June 6th, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Further Adventures of El-Chico
Joyous Shout! is pleased to be offering Legendary
Jazz Drummer and Bandleader and NEA
Jazz Master Fellowship Recipient Foreststorn "Chico" Hamilton for
engagements with Jazz Master Touring Initiative sites for
the 2005/2006 season. These engagements are funded thru the NEA and
thru matching grants from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Chamber Music America.
This past October Chico and
his working "Euphoria" band performed a Jazz
Masters Touring Initiative event presented
by WBGO-FM Radio in Newark, NJ at the Newark
Arts High School. Working with Thurston
Briscoe of WBGO, Chico and
his band members executed a concept where they spent a day
with 20 students of the Arts High School Jazz Ensemble rehearsing
head arrangements on 4 of Chico's original
tunes plus Duke Ellington's "Take the 'A' Train",
and the following day presented a concert which combined
performances by Chico and his band with
performances of the students performing the tunes and arrangements
worked on the previous day, conducted by Chico.
It was a WONDERFUL event, which
was recorded by WBGO for future broadcast,
and the evening was capped off with the students spontaneously
performing two of Chico's tunes backstage
during a group photo, BRILLIANT!!
Chico's 2005 started off
with a quick jaunt to the West Coast to participate in the IAJE
Convention, putting in a guest appearance with Jackie
Harris' Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong Summer Camp All-Stars, and
performing on the NEA Jazz Masters Award Ceremony & Concert with Geri
Allen, and then continuing to Seattle with
a two night stand with his "Euphoria" group
at a WONDERFUL venue, The
Triple Door. Chico's DEBUT appearance
on the Playboy Jazz Festival in LA at the Hollywood
Bowl is coming up June 12th. Continuing over the
Summer Chico will be appearing: June
18th on another NEA Jazz Masters Touring Initiative event
at the Artists Collective in Hartford, CT
(w/ special guest vocalist Bill Henderson); July 7th on the Chicken Bone Beach Music Series on the
boardwalk in Atlantic City, NJ; August 18th on the Out-Of-Doors Festival at Lincoln
Center in NYC; August 27th at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, NY;
and August 30th
for the season finale of Jazz Forum's Summer
Series with a show at the City Hall Plaza in Mount
Vernon, NY.Chico has several dates confirmed,
and many other dates in the works, throughout the country
thru the fall and into the winter.
0-3964 or 830-3963