The city of New York will take pride of place in this summer's "Jazz in July" festival at the 92nd Street Y, which begins Tuesday night, July 21, and runs through July 30.
The festival--the fifth under artistic director Bill Charlap, the noted pianist and Blue Note recording artist--features a concert on Wednesday, July 22, titled "A Helluva Town: New York Jazz." This will highlight music written about the city as well as artists who are fixtures on its jazz scene and who Charlap said represent "different generations and different esthetics."
Music will include Scott Joplin's "Wall Street Rag," a 1909 composition whose first strain is headed, timelessly, "Panic in Wall Street, brokers feeling melancholy"; John Coltrane's "Grand Central"; "Autumn in New York" and "How About You." These will be performed by Charlap; the singer and pianist Barbara Carroll; the singer Sandy Stewart; guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli; bass player Jay Leonhart; and drummers Eddie Locke and Lewis Nash, among others.
The opening night program July 21 will salute two giants of the Broadway muscial: Jule Styne, composer of Gypsy, Funny Girl, and Bells are Ringing, and Stephen Sondheim, lyricist of Gypsy and West Side Story, and composer and lyricist of A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Company.
"Between those two composers it's a very interesting balance of music that stands on its own as some of the great popular songwriting of the century, and music that pushes the envelope of American musical theater and thus the boundaries of how you approach the popular song in jazz," Charlap said.
Kurt Elling, whose singing received kudos last year from Downbeat's critics and readers, will perform, as will trumpeter Brian Lynch and pianist Renee Rosnes.
Works by Vince Guaraldi, composer of music for Peanuts television programs and of the song "Cast Your Fate to the Wind," will be celebrated at a concert on July 28, while other concerts will pay tribute to jazz pianist Oscar Peterson (July 23) and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan (July 27).
Tickets are $25 (for concert-goers under 35), $50 and $60; discounted three, four and six-concert subscriptions are also available. http://www.92y.org/shop/category.asp?category=88809%2F10+Jazz+in+July888&adsource=hpcolumn_jazzjuly
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