PROGRAM
LUCIANA SOUZA QUARTET Featuring The Book of Chet and Brazilian Duos SAT / SEP 1 7:30 PM WORLD
© Gabriel Rinaldi
SEP 2012
Luciana Souza, vocals Scott Amendola, drums Larry Koonse, guitar Darek “Oles” Oleszkiewicz, bass
Run Time: 90 minutes The artist will announce the evening’s program from the stage. There will be no intermission.
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music includes a fruitful collaboration with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. Ms. Souza began her recording career at age three with a radio commercial, and recorded more than 200 jingles and soundtracks, becoming a first-call studio veteran at age sixteen. She spent four years on faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she received a Bachelor’s in Jazz Composition. Ms. Souza earned a Master’s degree in Jazz Studies from New England Conservatory of Music and taught for four years at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music in New York City. From 2005 to 2010, Ms. Souza was the Jazz Artist in Residence with the prestigious San Francisco Performances. August 2012 marked the release of two new recordings for Ms. Souza on Sunnyside Records – The Book of Chet and Duos III. Both recordings offer Ms. Souza’s personal and masterful reading of songs. On The Book of Chet, Ms. Souza pays homage to Chet Baker’s singing, performing gems from the American songbook. On Duos III, Ms. Souza closes her Brazilian Duos trilogy, singing traditional songs from the Brazilian repertoire. Billboard Magazine has said of Ms. Souza: “…she continues her captivating journey as a uniquely talented vocalist who organically crosses genre borders. Her music soulfully reflects, wistfully regrets, romantically woos, joyfully celebrates...”
Luciana Souza, vocals, is a Grammy-winning vocalist and one of Jazz’s leading singers and interpreters. Born in São Paulo, Brazil in the late sixties, she grew up in a family of Bossa Nova innovators – her father, a singer and songwriter, her mother, a poet and lyricist. Ms. Souza’s work as a performer transcends traditional Her Voice traces a boundaries, offering landscape of emotion solid roots in jazz, sothat knows no phisticated lineage in boundaries.” world music, and an —Entertainment Weekly enlightened approach to classical repertoire and new music. As a leader, Ms. Souza has been releasing acclaimed recordings since 2002 – including her four Grammy-nominated records Brazilian Duos, North and South, Duos II, and Tide. Her debut recording for Universal, The New Bossa Nova, was produced by her husband, Larry Klein, and was met with critical acclaim. Ms. Souza has performed and recorded with greats such as Herbie Hancock on his Grammywinning record, River: The Joni Letters, Paul Simon, Bobby McFerrin, Maria Schneider, Danilo Perez, and many others. Her longstanding duo work with Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo has earned her accolades across the globe. Her complete discography contains more than 50 records as a side singer. Ms. Souza’s singing has been called “transcendental, “perfect,” and of “unparalleled beauty.” Entertainment Weekly said, “Her voice traces a landscape of emotion that knows no boundaries.” Ms. Souza has been a prominent soloist in two important works by composer Osvaldo Golijov – La Pasion According to St. Mark and Oceana. She has performed with the Bach Akademie Stuttgart, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Other orchestral appearances include performances with the New York Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Her work in chamber
Scott Amendola, drums, applies his wideranging rhythmic virtuosity to a vast array of settings. For Mr. Amendola (drummer, per“…she continues her cussionist, composer, captivating journey as bandleader, electronic a uniquely talented sound mover), the vocalist who organically drum kit isn’t so much crosses genre borders.” —Billboard Magazine an instrument as a musical portal. A potent creative catalyst, the Berkeley-based drummer became the nexus for a disparate community of musicians stretching from Los Angeles and 7
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the first recipient of a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California. Immediately after graduating from USC, Mr. Koonse toured extensively for six years as a member of the John Dankworth quartet, traveling across the globe and backing Cleo Laine. He is currently a member of Billy Child’s landmark chamber sextet which just released its second CD titled Autumn: In Moving Pictures. He has received multiple Grammy nominations, including Instrumen“Luciana is the tal Jazz Album of the quintessential Broad Year for the aforemenStage artist; she lives tioned CD and for the local and brings her sextet’s first release, family often” Lyric (2006). He has —Dale Franzen, Director, also toured with Mel The Broad Stage Torme, Bob Brookmeyer, Billy Childs, John Patitucci, David Friesen, Karrin Allyson, Luciana Souza, Natalie Cole, Tierney Sutton, Hubert Laws, and Warne Marsh, and was a featured performer with the Percy Faith Orchestra on a tour of Japan. At the invitation of Nelson Mandela and UNICEF, perMr. Koonse traveled to South Africa to per form for the first annual SAMIX festival with the Steve Houghton quintet. In his travels, he has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Academy of Music, Disney Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and has been a featured soloist with the L.A. Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and many other orchestras throughout the world. His solo guitar work was featured throughout Crazy, a feature film chronicling the life of Crazy the great guitarist Hank Garland. The founder of the Player’s School, renowned bassist Jeff Berlin, contacted Mr. Koonse in 1995 to write a guitar curriculum which is currently used for their program. He was co-leader of the L.A. Jazz Quartet which released their fourth CD, Conversation Piece (NAXOS Records) in September 2000. The quartet’s first three CD’s, Astarte (GOWI), Look to the East (NAXOS), and Family Song (NTR), have received critical ac-
