KSC Spectrum Series Concert Features Tango and Jazz

KEENE, N.H. 2/21/03 - Keene State College faculty members José Lezcano, guitar, and Don Baldini, double bass, perform tango and jazz music on Wednesday, March 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond. Tickets are $7 for the general public and $5 for KSC students, senior citizens, and youth 17 and under. Call the box office at 603-358-2168.

Baldini leads a jazz quartet of guest artists Phil Bloch, violin, Mike Wakefield, soprano saxophone, and Jay Messer, guitar. Inspired by the instrumentation and repertoire of Django Reinhardt’s famed Hot Club of France, the program includes Reinhardt’s “Limehouse Blues” and “All of Me,” Oscar Pettiford’s “Tricotism,” and other jazz tunes of the pre-World War II era.

The Hot Club of France included the unique instrumentation of Stephane Grappelly, violin; guitarists Roger Chaput, Django Reinhardt and his brother, Joseph Reinhardt; Louis Vola, bass; and Sidney Bechet on soprano saxophone when he visited Paris. They recorded hundreds of jazz songs, many written by Django, and their records became hits on both sides of the Atlantic.

Lezcano and guest guitarist John Mantegna play Astor Piazzolla’s Tango Suite and guitar transcriptions of piano works by de Falla, Albéniz, and Granados. Piazzolla is known for his “nuevo tango” compositions that took the sounds of the great tango masters out of the concert hall and into the streets of Buenos Aires. In the late 1950s, his music spoke to a new generation who enjoyed popular and jazz music.

The tango and jazz concert is part of the Spectrum Series of faculty and guest artist recitals presented by the Keene State Department. of Music. The next Spectrum Series concert is Wednesday, April 9, at 7:30 p.m.