For Immediate Release
Contact: Leah Grammatica / LGPR
212.243.6052, leahgram@aol.com
 Katie Barna / Cohn Dutcher Associates
917.339.7189, kbarna@cohndutcher.com

2007 CARAMOOR INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL

TWO FULL DAYS OF JAZZ

Performers to include Latin Jazz Legend
Eddie Palmieri's Afro-Caribbean Jazz Septet,
David Sánchez Quartet, Steve Turre Quintet,
Joe Lovano/Paquito D'Rivera Festival Ensemble

Plus   Brad Mehldau Trio, Fred Hersch, Geri Allen Trio,
Arturo O'Farrill Trio, Weber Iago & Jovino Santos Neto,
Odean Pope Saxophone Choir with special guest Joe Lovano

All-Day Concerts on July 28 and August 4

Katonah, New York - As summer brings the sound of jazz to festivals around the world, the 2007 Caramoor International Music Festival, which The New York Times called "...the loveliest Festival of them all," will present two days of jazz on two consecutive Saturdays, July 28 and August 4, for Caramoor's fourteenth annual Jazz Festival.  Joe Lovano, widely acclaimed tenor saxophonist and Caramoor's Artistic Director of Jazz, and Jim Luce, Caramoor's Jazz Festival Producer, have programmed the all-day Jazz Festivals this year with an emphasis on Latin Jazz as part of Caramoor's Latin-American Music Initiative, Sonidos Latinos. The two days will continue Caramoor?s tradition of presenting world-class jazz artists in a variety of ensemble settings.

Caramoor's jazz concerts are held in the acoustically superb Venetian Theater with hourly sets beginning at 3:00 p.m. The music breaks at 6:30 p.m., when jazz fans can enjoy a picnic on the beautiful Caramoor grounds.  Just for jazz, Caramoor's new exclusive caterer, Great Performances®, will be on hand to grill chicken, burgers, ribs and hot dogs.  The music continues with sets at 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. Both all-day programs are designed to allow visitors to come and go throughout the day and evening. Tickets for each all-day Jazz Festival are priced at $35.00 and $50.00. Tickets may be ordered by calling the Caramoor Box Office at 914-232-1252 or online at caramoor.org.

"It's a thrill for me to be Artistic Director and participate musically in one of the world's most creative jazz festivals today. The music is as fresh as the flowering gardens around us.  Come celebrate all the blessings of life with jazz at Caramoor," said Joe Lovano.

"Thanks to Joe Lovano and Jim Luce, Caramoor's Jazz Festival has become astonishingly varied and diverse," said Michael Barrett, Caramoor's General Director. "The Caramoor Jazz Festival all-day ticket is one of the most outstanding values in jazz."

The David Sánchez Quartet, led by the brilliant Puerto Rican tenor saxophonist David Sánchez, who won a Latin GRAMMY® Award for Best Instrumental Album of 2005, launches the festival on July 28 at 3:00 p.m.  The day's events, entitled "The Latin Pulse - Sonidos Latinos V," continue with a performance at 4:00 p.m. by the Geri Allen Trio, led by musically daring pianist/composer Geri Allen. The Steve Turre Quintet, featuring the highly innovative Steve Turre on trombone and conch shells, will perform at 5:00, followed by a dinner break. At 8:00 p.m., two world-renowned Brazilian pianists, Weber Iago and Jovino Santos Neto, square off in a Piano Summit. And at 9:00 p.m. legendary, multiple GRAMMY® Award-winning pianist/bandleader Eddie Palmieri, who changed the sound of Latin music, brings the first festival to an exciting conclusion with the Eddie Palmieri Afro-Caribbean Jazz Septet.

The second day-long Jazz festival, "Great Musical Minds," begins with a 3:00 set by Arturo O'Farrill Trio led by GRAMMY®-nominated pianist and composer Arturo O'Farrill, a champion in the preservation of Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz.  At 4:00, one of the most creative musicians in jazz, Fred Hersch, nominated for a 2006 GRAMMY® Award for Best Instrumental Composition, will perform a solo piano set.  The Odean Pope Saxophone Choir, with special guest Joe Lovano, plays a 5:00 set featuring master tenor saxophonist Odean Pope, who was a member of the Max Roach Quartet for over a quarter of a century and performed with such jazz luminaries as Elvin Jones, Miles Davis, and McCoy Tyner. After a dinner break, the music resumes with an 8:00 p.m. set by the Brad Mehldau Trio, featuring one of today's most adventurous pianists, Brad Mehldau, who seamlessly integrates jazz, rock, and classical music into his highly inventive improvisations. And at 9:00 p.m. the festival ends with Caramoor Jazz Festival Artistic Director Joe Lovano and Composer-in-Residence Paquito D'Rivera leading the Joe Lovano/Paquito D'Rivera Festival Ensemble for a spectacular meeting of musical minds.

