For Immediate Release
Contact: Cohn Dutcher Associates
Lois Cohn, 917.339.7188, lcohn@cohndutcher.com
Dan Dutcher, 917.339.7157, ddutcher@cohndutcher.com
Josh Marcum, 917.339.7188, jmarcum@cohndutcher.com
David Mayhew, 203.533.5621, david@davidmayhew.net

CARAMOOR INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
ANNOUNCES
THREE DAYS OF JAZZ
 
 Performers to include Ahmad Jamal,
Mulgrew Miller's Wingspan, Jimmy Heath Big Band,
Michel Camilo Trio with Charles Flores and Dafnis Prieto,
Pianist Aaron Diehl,
Ricardo Peixoto and Claudia Villela,
Wynton Marsalis
PLUS Cuban Piano Summit:
Elio Villafranca and Chuchito Valdes

August 1, 2, and 3

Katonah, New York - The 2008 Caramoor International Music Festival, hailed by The New York Times as"... the loveliest Festival of them all," presents a weekend of jazz on August 1, 2 and 3.  The legendary pianist Ahmad Jamal and his trio were chosen by Jim Luce, Caramoor's jazz producer, to open Caramoor's fifteenth annual Jazz Festival.  Other highlights include performances by Festival headliner Wynton Marsalis, Mulgrew Miller's Wingspan, Jimmy Heath Big Band, and pianist Aaron Diehl.  The Festival's emphasis on Latin Jazz as part of Sonidos Latinos, Caramoor's
Latin-American Music Initiative, continues with a Cuban Piano Summit featuring Elio Villafranca and Chuchito Valdes, 50 Years of Bossa Nova with the Brazilian duo of Ricardo Peixoto and Claudia Villela, and concluding with the Michel Camilo Trio with Charles Flores and Dafnis Prieto.  The innovative and delightfully surprising improvisations heard in the intimate Spanish Courtyard and in the Venetian Theater show why Caramoor is the perfect environment for summertime jazz.

ARTISTS
Westchester resident Michel Camilo is a native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  He studied for 13 years at the National Conservatory and at the age of 16 became a member of the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic (NSODR).  He moved to New York in 1979, where he studied at Mannes College and The Juilliard School. In addition to an extensive touring schedule, Mr. Camilo, an accomplished composer, has had his works recorded by by Paquito D'Rivera and the Manhattan Transfer.  The latter won a Grammy® Award in 1983 for their vocal version of his composition Why Not!

Mr. Camilo made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1985 with his trio and toured Europe that same year.  His frequent collaborations with Flamenco guitarist Tomatito led to them to winning a Latin Grammy Award in 2000 for their album Spain.  Mr. Camilo is featured among the artists in Calle 54, a film about Latin jazz by Academy Award-winning director Fernando Trueba.  His classical CD for DECCA features him with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin performing his Concerto for Piano & Orchestra and his Suite for Piano, Strings & Harp.

Aaron Diehl grew up playing classical piano and segued to jazz.  While in Columbus, Ohio he performed with the Columbus Youth Jazz Orchestra, and while completing his junior year at Saint Charles Preparatory School, he was named an Outstanding Soloist at the 2002 Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition, sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center. Diehl was recently featured in The Juilliard School: A Life of Pain and Joy, a retrospective on the School's 100th anniversary.  His recent trio album entitled Mozart Jazz, combines classical favorites with a delightful jazz flair.

Dizzy Gillespie said, "If you know Jimmy Heath, you know Bop." Heath has long been recognized as a brilliant instrumentalist, a magnificent composer, and arranger.  He is the middle brother of the legendary Heath Brothers (bassist Percy and drummer Tootie), and is the father of Mtume. He has performed with nearly every jazz great 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, sharing the stage with McGhee, Coleman Hawkins, Slam Stewart, and Erroll Garner.  One of Heat'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.  He has also written more than 125 compositions, many of which have become jazz standards and have been recorded by artists such as 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.  He 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.

Critic Stanley Crouch likens Ahmad Jamal's impact on musical form in jazz to "Jelly Roll Morton, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Count Basie, Theolonius Monk, Horace Silver and John Lewis, all thinkers whose wrestling with form and content influenced the shape and texture of the music, and whose ensembles were models of their music visions."  Considering his Trio ?an orchestra," Jamal not only achieves a unified sound, but subtly inserts independent roles for the bass and drums. The hallmarks of Jamal's style are rhythmic innovations, colorful harmonic perceptions, parallel and contrary motion lines in and out of chordal substitutions and alterations, and pedal-point ostinato interludes in tasteful dynamics.  He also incorporates a unique sense of space in his music, allowing his musical concepts to hold excitement without being loud in volume.  With these unique principles, Jamal impressed and influenced, among others, trumpeter Miles Davis. Like Louis Armstrong, Jamal is an exemplary ensemble player who inspires his musicians to surpass themselves.

