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| | Arts Calendar / November 11 / Concerts |
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20:00 | Eric Legnini Trio (France) |
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 The brainchild of Belgium's most accomplished pianist, jazz outfit the Eric Legnini Trio achieved success across Europe with their acoustic take on various Great American Songbook standards. Born in Huy in 1970, Eric Legnini began playing the piano at age six and, after becoming a teacher of jazz piano at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in the '90s, teamed up with saxophonist Jacques Pelzer to record the debut album Never Let Me Go. Legnini spent the next two decades balancing his own recording career with performing with the likes of Toots Thielemans, Flavio Boltro, and Stefano di Battista before teaming up with bassist Thomas Bramerie and drummer Franck Agulhon in 2012 to record the covers album Ballads under the guise of the Eric Legnini Trio. Many countries have already welcomed Eric Legnini in various groups: Canada (Montreal International Festival), Congo-Brazzaville (Brazzaville Jazz Festival), Zaire, Spain (Bilbao Festival), Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, the Belga/Audi Jazz Festival in Belgium etc. Eric Legnini has played with leading musicians such as John Ruocco, Felix Simtaine, Aka Moon Electric, Joe Lovano, Michel Hatzigeorgiou, Dre Pallemaerts, Emanuele Cisi, Toninho Horta, Rosario Giuliani, Bruno Castellucci, Philip Catherine, and many others. In 1994, Eric Legnini has composed the soundtrack of "Ombres et Lumieres" directed by Samy Brunet. He also had the opportunity to compose and perform the music for a dance performance, "Si Par Une Nuit..." for Enzo Pezzella Company. Eric Legnini was elected as the best Belgian piano and keyboard player of the year '98 at the Belgian Jazz Referendum organized by Belgian radio stations RTBF and VRT. In October 2005, he received the Belgian Django D'or award and in 2006 "Octaves de la Musique" award in the jazz category. He has recorded with Joe Lovano, Bruno Castellucci's Stringtet (Towards the Light album), drummer Mimi Verderame's Quartet (Game Over), an Italian alto sax player Rosario Giuliani and Bart De Nolf (bass). Now Eric Legnini is touring Europe with his trio.
MMDM Theater Hall  |
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19:00 | Only Jazz: Jan Lundgren Trio (Sweden) |
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Jan Lundgren Trio plays "Flowers of Sendai" program. Special guest - Gregoire Maret (harmonica, USA). Jan Lundgren is part of a remarkable and long tradition of innovative pianists from Sweden like Jan Johansson who passed away early, and in more recent times Bobo Stenson and Esbjorn Svensson. Lundgren has never made life easy for himself, and has always tried to utilize his phenomenal technique to enhance his musicality. His ability to integrate the most disparate musical influences into a fascinating whole is unique in itself. Whether its contemporary classical music, the inexhaustible Northern folk tradition or the pulsating groove of jazz, deeply rooted in Afro-American music: Lundgren has a unique way of leading the listener on a voyage of discovery - sometimes relaxed, sometimes utterly invigorating - through his highly individual soundscapes. Lundgren, born in Kristianstad in Southern Sweden and raised in Ronneby, Blekinge, had his first piano lessons at age five. He was soon discovered to have an exceptional musical talent. After a long period of classical training, he discovered jazz more or less by chance in the late 1980's. He was instantly hooked, rapidly absorbed the jazz piano tradition from Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner to Bud Powell and Bill Evans, and acquired a depth of knowledge of the Great American Songbook like possibly no other European jazz pianist. While sailing through his studies at the renowned Royal College of Music in Malmo, he also took up a busy schedule as a professional musician that quickly helped to build his reputation in Sweden. Discovered by Swedish bebop legend Arne Domnerus, he frequently played with other Swedish stars like Putte Wickman and Bernt Rosengren. Lundgren's debut album Conclusion was released in 1994, and propelled his career firmly forward. The following year saw the formation of the Jan Lundgren Trio with long time student associates Mattias Svensson (bass) and Rasmus Kihlberg (drums), who was replaced in the beginning of the year 2000 by the Dane Morten Lund. This steady band recorded seven well-received and commercially very successful albums for the Swedish label "Sittel" in the period up to 2003. The band's intense tour schedule founds a temporary peak in a concert at Carnegie Hall as part of "Swedish Jazz salutes the USA". "Flowers of Sendai" highlights Lundgren's powers as a composer. Long-time bandmate Mattias Svensson also contributes two pieces to the album, a showcase for the incomparable qualities of the JLT. Together with his trio, Lundgren improvises melodic while rhythmically intricate music with complex harmonies and structures. With "Flowers of Sendai" Lundgren reaches the top flight of pianists working in today's jazz scene. Harmonica player Grégoire Maret is an accomplished musician whose proficient skills are based in jazz, but have found him in demand across various genres.