Joe Lovano's reputation as one of today's great tenor saxophonists stems from his search for new modes of artistic expression and new takes on what defines the jazz idiom. His numerous awards include a 2006 GRAMMY® nomination for Best Large Ensemble for Streams of Expression; Down Beat Critics and Readers polls Tenor Saxophonist of the Year in 2004 and 2005; The New York Times 2004 Jazz Album of the Year for his ballads recording I'm All For You, featuring legendary pianist Hank Jones; a 2000 GRAMMY® Award for Best Large Ensemble for 52nd Street Themes; and a 2001 appointment as the first Gary Burton Chair in Jazz Performance at his alma mater, Berklee College of Music. Lovano has long experimented with varying ensembles and formats, including playing unaccompanied saxophone and gongs, in duets, trios, quartets, quintets, his Wind Ensemble, Street Band and Nonet.  In May 2007, Blue Note will release Kids: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, a duo CD featuring national treasure Hank Jones - their third album together - and one of the most beautiful recordings of Lovano's career.

David Sánchez, hailed as the most profound young tenor saxophonist working today, pushes the frontiers of mainstream jazz with Latin and Afro-Caribbean influences. Puerto Rican-born Sánchez won a music scholarship at Rutgers University in 1988 and quickly joined New York's jazz scene, gigging with piano giant Eddie Palmieri and trumpeter Claudio Roditi, and joining Dizzy Gillespie's "Live the Future" tour with Miriam Makeba in 1991. He garnered his first GRAMMY nomination with the Branford Marsalis-produced Obsesión, followed by the GRAMMY-nominated Melaza. A prolific composer, Sánchez was named a 2005 grant recipient of Chamber Music America's prestigious "New Works: Creation and Presentation" program. He has been a visiting professor at conservatories and universities around the world and was artist-in-residence at Georgia State University in 2005-06. His most recent recording for Columbia, Coral, recorded in Prague with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, earned the saxophonist?s fourth GRAMMY nomination and won a 2005 Latin GRAMMY for Best Instrumental Album.

Geri Allen grew up in Detroit and earned a degree in jazz studies from Howard University and a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Moving to New York City, she performed with Betty Carter, Oliver Lake, Mal Waldron, and Charles Lloyd. Allen's first major label release was 1992's The Nurturer (Blue Note). In 1995, she was the first recipient of Soul Train's Lady of Soul Award for Jazz Album of the Year for Twenty-One, featuring Tony Williams and Ron Carter. In 1996 she was the first woman to win the coveted Danish Jazzpar prize. That same year, she participated in Ornette Coleman's Sound Museum projects and also played the role of Mary Lou Williams in Robert Altman's film "Kansas City."  In 1998 she released the large group recording The Gathering (Verve). Her most recent CD, The Life of a Song (Telarc), features eight original compositions propelled by veterans Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette.

Steve Turre, one of the world's preeminent jazz innovators, has consistently won both Readers and Critics polls in JazzTimes, Downbeat, and Jazziz for Best Trombone and Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist (shells). Born to Mexican-American parents, he grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and while attending Sacramento State University joined the Escovedo Brothers salsa band. In 1972 Ray Charles hired him to go on tour. A year later Turre's mentor Woody Shaw brought him into Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Turre has worked with a diverse list of musicians from the jazz, Latin, and pop worlds, including Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, J.J. Johnson, Herbie Hancock, Tito Puente, Van Morrison, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, who introduced him to the seashell as an instrument. A member of the Saturday Night Live Band since 1984, Turre leads and records with several different ensembles, including Sanctified Shells and Sextet with Strings.

Weber Iago, born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, won many prestigious piano and organ competitions throughout his teenage years. While attending the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, he developed his compositional skills writing for the University's ensembles. A soloist for the university's 1984 symphonic season, he performed Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G. After graduating in 1985, Iago was invited to join the famous Tabajara Orchestra, and gained recognition as a consummate classical pianist touring throughout Brazil. In 1987, he immigrated to the US and began opening for such artists as Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dianne Reeves, and Terrence Blanchard, and recording with James Newton, Moacir Santos, and the great Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo, as well as leading his own group Zen Blend. Iago has spent recent years recording and performing his compositions around the world.

Jovino Santos Neto, Rio de Janeiro-born pianist, flutist, and composer, was a member of Hermeto Pascoal's legendary band from 1977 to 1992 and built a reputation as a creative musician, producer and arranger working with such artists as Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, and Mike Marshall. Relocating to the US in 1993 after performing on Sergio Mendes's GRAMMY® Award-winning world music album Brasileiro, Santos Neto released a debut solo album, Caboclo, in 1997, followed by Live in Olympia in 2000 and Canto do Rio in 2003, which was commissioned by Chamber Music America's New Works program and was nominated for a 2004 Latin GRAMMY® Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. His latest CD, Roda Carioca, was released in 2006 on Adventure Music and earned his second Latin GRAMMY nomination. Santos Neto received the Golden Ear Award as the Best Jazz Instrumentalist of the Pacific Northwest in 2004.

