Jazz Roots 2018-19 season to celebrate Bernstein and beyond

Jazz does indeed thrive in South Florida. If you need proof, consider: The Jazz Roots series, founded by the late music producer and entrepreneur Larry Rosen, is entering its second decade at the Adrienne Arsht Center.

Since the debut of Jazz Roots in 2008, 90,000 guests have taken part in its wide array of programs and more than 9,000 students have participated in the hands-on education program that is integral to the mission of the series.

Previous seasons have included stars such as singers Al Jarreau, Dianne Reeves and Gregory Porter; guitarists George Benson and Pat Metheny; and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra featuring Wynton Marsalis. The 11th season brings the likes of saxophonist Joshua Redman and keyboard artists Sergio Mendes and Robert Glasper.

This season kicks off Friday, Nov. 9, with “Leonard Bernstein 100 and Beyond,” a celebration of the world-famous composer, conductor and pianist born in 1918. His works include a fanfare for the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, the Olympic hymn, and, with writers such as Betty Comden & Adolph Green and Stephen Sondheim, the scores for “On the Town” and “West Side Story.”

He’s also remembered for the “Young People’s Concerts” that introduced youth to classical music. They were televised for 14 years.

The Bernstein concert will feature vocalists Ann Hampton Callaway and Jon Secada, jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum, pianist and University of Miami Frost School of Music Dean Shelly Berg and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.

Two of this season’s other concerts are especially intriguing: a portrait of Ralph Ellison, author of the classic “Invisible Man,” and a performance by a supergroup of seven women who are individually acclaimed in the jazz world. Pianist and composer Renee Rosnes assembled the group Artemis in 2016 at the behest of a French promoter.

“The concept was to put together an all-female band to observe and honor International Women’s Day, which is March 2,” she explained.

“We all felt a warm, natural chemistry with each other, and so agreed to a more extensive tour during the summer of 2017. After a very successful run of concerts across 10 countries, we knew that it was important for us to continue playing together — hence Artemis.”

The seven — vocalist and South Florida native Cécile McLorin Salvant; trumpeter Ingrid Jensen; clarinetist Anat Cohen; tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana; bassist Noriko Ueda; drummer Allison Miller and Rosnes — wowed the crowd at last summer’s Newport Jazz Festival. Each is a bandleader on her own, so their December appearance in Miami is a rare treat.

“It’s true that we all have very busy and flourishing careers as leaders, so we have had to set aside periods of time for us to perform,” said Rosnes.

After Artemis appears in December, two months later, Jazz Roots takes a look at Ellison, a player and devotee of the music as well as one of this country’s most respected authors.

Growing up steeped in jazz in Oklahoma City, he won a scholarship to study music at what is now Tuskegee University. “I didn’t give up music, but I became interested in writing through incessant reading,” he told the Paris Review in 1954, the year after he won the National Book Award for “Invisible Man.”

“Music infuses much of the way he tells the story of ‘Invisible Man,’ ” said Danny Kapilian, who first produced “Jazz in the Key of Ellison” a couple of years ago in New Jersey.

Much has been made over the years of Ellison’s relationship with the music, including an exhibit featuring his records at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and the book “Living with Music,” a collection of his jazz writings. That was edited by Robert O’Meally, a Columbia University professor and Ellison scholar who was instrumental in putting together this multimedia presentation.

In addition to musical performances by Nicholas Payton, Nona Hendryx and others, Kapilian said there will be clips of Ellison, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, still images of the author and more.

Great care has been taken, he said, to make sure the performance is not dry or academic.“ Our obligation is to entertain, inspire enthrall, elevate,” he said.

After all, that’s what good jazz does.

If you go

• What: The 2018-19 Jazz Roots season
  
  
• When: Starting Nov. 9 with six monthly concerts: Leonard Bernstein 100 and Beyond; Artemis: Great Women in Jazz on Dec. 7; the Joshua Redman Quartet, Jan. 18; Jazz in the Key of Ellison, Feb. 8; Reflect + Respond = Now, March 8; From Brazil with Love: Sergio Mendes, April 12.
  
  
• Where: Knight Concert Hall, Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd.
  
  
• Info: Season tickets range from $232 to $760; individual tickets for the first concert, available now, are $45 to $125.
  
  
• Purchase tickets: arshtcenter.org/Tickets/Buy-Tickets-Now or contact the box office at 305-949-6722.

This story was originally published November 6, 2018 at 3:05 PM.