SEP 2012
Seattle to Chicago and New York. Whatever the context, Mr. Amendola possesses a gift for twisting musical genres in unexpected directions. Born and raised in the New Jersey suburb of Tenafly, just a stone’s throw from New York City, Mr. Amendola displayed an aptitude for rhythm almost from the moment he could walk. His grandfather, Tony Gottuso, was a highly respected guitarist who performed with jazz luminaries such as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and Nat “King” Cole. A member of the original Tonight Show Band “Brilliant…sheer joy in under Steve Allen, he the pleasure of making offered plenty of supmusic…” —The Los Angeles Times port when Mr. Amendola began to get interested in jazz. Mr. Amendola’s passion for music only deepened during his four years at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where it wasn’t unusual for him to practice for 12 hours a day. Drawing inspiration from fellow students such as Jorge Rossi, Jim Black, Danilo Perez, Chris Cheek, and Mark Turner, and studying with the likes of Joe Hunt and Tommy Campbell, Mr. Amendola decided he had to find his own voice rather than modeling himself after established drummers. After graduating in 1992, he moved to San Francisco, where he quickly hooked up with Charlie Hunter. They went on to play together in the three-guitar-and-drums combo T.J. Kirk, which earned a Grammy nomination for its eponymous 1996 debut album. With creative relationships spreading out across the country and the world, he’s never more than one degree away from a powerful musical hook-up. Larry Koonse, guitar, was born into a musical family, and has been playing the guitar since he was seven years old. At the age of fifteen he recorded an album with his father, guitarist Dave Koonse, entitled Dave and Larry Koonse: Father and Son Jazz Guitars. In 1984, Mr. Koonse was 8
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Darek “Oles” Oleszkiewicz, bass, was born on February 20, 1963 in Wroclaw, Poland. At the age of five Mr. Oleszkiewicz began his music education at the State Music School in Wroclaw. Piano was his first instrument, but later he played guitar, electric bass, and finally at eighteen years old, he switched to acoustic bass. In the early 1980s, Mr. Oleszkiewicz participated in various jazz festivals and national competitions for young musicians. In 1983, he was the most awarded musician at the Jazz Juniors in Cracow, winning the first individual prize, first prize for jazz composition, and a second prize in the jazz combo category. Later that year Mr. Oleszkiewicz was invited by Jan Ptaszyn Wroblewski, a jazz legend in Poland, “Mr. Olesziewicz was to join the saxophonist’s quartet voted the Best Acoustic on tour. In the following five years Bassist in the Jazz Top Mr. Oleszkiewicz worked steadily reader’s poll” with some of the best jazz bands —Jazz Forum Magazine in the country such as: Zbigniew Namyslowski Quartet, Tomasz Szukalski Quartet, Henryk Majewski Quintet, Wojciech Karolak Trio, Andrzej Jagodzinski Trio, and Jan Ptaszyn Wroblewski Quartet. In 1988, Mr. Oleszkiewicz arrived in Los Angeles with a simple plan in mind: to broaden his musical horizon. One year later he received a full scholarship from California Institute of The Arts and began studies with the legend9
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ary bassist Charlie Haden. After graduation in 1992, he accepted a teaching position at the Institute, where he has been conducting jazz ensembles and teaching bass ever since. Since 2002 Mr. Oleszkiewicz has been a jazz faculty member at the University of California in Irvine. Aside from his teaching duties, Mr. Oleszkiewicz has been very active as a performer and became one of the most sought-after bass players on the West Coast. Mr. Oleszkiewicz has recorded approximately 100 albums and performed hundreds of concerts throughout America, Europe, and Asia. Several of those recordings were nominated for Grammy Awards. In 2003, Mr. Oleszkiewicz was also nominated for a Fryderyk Award in Poland in the category Jazz Musician of the Year. Mr. Oleszkiewicz’s first recording project as a leader, Like a Dream with Brad Mehldau and Bennie Maupin, was released by Cryptogramophone Records in 2004 and gained a critical acclaim worldwide. In 2005 Mr. Oleszkiewicz was voted the “Best Acoustic Bassist” in the Jazz Top readers’ poll in Jazz Forum European Magazine.
claim for their originality and musical depth. Mr. Koonse’s most recent recording, What’s in the Box, a CD featuring the music of the great guitarist/composer Jimmy Wyble, is now available through Jazz Compass (www.jazzcompass. com). He has three other releases on the Jazz Compass label: Americana (a recording featuring Scott Colley on the bass), Dialogues of the Heart (featuring his father Dave Koonse in a guitar duo setting), and Storybook (featuring the bassist Darek Oles). Mr. Koonse has been a faculty member at the California Institute of the Arts since 1990.