Eddie Palmieri, the Spanish Harlem-born leader of salsa and Latin jazz orchestras and one of the foremost Latin pianists of all time, revolutionized the sound of Latin music. Palmieri's discography includes more than 32 titles, and he's received nine GRAMMY® Awards, including the first presentation in the Best Latin Album category for his 1975 release The Sun of Latin Music, and the following year for Unfinished Masterpiece.  Palo Pa' Rumba won in 1984, Solito in 1985, and La Verdad in 1987. He received both a GRAMMY Award and a Latin GRAMMY for his 2000 release Obra Maestra/Masterpiece with Tito Puente. His 2005 recording Listen Here! (Concord Records) won the GRAMMY for Best Latin Jazz Album, and he recently won the honor again for his 2006 collaboration with Brian Lynch, Simpatico.  In 1988, the Smithsonian recorded two of Palmieri's performances for the National Museum of American History. At the 1998 Heineken Jazz Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he was honored for his contributions as a bandleader, he received an honorary doctor of music degree from Berklee College of Music.

Arturo O'Farrill, son of legendary bandleader Chico O'Farrill, was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. Educated at the Manhattan School of Music, Brooklyn College Conservatory, and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, O'Farrill played piano with the Carla Bley Big Band from 1979 through 1983 and later performed with such artists as Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Turre, The Fort Apache Band, Lester Bowie, and Harry Belafonte. In 1995 he became music director of Chico O'Farrill?s Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, which has been in residence at Birdland for ten years. He has recorded five albums as a leader and appeared on numerous recordings, including his father's GRAMMY-nominated Heart of a Legend and Carambola, and the soundtrack to the critically acclaimed film "Calle 54." O'Farrill was a guest soloist at three landmark Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts. In 2002 he created the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra for Jazz at Lincoln Center. His debut album with the Orchestra, Una Noche Inolvidable, earned a GRAMMY nomination in 2006.

Fred Hersch, pianist and composer, has reinvented the standard jazz repertoire with his fresh ideas and extraordinary technique, while creating his own unique body of works. Described by The New Yorker as "a poet of a pianist," his many accomplishments include a 2003 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for composition, a Rockefeller Fellowship for a composition residency at the Bellagio Center in Italy, two GRAMMY® nominations for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance and a 2006 GRAMMY® nomination for Best Instrumental Composition. He has recorded more than two dozen albums as a solo artist or bandleader and appears on over one hundred recording projects as a duo collaborator, sideman or featured soloist and has appeared as a soloist with orchestras across the U.S. and Europe. He created Leaves of Grass (Palmetto Records), a large-scale setting of Walt Whitman's poetry for two voices (Kurt Elling and Kate McGarry) and an instrumental octet, presented at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in a sold-out performance in March 2005 as part of a six-city US tour.

Odean Pope, an accomplished composer, arranger, and educator, has been one of most exciting tenor players in jazz for over four decades (and the master of circular breathing). Born in South Carolina, Pope began his professional career at Philadelphia's Uptown Theater, backing up such R&B legends as Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, and the Temptations, and developing his trademark robust sound. His jazz break came as a teenager when John Coltrane asked him to sub for him in the Jimmy Smith Trio. A virtuoso musician who was featured soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra on Duke Ellington's The Three Black Kings, Odean was a member of the Max Roach Quartet for over a quarter-century. Odean's own musical vision is most fully expressed via his Saxophone Choir (nine saxophones + rhythm section), captured beautifully on his Half-Note CD Locked and Loaded, featuring guest artists Michael Brecker, James Carter, and Joe Lovano. The June 2006 issue of JazzTimes devoted eight pages to Odean and the Choir.

Brad Mehldau, one of the most adventurous jazz pianists on the scene, has recorded and performed extensively since the early '90s, primarily with his trio featuring bassists Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy. Between 1996 and 2000, they released several CDs on Warner Brothers, including five entitled The Art of the Trio. In 2005, drummer Jeff Ballard joined the trio. Mehldau has collaborated with innovative film composer Jon Brion, classical soprano Renée Flemming, and most recently with guitarist Pat Metheny on the acclaimed Metheny Mehldau (Nonesuch 2006). Mehldau has recorded with Wayne Shorter, John Scolfield and Charles Lloyd, and played on recordings outside the jazz idiom, notably Willie Nelson's Teatro. In March 2007 Mehldau will debut "The Brady Bunch Variations for piano and orchestra" at Theatre du Chatelet in Paris with Orchestre national d'Ile-de-France.

