Yale Bulletin and Calendar

August 29, 2003|Volume 32, Number 1|Two-Week Issue

The Heath Brothers have appeared with such jazz legends as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. They will perform on Sept. 5 at Sprague Hall.

Concerts celebrate the reopening of Sprague Hall

The School of Music will showcase its newly refurbished Albert Arnold Sprague Memorial Hall with two concerts, which will officially mark the re-opening of the building after extensive renovations (see related story).

On Friday, Sept. 5, the Duke Ellington Fellowship at Yale will feature modern jazz masters The Heath Brothers. The concert begins at 8 p.m. in Morse Recital Hall of Sprague Memorial Hall, 470 College St.

School of Music alumna Sharon Isbin, a Grammy Award-winning classical guitarist, will perform a program of Spanish music for the guitar as well as a modern American work written especially for her on Saturday, Sept. 6. Her concert also begins at 8 p.m. in Morse Hall.

Tickets for both concerts are $20-$35; $10 for students. For tickets or more information, call (203) 432-4158 or visit the School of Music website at www.yale.edu/music.

The Heath Brothers

The legendary Heath Brothers -- bassist Percy Heath Jr., writer, arranger, saxophonist and flutist James Edward "Jimmy" Heath and drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath -- have more than 150 years of experience between them performing jazz music, and have appeared on more than 900 recordings. Now in their 60s and 70s, they performed with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s and 1950s and worked with Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Max Roach and the Modern Jazz Quartet, among many others, in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Over the years, there have been several incarnations of the Heath Brothers as a group. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the three brothers played together along with musicians Clark Terry, Tommy Flanagan, Cannonball Adderley, Julius Watkins and others. Then, Percy Heath was busy performing with the Modern Jazz Quartet until 1975, when the three brothers joined forces again. Their group also included a pianist, then a guitarist and later by Jimmy Heath's son Mtume, who provided additional percussion. During this time the group performed a special concert for the athletes at the Olympic Village in Lake Placid in 1980. In 1983, Percy rejoined the Modern Jazz Quartet while Tootie and Jimmy continued to play together as part of the Jimmy Heath Quartet. After the Modern Jazz Quartet disbanded in 1997, the three brothers reformed together once more, together with pianist Jeb Patton. Since then, they have recorded two new albums and performed throughout the world at clubs, festivals and concert halls.

On Saturday, Sept. 6, the The Heath Brothers will lead a master class featuring young New Haven jazz musicians. The class will begin at 11 a.m. at Sprague Hall. Admission to this event is free.

Sharon Isbin

A 1978 graduate of Yale College, Sharon Isbin earned her Master of Music degree from Yale a year later. She has been hailed as "the pre-eminent guitarist of our time." She is also the winner of Guitar Player magazine's Best Classical Guitarist award, the Madrid Queen Sofia and Toronto competitions, and was the first guitarist ever to win the Munich Competition. She has given sold-out performances throughout the world.

Isbin has served as artistic director/soloist of festivals she created for Carnegie Hall and the Ordway Music Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota, as well as of her own series at the 92nd Street Y in New York City and the national radio series Guitarjam. She is a frequent guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including "All Things Considered," "St. Paul Sunday" and Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion."

The guitarist's compact disc "Dreams of a World" earned her the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist without Orchestra. She has been nominated
for Grammy Awards two other times for different recordings. Noted for expanding the guitar repertoire with new works, Isbin has premiered nine concerti, one of which won a Grammy for its composer, Christopher Rouse. Isbin tours Europe annually and has also toured Japan and the Far East, New Zealand, South America, Mexico and Israel, sharing the stage with numerous luminaries, ranging from Aretha Franklin to Muhammed Ali.

Isbin is the director of the Juilliard School of Music's guitar department, which she founded in 1989.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

A Message to the Yale Community

Refurbished Sprague Memorial Hall is an 'architectural . . . triumph'

Concerts celebrate the reopening of Sprague Hall

Professorship honors memory of Donald Cohen

Damaged law books are taken out of a deep freeze

Renowned neuroscientist Patricia Goldman-Rakic dies

Exhibit offers look at ancient forms of life on Earth

Wildfire costs are higher than accounted for, report charges

Computer-generated designs featured in architecture gallery

Artist's works portray Christianity through Thai art forms

Exhibit explores influences on American furniture design

Women veterans are found to be at higher risk for homelessness

Day of Caring drive will put books into hands of area children

Documentary on contemporary artists to be screened on campus

Alumni group supports students' summer service

Quest camera will aid scientists in astronomical research

Grant to Child Study Center supports evaluation of home-based care

Historian Jaroslav Pelikan is honored for contributions

Former Law School dean honored with the Fleming Award

'What Is a Good Death?' among topics of Bioethics Project programs