LIVE at Piedmont Piano Company
JAZZ CAMP JAZZ FEST
Peter Apfelbaum & Paul Hanson
Longtime musical associates Peter Apfelbaum (piano, saxophone, flutes, percussion) and Paul Hanson (bassoon, woodwinds) appear in Duo for the first time at the piano store. Having met as students in the pioneering Berkeley public schools Jazz Program in the 1970's, the two began a lifelong musical association as members of Apfelbaum's Hieroglyphics Ensemble in 1977. In their largely improvised performances, the Apfelbaum/Hanson Duo combines Apfelbaum's expansive, polyrhythmic approach to the piano - blending elements of jazz, gospel, avant-garde and world music - with Hanson's singular, virtuosic, electronics-enhanced bassoon melodies which evoke the haunting beauty of Balkan music. For this show, they will be premiering new original compositions as well.
General Admission
$30 in advance / $35 at the door
We are offering a limited number of seats for this performance. Advance purchase is recommended.
PETER APFELBAUM
An influential figure in new jazz for over three decades, Grammy winner Peter Apfelbaum (piano, saxophone, flutes, percussion) is best known as leader of the genre-mashing world music big band Hieroglyphics and the electronica/vocal-driven sextet Sparkler. Based in Brooklyn, NY since 1998, he has also collaborated with some of the leading figures in contemporary music, including the late Don Cherry (whose group Multikulti he was Musical Director of from 1989-1995), Cecil Taylor, Harry Belafonte, Omar Sosa, Bill Laswell, and Trey Anastasio, among others. He has written for the Kronos Quartet, the National Swedish Radio Orchestra and Kamikaze Ground Crew. In addition to his own projects, he has also often returned to the Bay Area over the years in the various bands led by NY-based, Berkeley-bred trumpeter Steven Bernstein, Cuban-born drummer/composer Dafnis Prieto, and world music pioneer Jai Uttal. He currently leads the New York Hieroglyphics and is the Conductor and Artistic Director of the Creative Music Studio Improvisers Orchestra, which performs monthly in Kingston, NY. CMJ New Music Report has called Apfelbaum "A visionary, galvanic composer and player like few others of his time.”
PAUL HANSEN
Paul Hanson, internationally known as a top jazz bassoonist, has roots both in jazz and classical music as a conservatory-trained bassoonist currently active in both idioms. His list of jazz bassoon credits for performance and recording include Jon Batiste, Taylor Eigsti, Billy Cobham, Randy Brecker, Fareed Haque, Wayne Shorter, Brian Blade, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Peter Erskine, Billy Childs, Miguel Zenon with SF Jazz, Billy Higgins, David Binney, Ray Charles, Charlie Hunter, Patrice Rushen, Dennis Chambers, Abraham Laboriel, Medeski Martin & Wood, Jonas Hellborg, Afro/Cuban pianist Omar Sosa, Kai Eckhardt, Peter Apfelbaum. Other performances include Paul with The Paul Dresher Ensemble, DAVKA, St. Joseph Ballet Company, The Klezmorim, as jazz soloist with the Oakland Eastbay Symphony Orchestra, as classical soloist with the Napa Symphony Orchestra and Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra. In 2008-Paul was invited to collaborate with Cirque Du Soleil where his role in the show ZED was created for him-this lasted till 2012.
Paul has won awards both in classical and jazz music. He was awarded a jazz performance grant from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1995. He was the Robert Mondavi Concerto Competition winner as a student in 1984. With Bela Fleck and the Flecktones- he recorded OUTBOUND which won a Grammy in 2000. Paul was the Grand Prize winner of JAZZIZ Magazine's Woodwinds on Fire award in 1995 for his album ‘ASTRO BOY BLUES’. With Jon Batiste-Paul appeared in the recent movie “American Symphony” and performed at Carnegie Hall.
Paul has taught numerous master classes worldwide including Ithaca College, Penn State University, Arizona State University, Oklahoma University, University of Wisconsin, Memphis State University, University of Northeaster Oklahoma, University of Arkansas and Portland State University-all specializing in modern performance techniques and improvisation for double reed instruments. In 2004, Paul was an assistant professor of bassoon at Ithaca College of Music. Paul currently teaches privately in the San Francisco Bay Area.