Paquito D'Rivera, a child prodigy in his native Cuba, played both clarinet and saxophone with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra. He created various musical ensembles as a teenager, including the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna, and was a founding member and co-director of the innovative musical ensemble Irakere. With its explosive mixture of jazz, rock, classical and traditional Cuban music, Irakere toured extensively throughout America and Europe and won a GRAMMY® Award in 1979, the first of nine for D'Rivera, who received his first GRAMMY as a solo artist in 1996 for the highly acclaimed Portraits of Cuba. Recently he received his ninth GRAMMY for Best Classical Recording for Riberas with the Buenos Aires String Quartet. He also won a GRAMMY for Best Instrumental Composition in 2005 for his "Merengue" performed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma. While his discography includes over 30 solo albums in jazz, bebop and Latin music, he has also made numerous contributions to classical music as a soloist and composer. In 2005 he was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master and also received the National Medal for the Arts from President George W. Bush at the White House.

Fazioli Piano
Pianists at this year's Caramoor Jazz Festival will play the Fazioli F-278 piano, courtesy of Klavierhaus, Inc., 211 West 58th Street, in New York City. Klavierhaus is the authorized dealer for Fazioli Pianoforti of Sacile, Italy. Fewer than 100 Faziolis are available worldwide each year.

About Caramoor
Caramoor is the legacy of Walter and Lucie Rosen, who built the great house and filled it with their treasures. Walter Rosen was the master planner for the Caramoor estate, bringing to reality his dream of creating a place to entertain friends from around the world. Their musical evenings were the seeds of the International Music Festival today. Realizing the pleasure their friends took in the beauty of Caramoor - the house with its art collection; the gardens; and the musical programs on summer evenings - the Rosens established a Foundation to open Caramoor to the public in perpetuity. Lucie Rosen survived her husband by seventeen years. During those years, she expanded the Music Festival: The Spanish Courtyard was used as a setting for musical events, as it is today. Under her direction, the great stage of the Venetian Theater was built.

Caramoor is a Garden of Great Music. "We invite people to come early, explore our beautiful grounds, take a tour of the House Museum, visit our gift shops, enjoy a pre-concert picnic, and discover beautiful music in a relaxed setting," advises Paul Rosenblum, Caramoor's Managing Director. With its unique heritage, Caramoor remains a place where magical summer days and nights are shared and enjoyed by thousands. "Caramoor is the loveliest Festival of them all." - The New York Times

Art and Gardens
Concerts take place in two outdoor theaters - the large, acoustically superb Venetian Theater, and the more intimate, romantic Spanish Courtyard. Caramoor is more than just music - there is beauty at every turn. The House Museum, the former summer home of Caramoor's founders, Lucie and Walter Rosen, contains a vast collection of Renaissance, 18th-century, and Eastern art objects --  furniture, tapestries, sculpture, paintings, fabrics, porcelain and jade. There are entire rooms that were imported from European palaces and villas, twenty of which are open to the public. The Caramoor Caldwell collection includes well over 100 objects, pieces that were commissioned either for Caramoor or the Rosens' New York City residence. On Thursdays and Fridays, Afternoon Tea is served in the Summer Dining Room, overlooking the Spanish Courtyard.

Caramoor's gardens are also well worth the visit. Nine unique perennial gardens including a Sense Circle for the visually handicapped, a Butterfly Garden, a Medieval Mount, and two whose special characteristics are enjoyed primarily at night may be seen on a guided tour or on one's own.

House Museum
Guided tours of the House Museum are provided from Wednesday through Sunday, 1-4 p.m., with the last tour at 3 p.m. On Saturdays, during the Festival, tours are given from 1-5 p.m., with the last tour at 4 p.m. Tickets are $9 (children 16 and under free).

Getting to Caramoor
Caramoor is easy to get to by car or mass transportation. From Manhattan, take the Caramoor Caravan and ride comfortably in a luxurious, air-conditioned coach. Round trip service is $21 and is available for all Saturday and Sunday performances during the Festival. The Caravan departs from the Port Authority Bus Terminal and Upper West Side and East Side locations. Call the Box Office (914-232-1252) for further information and reservations. By train, take the Harlem Division of the Metro-North Railroad to Katonah. Taxi service from the station to Caramoor (5 minutes away) is available. By car: (West Side Manhattan, New Jersey) Take the Saw Mill River Parkway north to Katonah. Exit at Route 35/Cross River. Turn right, and at the first traffic light make a right turn onto Route 22 south. Travel 1.9 miles to junction of Girdle Ridge Road. Follow the signs to Caramoor. (Detailed directions: 914-232-5035, press 2 or online at Caramoor.org).

TICKETS
Tickets may be ordered by calling the Box Office at 914-232-1252 or online at caramoor.org.

This concert is made possible by generous support from the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

*This set is made possible by generous support from the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

Press Tickets:
Leah Grammatica
212.243.6052
leahgram@aol.com