November 1, 2024 Sarah Vaughan: A Sassy Centennial
Knight Concert Hall
The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County presents
Sarah Vaughan: A Sassy Centennial
Featuring
Patti Austin
Randy Brecker
Lisa Fischer
2023 Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition winner Tyreek McDole
With Shelly Berg and the Frost School of Music’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra and its resident conductor, Scott Flavin
Program
Overture - Mancini Medley
(Composer: Henry Mancini; Arranger: Thomas Wenglinski)
All the Things You Are
(Composer: Jerome Kern; Lyricist: Oscar Hammerstein; Arranger: Steve Guerra)
You Stepped Out of a Dream
(Composer: Nacio Herb Brown; Lyricist: Gus Kahn; Arranger: Thomas Wenglinksi)
Misty
(Composer: Erroll Gardner; Lyricist: Johnny Burke; Arranger: Jorge Machain)
Lullaby of Birdland
(Composer: George Shearing; Lyricist: George David Weiss; Arranger: Gordon Goodwin)
Midnight Sun
(Composers: Lionel Hampton and Sunny Burke; Lyricist: Johnny Mercer)
If I Were a Bell
(Composer: Frank Loesser; Arranger: Thomas Wenglinski)
Teach Me Tonight
(Composer: Gene DePaul; Lyricist: Sammy Cahn; Arranger: Sam Keedy)
I've Got the World on a String
(Composer: Harold Arlen; Lyricist: Ted Koehler; Arranger: Gergö Kormányos)
It Had Better Be Tonight
(Composer: Henry Mancini; Lyricist: Johnny Mercer; Arranger: Juan Gomez)
INTERMISSION
Love You Madly, An Ellington Overture
(Composer: Duke Ellington; Arranger: Steve Guerra)
Jump for Joy
(Composer: Duke Ellington; Lyricists: Paul Francis Webster and Sid Kuller; Arranger: Steve Guerra
Send in the Clowns
(Composer: Stephen Sondheim)
Blackbird
(Composers: Lennon/McCartney; Arranger: Thomas Wenglinski)
Cheek to Cheek
(Composer: Irving Berlin; Arranger: Jorge Machain)
If You Could See Me Now
(Composer: Tadd Dameron; Lyricist: Carl Sigman; Arranger: Chelsea McBride)
Shulie A Bop
(Composers: Sarah Vaughan and George Treadwell; Arranger: Steve Guerra)
Avalon
(Composer: Al Jolson, Buddy DeSylva and Vincent Rose; Arranger: Juan Chaves)
After You've Gone
(Composer: Turner Layton; Lyricist: Henry Creamer; Arranger: Shelly Berg)
Performers
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Patti Austin
Artist Bio
Patti Austin
Patti Austin
Patti Austin’s keen interest in being a total entertainer likely started when she stepped onto the stage of the world-famous Apollo Theater in Harlem at the age of 4 at the urging of music legend Dinah Washington. The daughter of jazz trombonist Gordon Austin, Patti Austin was a recording star in her teens, achieving her first chart success in 1969 with “The Family Tree” (a Top 50 R&B single) after a string of 45s that would become treasured collector’s items among Britain’s Northern soul community.
During the 1970s, Austin was the undisputed queen of the New York session scene. Her voice was heard behind everyone from Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, James Brown and Joe Cocker to Bette Midler, Roberta Flack, Luther Vandross and Diana Ross and on countless memorable commercial jingles. After a series of much-acclaimed albums for CTI Records, Austin signed with her godfather Quincy Jones’ Qwest label. She began achieving international success thanks to Grammy-nominated hit "Baby Come to Me," her classic duet with James Ingram, and a follow-up duet, Oscar-nominated "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" She also appeared on Jones’ albums, including the best-selling Stuff Like That, Grammy-winning classic The Dude and From Q With Love Vols. 1 & 2.
Austin’s Grammy-nominated For Ella album opened new doors for her as a performer. The jazz world’s embrace of her was further cemented with her Grammy-winning album Avant Gershwin. After Austin’s more than two decades of touring, her take on the Great American Songbook has expanded her appeal and garnered her standing ovations across the United States and Europe. In April 2023, Austin released Grammy-nominated For Ella 2, on which she celebrates the great Ella Fitzgerald in her original storytelling style.
Austin’s critically acclaimed pop/R&B release Sound Advice will soon yield a sequel, Sound Advice 2, and will further demonstrate her artistic versatility.
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Randy Brecker
Artist Bio
Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker
A seasoned jazz veteran, virtuosic trumpeter and prolific composer, Randy Brecker has graced the bandstands and recordings of Horace Silver, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Charles Mingus, Clark Terry, Joe Henderson, Duke Pearson, Frank Foster and Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. As a first-call studio player, Brecker has energized innumerable studio sessions by artists such as James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Parliament-Funkadelic, David Sanborn, Jaco Pastorius and Frank Zappa.
In the realm of cutting-edge jazz fusion, Brecker has been a major contributor to Blood Sweat and Tears, Larry Coryell’s Eleventh House and Dreams, a group he co-founded with his brother Michael and drummer Billy Cobham.
After departing BS&T in 1969, Brecker appeared with Horace Silver and other jazz acts, feeling a need to stretch his desire to improvise freely. By 1973, Brecker and his sax-playing brother Michael had become the most in-demand studio players in New York. In 1975, they formed their own band, The Brecker Brothers.
