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SFJAZZ Spring Season 2006 • March 17-June 17, 2006

Kenny Werner and Claudia Villela

Saturday, June 17 • 2pm

Florence Gould Theatre, Legion of Honor
  • venue info
  • $25 GA
    • “[This duo is] a Pandora's Box of explosive creativity.”—JazzTimes

    As on their breathtaking 2005 CD duo debut, Dreamtales, Brazilian-born singer Claudia Villela and American piano maestro Kenny Werner team up for a set of daring invention and crystalline beauty. "Dreamtales should come with a warning," JazzTimes wrote, “Alert! Your senses are about to be brilliantly arrested.”

     

    Program Notes

    One of the most transcendent CDs of 2004 was Dreamtales, the improvisational collaboration of pianist Kenny Werner and vocalist Claudia Villela. It was a no-nets affair: bold, spontaneous, sublime. The pair walked into the studio with no preconceived notion of what would happen—no song list, lyric sheets, charts—and let the spirit move with both calm and thunder, with the best song being “Tom’s Water,” a gem loosely based on Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Waters of March.”


    The New York Times called the CD “remarkable.” JazzTimes signaled it as “a wake-up call for even the most sophisticated fan of free-form composition.” And jazz critic Scott Yanow remarked, “[Claudia] Villela is not shy to create melodies…and develop her improvisation logically…With [Kenny] Werner egging her on and inspiring her, Villela is heard in superb form throughout this intriguing set.”

    Villela was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1961 and has lived in California since 1984. She has a five-octave vocal range and sings in drum-like cadences with soulful beauty. With Werner, she will sing impromptu lyrics and wordless vocals.


    Werner has an impressive résumé, having worked with, among others, Charles Mingus, Mel Lewis, Joe Lovano, Lee Konitz and Toots Thielemans. Critic Zan Stewart, in reviewing a live show, wrote that Werner is “a melodic, song-like player whose ideas almost always have a tuneful ring...[and he exhibits] playful liberties of tempo and harmony.”


    Expect Werner and Villela to touch down on material from Dreamtales and to soar into the stratosphere of improvisation in a show teeming with grace and exhilaration.

     

    — Dan Ouellette

     

    Pre-concert Talk: 1:00pm

    "Kenny Werner and the Art of Improvisation"

    NOTE: Pre-concert talk for ticket holders only.

    Designed to enhance audience appreciation, these 30-minute talks from the stage precede selected concerts, films and other events. Talks take place one hour before curtain, are free to ticket holders for the event to follow.


    Kenny Werner piano
    Claudia Villela vocals