SHOW DESCRIPTION:

It is the goal of this group of Collaborators to integrate Visual Fine Art with Improvisational Jazz. In this effort it is expected that an extraordinary statement will be accomplished by the participants, to honor the legacy of the musical contributions made by John W. Coltrane. This Collaborative Installation is seeking the Creative Spirit of all there is in Art and Music endeavors.

Passport To Equinox Exhibition is another "Internationale ComZee Project."

COLLABORATIVE MUSICIANS

Carl Grubbs was chosen as the connective individual to open the "Passport to Equinox" Collaboration project. Carl Grubbs is an Alto, Tenor and Soprano Saxophonist from Philadelphia with a singularly distinctive family tree. Carl's Cousin is Naima herself, who as John Coltrane's wife inspired one of the most beautiful ballads in jazz. Coltrane was close to Carl's section of the family, and he was quick to teach Carl a thing or two on the Saxophone.

Carl Grubbs is a great Saxophonist who has played with some of the greatest players in the world - Julius Hemphill, Pharoah Sanders, Stanley Clarke, the vastly underrated trumpeter Malachi Thompson - and yet has remained in relative obscurity.

In the mid-Eighties Carl put together his group Carl Grubbs and Friends, which won acclaim on tours in Colombia and Brazil. Then he came home to Baltimore, where he is Artist in Residence at St. Paul School in Brooklandville, Maryland. He also conducts workshops and clinics upon request on jazz improvisation. For the past three years he has directed a Summer Music Camp for youth ages 8 - 17 in Baltimore City.

Jackie Blake, inspired by the natural musical environment in which he was born master jazz-composer. Jackie Blake is one of the great unsung jewels of Baltimore. Playing improvised and composed music that evokes Charlie Parker, Jackie McClean, and the history of later avant-garde jazz, Blake is a highly original voice [and mind]. His musical career has been dizzying yet under-documented, including performances with Kenny Durham and many other legends of jazz music. Blake believes that jazz subsumes all other musical classifications from Bird to Brahms, Berg, Middle Eastern, Javanese, Japanese, etc.

This Collaborative Installation is seeking to emit the Spirit of all there is in Art and Music endeavors!

COLLABORATIVE ARTISTS

,
• Helen Elliott
• Annie Farrar
• Dana Reifler
• Larry Scott
• Don Griffin, and others.

PROCESS:

Collaborative Artists will create a body of work for the collaborative Jazz musicians to interpret into what they see and feel from studying the work. This exhibition is in homage to the great Tenor Saxophonist, John W. Coltrane.

John William Coltrane
[September 23, 1926 - July 17, 1967], nicknamed Trane, was an American Jazz Saxophonist and Composer. Although recordings of his work from as early as 1946 exist, Coltrane's recording career did not begin in earnest until 1955. From 1957 onward he recorded and produced dozens of albums, many of them not released until years after his death.

A hugely influential jazz musician, Coltrane has been credited with reshaping modern jazz and with being the predominant influence on successive generations of saxophonists. Along with Tenor Saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Sonny Rollins, Coltrane fundamentally altered expectations for the instrument. Coltrane received a posthumous Special Citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board in 2007 for his "masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz."

SHOW DATES:

Performance / "Passport To Equinox - The Opening"
<> Original Composition - Carl Grubbs Sunday September 23, 2007 @ 6:00 PM---------8:00 PM

Live performance / “Passport To Equinox - The Closing"
<> Original Composition" - Jackie Blake Saturday September 29, 2007 @ 7:00 PM-------9:00 PM

Historical Performances & Installation will be documented on DVD. Proposed Show will be spotlighted in the Baltimore Magazine Fall September Issue.