her easy, comfortable style,  
charm and
quick wit engage her guests in fascinating and sometimes revealing
conversations while seated at the piano.

Headlining the festival on Saturday, September 1, at 8 p.m. will be  
Kurt Elling
with some very special friends, followed by Randy Crawford and Joe  
Sample.

Kurt Elling has been nominated for seven Grammy Awards for his  
recordings on
Blue Note.  For six consecutive years, he has been at the top of the  
DownBeat
Critics and JazzTimes readers' polls, has won three Jazz Journalists
Association Awards for best male vocalist, and the Prix Billie  
Holiday from the
Academie du Jazz in Paris.  His quartet has toured the world  
performing to
critical acclaim in Europe, the Middle East, South America, Asia, and
Australia, and at jazz festivals and concert halls across North America.

One of Kurt Elling's major contributions is as a writer and performer  
of vocalese, the
art of putting words to improvised solos of jazz artists.  The  
natural heir to
jazz pioneers Eddie Jefferson, King Pleasure and Jon Hendricks,  
Elling is the
contemporary voice in vocalese.  Kurt Elling has been featured in  
profiles for
CBS Sunday Morning, CNN, and for hundreds of newspaper and magazine  
articles.

For more than three decades, Randy Crawford has traversed a musical  
spectrum
ranging from jazz and soul to R&B and pop.  Crawford's warm timbre and
inventive, emotional phrasing has won her countless fans around the  
globe.  At
the age of 20, Crawford released her first single,  'If You Say the  
Word,'  and
by the following year she had shared stages with legendary jazz artists
Cannonball Adderly, George Benson, and Quincy Jones.

Crawford's first album Everything Must Change was released in 1976  
and in 1978
she made her debut on the international charts serving as guest  
vocalist on the Crusaders'
hit 'Street Life'  which is heard on the soundtrack to the Quentin  
Tarantino film,
Jackie Brown.  Smooth ballads such as 'One Day I'll Fly Away' became  
Crawford's
trademark, though albums like 1981's Secret Combination and 1983's  
Nightline
saw the singer delve into funkier, more up-tempo terrain.  Her 1990  
collection,
Rich and Poor, included a hit cover of Bob Dylan's 'Knockin' On  
Heaven's Door,'
that also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Lethal Weapon 2.

Jazz pianist Joe Sample was born and raised in Houston, Texas.  He  
formed the
seminal group the Jazz Crusaders, later known as the Crusaders, as a  
teenager
in the early 1950s with neighborhood buddies, Wilton Felder, Stix  
Hooper, and
Wayne Henderson.  The group became one of the all-time leading jazz  
ensembles
and pioneered the way for the sound of contemporary jazz.  Joe's  
first solo
record in 1973, Carmel, became a classic pop jazz album before anyone  
knew what
'pop jazz' was.  He continues today as one of the legendary figures in
contemporary jazz.

Randy Crawford and Joe Sample first collaborated during the
recording of her debut album, Everything Must Change,  on which Joe  
played.
Shortly after, while writing songs for his band, the Crusaders, Joe  
invited
Randy to appear as a guest on their record and wrote 'Street Life'  
especially
for her.  'Street Life' became an international hit for the Crusaders  
and
launched Randy on her own successful career. Their new CD, Feeling  
Good, on
Emarcy Records, is produced by legendary producer, Tommy LiPuma, and  
is Randy's
first recording in seven years.  Randy's performances underscore her  
position
as one of the premier vocalists in contemporary music and Joe's piano  
playing
and arrangements envelop Randy's voice and capture the essence of  
each song.

The  Sunday, September 2,  2 p.m. concert will be announced at a  
later date.

Closing out the festival on Sunday, September 2, at 8 p.m., will be  
Hank Jones
and Roberta Gambarini followed by Ahmad Jamal and Jimmy Heath.

Hank Jones is one of the most versatile and durable of modern jazz  
pianists.  An outstanding
accompanist of vocalists, he played with Ella Fitzgerald from 1948-53  
and
recorded as a leader with Coleman Hawkins, Wes Montgomery, Charlie  
Parker and
Ben Webster.

Roberta Gambarini was born in Torino, Italy, into a family that
loved jazz.  By 17, she was singing and performing in jazz clubs around
Northern Italy and moved to Milan to pursue a career as a jazz  
singer.  Soon
after her move to Milan, Roberta took third place in a national jazz  
radio
competition on TV leading to performance opportunities at jazz festivals
throughout Italy for several years.  In 1998 she moved to the United  
States
with a scholarship from the New England Conservatory in Boston.  Two  
weeks
later, Roberta stunned many in the jazz world with a third place  
finish in the
Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocal Competition. Since then, she  
has
performed with Michael Brecker, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Slide  
Hampton, Roy
Hargrove, Jimmy Heath, Hank Jones, Christian McBride and Toots  
Thielemans,
among many others, and has performed at Kennedy Center, Lincoln  
Center, Town
Hall, and Walt Disney Concert Hall and jazz festivals around the  
world.  Her
first American release, Easy to Love, on Groovin High Records  
features special
guest, James Moody.