Grammy Award-winner Wynton Marsalis has been described as the most outstanding jazz musician and trumpeter of his generation, as one of the world's top classical trumpeters, as a big band leader in the tradition of Duke Ellington, as a brilliant composer, as a devoted advocate for the Arts and as a tireless and inspiring educator.  Marsalis has performed with Art Blakey, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Sweets Edison, Clark Terry, Sonny Rollins, and countless other jazz legends.  The sound of Wynton Marsalis' band is inspired by the basic principles of democracy.  According to Marsalis, what you hear in a great jazz band is the sound of democracy. "The jazz band works best when participation is shaped by intelligent communication." This intelligent, hard swinging interplay has made Marsalis' bands the favorite among jazz musicians and audiences worldwide.

Born in 1955 in Greenwood, Mississippi, Mulgrew Miller played country, gospel, R&B for dance bands, and the blues, until he saw The Oscar Peterson Trio perform on television at age 15.  Although he also studied classical piano and formed a trio while in high school, Miller immediately dedicated himself to becoming a jazz musician.  According to Miller, "When I saw him [Peterson], I realized there was a way to do something with music - and do it with integrity and in a way that demanded virtuosity but wasn't classically oriented."  Pivotal to Miller's transition to jazz was his studies at Memphis State University with Donald Brown and James Williams, pianists who would later work with him alongside a very young Geoff Keezer and Harold Mabern in the late 1980s-early 1990s as part of The Contemporary Piano Ensemble, a group dedicated to the music of Memphis' native son, Phineas Newborn.  After recently touring with the Dave Holland Sextet, Miller's recent focus has been on his quintet Wingspan, and his current Trio, which consists of bassist Ivan Taylor and drummer Rodney Green.

Ricardo Peixot's fluid melodic sense and original harmonic approach place him as one of the foremost Brazilian guitarists in the world today.  An inspired improviser with a keen compositional sense, Peixoto's unique and eloquent style evokes images far beyond Brazilian boundaries. Whether in the role of guitarist, composer or arranger, Peixoto draws from a broad range of instruments in a wide variety of musical dialects.  "I like to explore the use of many types of guitars, using each one's unique voice," says Peixoto.  "I often prefer to create textures with acoustic instruments, in lieu of synthesizers."  Although the classical seven-string guitar is his instrument of choice, Peixoto also relies on a 12-string guitar, octave guitar, cavaquinho and tenor banjo as well as electric guitars to produce his rich, sonorous landscape.  In addition to working with Claudia Villela, he has recorded and toured with Flora Purim and Airto, alto saxophonist Bud Shank, percussionist Dom Um Romão, keyboardist Marcos Silva as well as with his popular ensemble, Terra Sul.  He is also a well-respected teacher and lecturer on Brazilian music.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Chuchito Valdes comes from one of the most distinguished musical families of Cuba. As a child prodigy, he studied with many Cuban masters, including his father Chucho Valdes, the great Cuban pianist.  He has studied Cuban music, classical music and jazz piano extensively.  He has recorded and performed piano with the world renowned Cuban band, Irakere, which he led for two years.  He performs at festivals, clubs and concerts throughout the world and has recently completed his first recording as a co-leader. Worldwide appearances have included the jazz festivals of Chicago, Detroit, San Jose, Havana, Cancun, as well as a recent festival performance in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Music Festival. Club dates have included Ronnie Scotts in London and Green Dolphin Street in Chicago.  In November 2001, he led his Afro-Cuban ensemble at Orchestra Hall in Detroit.  When Valdes is not traveling around the world performing, he lives in Cancun, Mexico where he leads his Afro-Cuban based Latin-Jazz ensemble.

Pianist and composer Elio Villafranca was born in the Pinar del Rio province of Western Cuba and was classically trained in percussion and composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana.  Since his arrival in the U.S., Mr. Villafranca has been involved in the East and West coast jazz and Latin jazz scenes. His music, inspired by the jazz and Afro Cuban styles, creates a unique cultural and musical fusion, with spirited, groundbreaking innovations. In 2003, Jazz Times magazine recognized his reputation for musical excellence by selecting his debut album Incantations/Encantaciones (Universal/Pimienta) as one of the top 50 best jazz albums of the year.  Recently he completed separate European tours with Grammy-nominated Blue Note recording artists saxophonist Jane Bunnett and guitarist Pat Martino, with whom he performed at various world-renowned venues including the Blue Note Jazz Festival in Ghent, Belgium; the Blue Note Jazz Club in Milan, Italy; the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy; and the North Sea Jazz Festival at The Hague, Holland.

