WINTER JAZZFEST TALKS

2017 marks the inauguration of Winter Jazzfest Talks, a series of panel discussions and artist interviews exploring the festival’s themes and including its featured artists as well as noted journalists and scholars.

SAT JAN 7 1:00 PM – 2:30PM SOCIAL JUSTICE & THE ROLE OF MUSIC (THE NEW SCHOOL 5TH FL THEATER - 55 W 13th St New York, NY 10011)

As wide-ranging as music can be in style, format and message, so the manner in which it reflects the politics and social issues is equally varied and diverse. In these polarized, hyper-politicized times, what is the duty of the creative musician? How best to comment or protest through music? What are the historical precedents that had impact and should be followed? These questions and others will be addressed by a panel including veteran drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, composer Samora Pinderhughes, and Black Lives Matter activist Nyle Fort and the ACLU's Megan French-Marcelin, an expert on criminal and racial justice.

SUN JAN 8 1:00 PM – 2:30PM METAMUSICIAN'S STOMP: ANDREW CYRILLE (THE NEW SCHOOL 5th Floor Theater - 55 W 13th St New York, NY 10011)

To call Andrew Cyrille - the festival’s resident artist for 2017 - simply a drummer is to miss the point of a career-long approach to creative expression and fiery, in-the-moment invention. He’s played with a veritable Who’s Who of jazz innovators - Cecil Taylor and Coleman Hawkins, to David Murray, Carla Bley, Oliver Lake and Geri Allen - and has been a leader or co-leader of important groups since the 1970s. Cyrille will talk about his music, career, and other topics with one of his former students, the drummer Johnathan Blake.

SUNDAY JAN 8 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM THELONIOUS MONK MAKES A HUNDRED (THE NEW SCHOOL, 5th Floor Theater - 55 W 13th St New York, NY 10011)

It’s a challenge to fully measure the impact of Thelonious Sphere Monk on modern improvised music. John Coltrane called him “a musical architect of the highest order”. His compositions and concept remain refreshingly vibrant and timeless relevant today. No student of modern jazz can bypass the lessons inherent in his use of dissonance, angularity and the blues. A panel of musicians and writers inciuding T.S. Monk, drummer and son of Thelonious Monk, Cuban pianist David Virelles, composer, musician and friend of Monk, David Amram, noted historian and Monk biographer Robin D.G. Kelley, and music journalist Larry Blumenfeld – moderated and orchestrated by music historian Ashley Kahn, will convene to discuss and gauge his importance as celebrate the start of his centennial year. This panel will also include multimedia materials, including rare home recordings of Monk speaking and playing piano and a peak at some never-before-released music recorded for the French film Les Liasons Dangereuses (1960).

TUESDAY JANUARY 10 - 6:45 PM – 7:45 PM "MUSIC & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE" (LE POISSON ROUGE - 158 Bleecker St New York, NY 10012)

Panelists will discuss topics including global climate change and clean energy, generational justice, vulnerable communities, and biodiversity to show how musicians have and can use their art to expose environmental issues to their fans and aid causes important to us all as inhabitants of planet Earth. Speakers will include Franz Matzner (Natural Resources Defense Council, All About Jazz), Ruth Cameron Haden (widow of Charlie Haden & ardent environmentalist), and three musicians dedicated to environmental themes in their work and through various forms of activism: trumpeter, composer and Greenleaf Music founder Dave Douglas, pianist/composer and Biophilia Records founder Fabian Almazan and violinist/composer Dana Lyn.

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT NYC WINTER JAZZFEST

Since its founding in 2005, NYC Winter Jazzfest has cemented a reputation as a hotbed of cultural discovery, presenting new and exciting sounds and sights throughout New York City. Praised by The New York Times, The New Yorker, NPR and countless others, the festival, year-after-year, continues to grow at a rapid pace, from its original one-day, single-location program to a 2017 master plan that will put 150+ groups comprised of 600+ artists onto 13 stages over six nights across Downtown Manhattan. In 2015, the festival was voted “#1 Jazz Festival in North America” by JazzTimes Magazine and has become a pivotal destination for arts leaders and cultural cognoscenti who visit the city early in the year.

The marathon event that takes place during the festival’s Friday and Saturday nights (January 6 - January 7) is recognized as a crucial, unique New York City nightlife offering, giving audiences full access to participating venues from early evening to deep into the wee hours of the morning. Winter Jazzfest is an unparalleled experience for all consumers of jazz, experimental sound, and global creative impulses – from hardcore fans to novices. In 2016, the festival welcomed over 8,500 audience members. In 2017, the festival anticipates an estimated attendance of 10,000 from the New York region and around the world.

Conceived as an event to showcase the latest and most cutting edge of jazz acts during the annual Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) Conference, NYC Winter Jazzfest, founded by New York concert impresario Brice Rosenbloom, has grown to truly epic proportions. It has become the definitive all-inclusive jazz event that offers a "state of the union" for jazz and its many stylistic camps. From party bands to ambient electronic groups to the most advanced compositional approaches Winter Jazzfest gives fans, critics, industry members and novice listeners the opportunity to discover the broad and vibrant spectrum of jazz today.

OFFICIAL FESTIVAL HASHTAG: #NYCWJF

www.winterjazzfest.com