Ahmad Jamal is one of the most distinctive and influential
jazz pianists of the past half century.  Leader of his own trio since  
1951,
Jamal makes extensive use of silence, space, and dynamics.  A profound
influence on the music of Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett, and scores of  
others, he
has been called 'an American original.'  Jamal received an American Jazz
Masters Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994  
and was
inducted into the New Jersey Jazz Hall of Fame in 2003.

Jimmy Heath has long been recognized as a brilliant instrumentalist  
and a magnificent composer and
arranger.  Jimmy is the middle brother of the legendary Heath  
Brothers (Percy
Heath/bass and Tootie Heath/drums) and is the father of Mtume.   He has
performed with nearly all the jazz greats of the last 50 years, from  
Howard
McGhee, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis to Wynton Marsalis.  In 1948  
at the
age of 21, he performed in the First International Jazz Festival in  
Paris with
McGhee, sharing the stage with Coleman Hawkins, Slam Stewart, and Erroll
Garner.  One of Heath's earliest big bands (1947-1948) in  
Philadelphia included
John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Specs Wright, Cal Massey, Johnny Coles, Ray
Bryant, and Nelson Boyd.  Charlie Parker and Max Roach sat in on one  
occasion.

During his career, Jimmy Heath has performed on more than 100 record  
albums
including seven with The Heath Brothers and twelve as a leader.   
Jimmy has also
written more than 125 compositions, many of which have become jazz  
standards
and have been recorded by other artists including Art Farmer, Cannonball
Adderley, Clark Terry, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, James Moody, Milt  
Jackson,
Ahmad Jamal, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie,  J.J. Johnson, and Dexter  
Gordon.
Jimmy has also composed extended works'seven suites and two string  
quartets'and
he premiered his first symphonic work, Three Ears, in 1988 at Queens  
College
(CUNY) with Maurice Peress conducting.

After concluding eleven years as Professor of Music at the Aaron  
Copland School
of Music at Queens College,Heath maintains an extensive performance  
schedule
and continues to conduct workshops and clinics throughout the United  
States, Europe,
and Canada.  He has also taught jazz studies at Jazzmobile,  
Housatonic College,
City College of New York, and The New School for Social Research.  In  
October 1997,
two of his former students, trumpeters Darren Barrett and Diego  
Urcola, placed first and
second in the Thelonious Monk Competition.

Cunard Line, whose fleet comprises The Most Famous Ocean Liners in  
the World (SM),
Queen Mary 2 and QE2, and our newest royal, Queen Victoria, comes  
aboard for the first
time as the official cruise line and sponsor of the 2007 Tanglewood  
Jazz Festival.
During its storied 167-year history, Cunard's renowned ships have  
transported society's
luminaries, notables, and famed artists around the world in unrivaled  
style.
Sumptuous surroundings and the line's legendary White Star Service  
(SM) have
made Cunard the preferred choice of luxury travel for generations.

Tickets for the 2007 Tanglewood Jazz Festival are available by  
calling SymphonyCharge at
888-266-1200 or online at www.tanglewood.org. and in person at the  
Tanglewood
Box Office in Lenox.  All ticket prices include a $1 Tanglewood Grounds
Maintenance Fee.  For further information, please call the Boston  
Symphony
Orchestra at 617-266-1492. The Tanglewood Jazz Festival is sponsored by
JazzTimes Magazine and Borders Books.

2007 Tanglewood Jazz Festival Ticket Prices:

Friday, September 1, 8 p.m.
Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band
Second Act TBA
$40-57/lawn $17

Saturday, September 2, 3 p.m.
Marian McPartland Live taping for NPR's 'Piano
Jazz' with special guest TBA
$30-47/lawn $18

Saturday, September 2, 8 p.m.
Kurt Elling with Very Special Friends
Randy Crawford & Joe Sample
$43-68/lawn $20

Sunday, September 3, 2 p.m.
TBA

Sunday, September 3, 8 p.m.
Hank Jones & Roberta Gambarini
Ahmad Jamal & Jimmy Heath
$40-57/lawn $17


For additional information, bios and photos on the performing  
artists, please
review the electronic press kit at www.tanglewoodjazzfestival.org/ 
presskit or
www.tanglewoodjazzfestival.com/presskit or to request a first-class  
mailing
contact:

Dawn Singh	
Dawn Singh Publicity		
505-771-0417 (office)		
857-544-0739 (cell)			
dawn at dawnsinghpublicity.com							 											

Kathleen Drohan
Boston Symphony Orchestra
      Press Office
617-638-9280
kdrohan at bso.org