Claudia Villela's haunting improvisations and her arresting five-octave range have earned her an enthusiastic and devoted following.  Her passionately independent spirit, coupled with a unique gift for evoking her rich musical heritage, has established her as one of jazz's most impressive vocalists. "...completely natural and unaffected" (Village News), Villela wows audiences with her ability to create magic from a seemingly limitless well of inspiration.  Growing up in Rio de Janeiro, she would fall asleep at night listening to the sounds of a samba school practicing behind her grandmother's home.  "I awoke to the melodies my mother sang while my father played harmonica," she recalls. "I was influenced by a rich musical diet.  My music is the sum of all of the sounds I've heard, from Brazilian macumba, to free form jazz, to classical music. It comes from all those memories."  In 1997, Villela was nominated for Jazz Singer of the Year by the National Association of Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD).  Mark Holston of Jazziz described Villela as "intelligent and seductive."  Helcio Milito, one of the godfathers of bossa nova, declared Villela "the biggest expression of Brazilian music in the U.S. today."

Sonidos Latinos
Sonidos Latinos, Caramoor's adventurous two-year Latin American Music Initiative, is now in its second year and has been made possible with generous support from the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 

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.  Each Fazioli piano is hand made over a three year period and fewer than 100 instruments are available worldwide each year.  Klavierhaus is the authorized dealer for Fazioli Pianoforti of Sacile, Italy.  www.klavierhaus.com.

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 today's International Music Festival.  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, and, 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 shop, 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, textiles, porcelain and jade. There are entire rooms that were imported from European palaces and villas.  In fact, Caramoor is one of just five mansions in the country that incorporate entire rooms into its collection, twenty of which are open to the public.  On Thursdays and Fridays, Afternoon Tea is served in the Summer Dining Room, overlooking the charming 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 gardens whose special characteristics are enjoyed primarily at night may be seen on a guided tour or on one's own.

Picnicking at Caramoor
Extend your Caramoor experience by arriving for concerts early and enjoying a picnic amidst the beautiful gardens.  Pre-purchase picnics from Great Performances at 212.337.6055.

House Museum
Guided tours of the House Museum are provided from Wednesday through Sunday, 1:00 pm-4:00 pm with the last tour at 3 pm.  On Saturdays, during the Festival, tours are given from 1:00 pm-5:00 pm, with the last tour at 4:00 pm.  Tickets are $10 (children 16 and under free).

GETTING TO CARAMOOR

Caramoor is easy to get to by car and mass transportation.  

By car from the West Side of Manhattan and 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 the junction of Girdle Ridge Road. Follow the signs to Caramoor.  (For detailed directions call 914.232.5035 and press 2, or online at www.caramoor.org).  Parking at Caramoor is free.

By train, take the Harlem Division of the Metro-North Railroad to Katonah, New York. Taxi service from the station to Caramoor (5 minutes away) is available.

TICKETS

Tickets may be ordered by calling the Box Office at 914.232.1252 or online at www.caramoor.org. 

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, New York.

ALL PROGRAMS AND ARTISTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE
 

CARAMOOR JAZZ FESTIVAL

August 1                                         Jazz Festival I
Friday, 8:00 p.m.                             Ahmad Jamal Trio  
Spanish Courtyard                          Ahmad Jamal, piano
                                                        James Cammack, bass
                                                        Idris Muhammad, drum set
   
______________________________________________________________________________

August 2                                        Jazz Festival II
Saturday, All Day                           Great Musical Minds
Venetian Theater    
                                                       3:00 p.m.*      Cuban Piano Summit - Elio Villafranca and Chuchito Valdes
                                                       4:15 p.m.        Mulgrew Miller's Wingspan
                                                       5:30 p.m.*      50 Years of Bossa Nova 
                                                                              - Ricardo Peixoto and Claudia Villela
                                                       Dinner Break
                                                       8:00 p.m.         Wynton Marsalis

This evening's concert is sponsored, in part, by generous support from Wachovia Wealth Management.
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August 3                                                 Jazz Festival III
Sunday, All Day 
Venetian Theater                                    3:00 p.m.      Aaron Diehl and Adam Birnbaum, piano
                                                                4:15 p.m.       Jimmy Heath Big Band
                                                                5:30 p.m.*     Michel CamiloTrio with Charles Flores and Dafnis Prieto

* These events are part of Sonidos Latinos, Caramoor's Latin American Music Initiative.  Sonidos Latinos 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.

ALL PROGRAMS AND ARTISTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Press Tickets:
Josh Marcum
917.339.7188
jmarcum@cohndutcher.com

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