The band had immeasurable influence and impact. Hailed by pop and jazz critics alike, the first Brecker Brothers album, which Randy produced, was nominated for four Grammy Awards. The Brecker Brothers recorded six albums and received seven Grammy nominations between 1975 and 1981. In the late 1970s, Brecker appeared on Charles Mingus’ final album, Me, Myself an Eye. Brecker has since performed on various incarnations of Mingus Dynasty and the Mingus Big Band.
After the Brecker Brothers took a hiatus in 1982, Randy toured and recorded extensively as a key member of Jaco Pastorius’ Word of Mouth. Several more solo projects followed, with numerous tours around the world with many artists.
A 10-year break from the Brecker Brothers ended in 1992 with the release of the GRP project Return of the Brecker Brothers. Out of the Loop in 1994 received two Grammy Awards and resulted in USA and European tours.
Brecker has been heavily influenced by Brazilian music. For the 1998 Concord Jazz release Into the Sun, Brecker received the Grammy Award for best Contemporary Jazz Performance.
In the past few years, he has made recordings and concert appearances with The Trumpet Summit band (featuring Jon Faddis, Lew Soloff and Terrel Stafford); The Jazz Times “Superband” (featuring organist Joey DeFrancesco, drummer Dennis Chambers and tenor saxophonist Bob Berg); Brecker Brothers Acoustic Band; and a special reunion of Larry Coryell’s 11th House.
Brecker is a true musical pioneer who continues to perform extensively around the world in a variety of settings. His quest for musical excellence while constantly expanding his trumpet style and encyclopedic catalog of compositions is unparalleled.
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Lisa Fischer
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Tyreek McDole
Artist Bio
Tyreek McDole
Tyreek McDole
Tyreek McDole is a 24-year-old, Haitian-American vocalist from Florida whose star is rising in the bustling New York scene.
In 2018, McDole made his vocal debut at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington National Competition, where he won the Outstanding Vocalist Award, presented by none other than Wynton Marsalis. He has since shared the stage with an impressive roster of musicians, including Theo Croker, Miki Yamanaka, Mike King and Ben Allison, at venues such as The Blue Note, Dizzy's Club, Birdland Theatre and Minton's Playhouse.
In 2023, McDole won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, whose previous winners include Samara Joy and Jazzmeia Horn. He is only the second male to win the competition in its 12-year history.
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Shelly Berg
Artist Bio
Shelly Berg
Shelly Berg
Shelly Berg is a Steinway piano artist and five-time Grammy-nominated arranger, orchestrator and producer. His album projects Gershwin Reimagined: An American in London (Decca Gold), The Deep (Chesky), The Nearness of You (Arbors), Blackbird (Concord) and The Will (CARS) are critically acclaimed. Berg earned three Grammy nominations in the Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) category with jazz singer and lyricist Lorraine Feather and international superstar Gloria Estefan, and a fourth Grammy nomination as co-producer of Gloria Estefan: The Standards (Sony). He earned his fifth Grammy nomination as co-arranger of “I Loves You Porgy / There’s a Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon for New York” from the 2018 album Rendezvous, featuring jazz singers Clint Holmes and Dee Dee Bridgewater with The Count Basie Orchestra. Recent projects include arranging, orchestrating and co-producing the Estefan Family Christmas album, and recording and/or performing with Tony Bennett, Steve Miller, Seal, Lizz Wright, Andra Day, Monica Mancini, Chris Botti, Renée Fleming and Arturo Sandoval. He is also the host of monthly radio show Generation Next on Sirius XM, artistic director of The Jazz Cruise and artistic advisor for the Jazz Roots series at the Adrienne Arsht Center.
An award-winning educator with over 40 years of leadership in higher education, Shelly Berg is Dean and Patricia L. Frost Professor of Music at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. He was previously the McCoy/Sample Professor of Jazz Studies at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California and a past president of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE). In 2003, he was honored as Educator of the Year by the Los Angeles Jazz Society and in 2002 received the IAJE Lawrence Berk Leadership Award. In 2000, the Los Angeles Times named him one of three “Educators for the Millennium.”
His textbooks include Essentials of Jazz Theory, the Chop-Monster beginning improvisation series, Rhythm Section Workshop for Jazz Directors (Alfred Music) and Jazz Improvisation: The Goal-Note Method (Kendor). He has appeared as a performer and lecturer throughout the United States as well as in Canada, China, Mexico, Europe, Israel, Japan, Romania and Venezuela.
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Scott Flavin
Artist Bio
Scott Flavin
Scott Flavin
Violinist Scott Flavin enjoys an incredibly versatile musical career. Since 1998, he has been professor of violin at the Frost School of Music, where he teaches violin, conducting and chamber music. As a violinist, he is in demand as a concertmaster, chamber musician and recitalist, and is first violinist of the internationally acclaimed Bergonzi String Quartet and violinist of PULSE Trio, in addition to the Bergonzi Trio. Flavin is resident conductor of The Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, and regularly appears on the podium in concert, on television and in recordings. He is also an active arranger, composer and writer. His recordings include chamber music on the Naxos and Centaur labels, and commercial recordings on Sony, EMI and Warner Brothers, including appearances on over a dozen Grammy Award-winning albums.