29th Annual Jazz Tribute Awards Dinner & Concert to Honor Wayne Shorter October 21, 2012

The Los Angeles Jazz Society’s (LAJS) 29th Annual Jazz Tribute Awards Dinner & Concert is set for Sunday, October 21, 2012, 4:30 pm, at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City announces LAJS President Flip Manne. Wayne Shorter, multiple Grammy Award winner, saxophonist and composer, is the 2012 Jazz Tribute Honoree. Leonard Maltin will host the evening’s festivities and Herbie Hancock is this year’s Honorary Chair. LAJS’ 2012 Jazz Tribute awardees include Lifetime Achievement Award recipient John Pisano, Lifetime Composer/Arranger Award recipient Gordon Goodwin, Jazz Vocalist Award recipient Denise Donatelli, David L. Abell Angel Award recipient Jim Barrall, Jazz Educator Award recipients Roger Neumann & Scott Whitfield, Teri Merrill-Aarons Founder Award recipient Terence Love, and Shelly Manne Memorial New Talent Award recipient Jamael Dana Dean. The Jazz Tribute also includes special guests, Jeff Hamilton, Larry Hathaway and Barbara Morrison.
Jazz Tribute Awards Dinner & Concert guests will enjoy a reception, market place, silent auction, dinner, awards ceremony and a special live concert with the honorees. The concert portion of the special evening will feature performances by Wayne Shorter & friends, John Pisano Trio, Denise Donatelli Trio, and Jamael Dean Dana Trio. Concert only tickets are also available.
The Annual Jazz Tribute Awards Dinner & Concert was established to recognize and honor Los Angeles based artists for their contributions in furthering the art form of jazz. This major fund-raising event attracts musicians and jazz lovers from all over Southern California and supports the general operations of the organization and its education programs.
The LAJS was founded in 1985 by a group of musicians and jazz lovers committed to elevating the image of jazz and its artists in the community. The mission of the LAJS is to excite, educate and engage public school students with the vibrant rhythms and sounds of the only indigenous American music – jazz. LAJS presents multi-cultural and interactive in-school and off-campus jazz education programs. We also promote and honor the legacy of jazz and ensure its future by identifying and nurturing the emerging jazz musicians of tomorrow. LAJS presents an ongoing calendar of activities and members are informed about these events and other “jazz news” through its website, email blasts and newsletter, Quarter Notes.

The LAJS offers four outreach programs with wide ranging impact: “Jazz In Schools” provides free jazz concerts for over 22,000 young people in 45 LAUSD elementary schools during the month of February, Black History Month. The program helps fill the educational vacuum left when schools made drastic cutbacks in the arts; “Bill Green Mentorship Program” in which selected public school students receive extensive training in advanced jazz techniques from professional musicians capped by a professional recording session; “Jazz CoolCats” is LAJS’s 10-week after-school jazz education class for elementary school children; and “JazzGiving” is a program created by LAJS that provides donated musical instruments to schools. The youth programs are designed to identify and nurture emerging jazz musicians and help to create future audiences by stimulating an appreciation for jazz.

LAJS is also deeply supportive of professional artists, presenting the highly regarded “Vibe Summit,” a day-long celebration featuring some of the nation’s leading vibraphonists, and the “Jazz Tribute Awards Dinner and Concert,” the annual fundraiser at which legends in the field are recognized. Past honorees include Arturo Sandoval, George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Horace Silver, Buddy Collette, Shelly Manne, Louie Bellson, Benny Carter, Ray Brown, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Harold Land, Poncho Sanchez, Dee Dee Bridgewater and John Clayton, among others. These various programs and events have earned LAJS recognition across the country as a leader in preserving and promoting jazz.

Tickets to the 29th Annual Jazz Tribute Awards Dinner & Concert are $200 - $250 per person; individual and corporate sponsorship tables are available from $1,000 - $10,000. Concert only tickets are $75. Substantial ticket discounts for LAJS members. The Awards Dinner and Concert takes place at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City, 555 Universal Hollywood Drive at Universal City. For tickets, additional information, to join the Los Angeles Jazz Society, or to make a donation to help support its educational outreach efforts, please visit www.LAJazz.org or call (818) 994-4661.

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Multiple Grammy award winner, saxophonist and composer, Wayne Shorter, is one of the few jazz musicians who can, without a doubt, be called “a living legend.” Many of his compositions are jazz standards; many of his records are studied endlessly. He’s one of the artists who both musicians and fans obsess over – and even at 77, he continues to reinvent his musical personality with every performance. Following a short time with Horace Silver, he moved on to join Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, becoming the band’s music director. Miles Davis, after several attempts, finally convinced Shorter to join his Quintet where he became the band’s most prolific composer. Though some will argue about whether Wayne Shorter’s primary impact on jazz has been as a composer or as a saxophonist, hardly anyone will dispute his overall importance as one of jazz’s leading figures over a long span of time. Shorter’s continually expanding body of work is inextricably linked to the history of modern music. His music transcends genre while keeping the improvisational genius and surprise of jazz burning at the center. Regarded as one of the most significant and prolific performers and composers in jazz and modern music; Wayne Shorter has an outstanding record of professional achievement in his historic career as a musician. He has received substantial recognition from his peers, including 9 Grammy Awards and 17 other Grammy nominations to date as well as the prestigious Jazz Master award from the NEA. Shorter’s childlike imagination and ceaseless innovation in music invite comparison to the enduring vitality of Picasso in the world of art or of Bergman in film. Today, Shorter continues to dazzle audiences with his Quartet featuring Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, and Brian Blade, creating some of the most powerful music of his career.

Official Website: http://www.lajazz.org