Tchaikovsky Concert Hall |
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 Starting out as a punk- and rap-influenced band, the northern Californian alt-metal group Papa Roach grew into a straight-ahead hard rock ensemble with strong heavy metal leanings. Consisting of Coby Dick, Jerry Horton, Dave Buckner, and Tobin Esperance, Papa Roach formed in 1993 and began releasing EPs soon after, including 1994's Potatoes for Christmas and 1995's Caca Bonita. By 1996, the group replaced original bassist Will James with Esperance and hired a new manager; the following year, Papa Roach released their first full-length album Old Friends from Young Years, which became a surprise hit on local radio. In 2004, Papa Roach released their fourth studio effort, Getting Away with Murder that sold well and eventually went platinum. Released in early 2009 Metamorphosis found Papa Roach reprising their interpretation of metallic hard rock and reuniting with Infest producer Jay Baumgardner. The career-spanning collection To Be Loved: The Best of Papa Roach appeared in 2010. The band's first album for Eleven Seven, Time For Annihilation, combined new cuts and live re-recordings of their hits and appeared in August of 2010. As Papa Roach's fans know the band have been known as chart-toppers since the explosion of their album, Infest, and their smash single "Last Resort", in 2000. On January 27, 2015 the band will celebrate the 15th anniversary of Infest by releasing their 8th studio album and most infectious, invigorating, and incendiary body of work to date, F.E.A.R. Multi-platinum, Grammy and MTV Music Award nominee, Papa Roach has paved the way for many bands that we hear on the radio today. The band's brand of melodic rock played a big part in shaping the newly-resurgent nu metal scene. Returning to dominate the resurgence, the band recorded F.E.A.R. in Las Vegas, NV with producers Kevin and Kane Churko (Ozzy Osbourne, Hellyeah, In This Moment, Five Finger Death Punch) in early 2014. Papa Roach preserves the robust riffs and swaggering rhythms that marked their initial call-to-arms, while seamlessly infusing cinematic electronic flourishes, sweeping hooks, and magnetic melodies. The band rise like never before on this album. The first single and title track explodes into an arena-ready refrain that’s as anthemic as it is atomic. Muscular guitars give way to an industrial stomp before sparking an uplifting and undeniable chant. On tour in Europe and the UK earlier this year, Jacoby Shaddix (vocals) told Kerrang! "There obviously has been an element of hope within the despair of the music that we write, and I think that that's always key, and that's very important to what we do, is to always have that element of hope, and that's laced throughout the record." To Ransom Free Media, Tobin Esperance (bass) added: "It's definitely that "light at the end of the tunnel" kind of thing. It's positive. It has some moments where it's really heavy, but it's a positive record." Before celebratory events in 2015 Papa Roach will perform in Europe with their best hits. More info
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20:00 | The Electric Light Orchestra (UK) |
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 The Electric Light Orchestra's ambitious yet irresistible fusion of Beatlesque pop, classical arrangements, and futuristic iconography rocketed the group to massive commercial success throughout the 1970s. ELO was formed in Birmingham, England in the autumn of 1970 from the ashes of the eccentric art-pop combo the Move, reuniting frontman Roy Wood with guitarist/composer Jeff Lynne, bassist Rick Price, and drummer Bev Bevan. Announcing their intentions to pick up where "I Am the Walrus' left off", the quartet sought to embellish their engagingly melodic rock with classical flourishes, tapping French horn player Bill Hunt and violinist Steve Woolam to record their self-titled debut LP (issued as No Answer in the U.S.). In the months between the sessions for the album and its eventual release, the Move embarked on their farewell tour, with Woolam exiting the ELO lineup prior to the enlistment of violinist Wilf Gibson, bassist Richard Tandy, and cellists Andy Craig and Hugh McDowell. Despite the lengthy delay, Electric Light Orchestra sold strongly, buoyed by the success of the U.K. Top Ten hit "10538 Overture". However, Wood soon left ELO to form Wizzard, taking Hunt and McDowell with him; Price and Craig were soon out as well, and with the additions of bassist Michael D'Albuquerque, keyboardist Richard Tandy, and cellists Mike Edwards and Colin Walker, Lynne assumed vocal duties, with his Lennonesque tenor proving the ideal complement to his increasingly sophisticated melodies. With 1973's ELO II, the group returned to the Top Ten with their grandiose cover of the Chuck Berry chestnut "Roll Over Beethoven". The record was also their first American hit, with 1974's Eldorado yielding their first U.S. Top Ten, the lovely "Can't Get It Out of My Head". Despite Electric Light Orchestra's commercial success, the band remained relatively faceless; the lineup changed constantly, with sole mainstays Lynne and Bevan preferring to let their elaborate stage shows and omnipresent spaceship imagery instead serve as the group's public persona. 1975's Face the Music went gold, generating the hits "Evil Woman" and "Strange Magic," while the follow-up, A New World Record, sold five million copies internationally thanks to standouts like "Telephone Line" and "Livin' Thing". The platinum-selling double-LP, Out of the Blue, appeared in 1977. In the wake of ELO's best-selling Greatest Hits compilation, Lynne wrote several songs for the soundtrack of the Olivia Newton-John film Xanadu, including the hit title track. The next proper Electric Light Orchestra album, 1981's Time, generated their final Top Ten hit, "Hold on Tight". Following 1983's Secret Messages, Bevan left the group to join Black Sabbath, although he returned to the fold for 1986's Balance of Power, which despite the presence of the Top 20 hit "Calling America," received little interest from fans and media alike. However, as Electric Light Orchestra's career descended, Lynne emerged as a sought-after producer, helming well-received comebacks from George Harrison (1987's Cloud Nine) and Roy Orbison (1989's Mystery Girl) and additionally re-teaming with both rock legends as well as Bob Dylan and Tom Petty in the hit supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. In 2001, having successfully secured the rights to the Electric Light Orchestra name, Lynne recorded the album Zoom - largely by himself - and released it as an ELO album. After Zoom, Lynne took time off from ELO, working on several projects. In 2012, Lynne returned to ELO with Mr. Blue Sky, an album of re-recorded Electric Light Orchestra songs. In 2013, Lynne released a solo album of '50s and '60s pop hits titled Long Wave, as well as the ELO album Live, which featured concert performances ELO recorded during the tour for Zoom. More info
Crocus City Hall |
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