Ode to the Human Spirit celebrates International Jazz Day with Marc Cary while Courtney Pine heads to Osaka
Friday, March 21, 2014
Exciting Motéma-signed Washington DC-based keyboardist Marc Cary (pictured below) and legendary Headhunters multi-reedist Bennie Maupin will lead celebrations of the second annual International Jazz Day alongside a stellar band of UK players appearing under the banner of Ode To The Human Spirit, at Hall One, Kings Place on 30 April.
Cary joins the Human Revolution Orchestra that has been put together on by trumpeter Sean Corby and percussionist Neville Murray and features the likes of trumpeters Noel Langley and Yazz Ahmed, saxophonists Martin Speake, Tony Kofi, Christian Brewer and Jason Yarde, trombonists Harry Brown and Richard Edwards, drummers Rod Youngs and Cosimo Keita Cadore plus singers Liane Carroll and Randolph Matthews among many others.
Special guest Bennie Maupin has just been confirmed to also make an appearance at the concert. He's is a pioneer of the Soka Gakkai Buddhist movement in the USA and will perform and direct his own compositions for big band and strings being premiered here in the UK for the first time.
This will be the second annual UNESCO world jazz day UK concert following last last year’s inaugural event at the Brixton-based SGI Buddhist centre. The concert, organised by Corby on behalf of SGI, steps up in scale to Hall One at Kings Place, under the banner "Music is an extension of the heart,” personally given to the event by jazz icon and well-known Buddhist Herbie Hancock.
Hancock also leads a star-studded band at the official International Jazz Day concert in Osaka, Japan also on 30 April. It’s also just been confirmed that top UK saxophonist Courtney Pine will be joining the likes of fellow saxophonists Kenny Garrett, Wayne Shorter, Troy Roberts, Lew Tabackin along with Hancock, Marcus Miller, Esperanza Spalding, Gregory Porter, Dee Dee Bridgewater and many others at the Osaka All-Star Global Concert.
Marc Cary precedes his Kings Place appearance with a rare UK gig at award-winning south London venue Hideaway on 29 April with his superb Focus Trio of bassist Rashaan Carter and drummer Sameer Gupta, for what’s sure to be a high-energy performance. The gig is the first in a series curated under the banner of Chris Philips Presents… in association with Jazz FM and Hideaway.
– Mike Flynn
– Poster Artwork by Graeme Mortimer Evelyn - Copyright © 2014 · All Rights Reserved · www.graemeevelyn.com
For more info go to www.kingsplace.co.uk and www.hideawaylive.co.uk