CLIFF KORMAN
The lecture-performance on the parallel
lives of Pixinguinha and Duke Ellington is may be tailored for
specialized or general audiences.
Paulo Moura and Cliff
Korman met at the Creative Music Studio, Woodstock in 1981 and
have since then maintained and developed an intense exchange of
musical experiences which brings together the traditions of
North-American jazz with the many urban instrumental styles of
Brasil.
In the years since their work has
expanded in different directions that range from an alluring
duo project (whose recording dedicated to Ellington and Pixinguinha is released on Jazzheads), to a ground-breaking
quartet which includes Paulo Braga on drums and David Finck on
acoustic bass, and a work-in-progress dedicated to the
connections between Brazilian and North American composers such
as Gershwin and Jobim or Gnattali and
Monk.
Their most recent collaboration brought
to stages in Europe and the United States the lush and
sparkling sound of "Gafieira" ballrooms: possibly the
first show of this kind ever presented outside Brasil, which
features each time a different group of extraordinary
practitioners, virtuosos and dancers of this exclusively
Brazilian tradition.
Parallel Lives: The Music of Pixinguinha
and Duke Ellington
A lecture project led by Cliff Korman
Born within a year of each other, the
careers of Duke Ellington and the Brazilian composer
Pixinguinha evolved in remarkably similar fashion.
Today, both are revered in their
respective countries for the unparalleled contributions they
made to the local musical landscape. In this innovative and
enlightening performance, an accomplished jazz duo takes the
audience on journey through the music of these great masters,
peppering their playing with illuminating commentary.
From the Press
“If
you don't know Paulo Moura you don't know Brazilian music.
Paulo is perhaps Brazil's finest reed man. (...) Although Cliff
hasn't been on the scene as long as Paulo, he's definitely
someone to keep your eye on as a substantial jazz pianist and a
musician whose playing will help other North Americans better
understand Brazilian music and the bridges between the two
worlds.”
Judith King (WBGO)
"Paulo
Moura is an Afro-Brazilian whose face, illuminated by eyes the
color of the sea, expresses a profound and direct wisdom. Cliff
Korman is a New Yorker who plays piano with the luxurious sound
and the rhythmical attention of Keith Jarrett...he has long
studied in Brasil where he has learned how to unassumingly
accompany the grace of a musician like Paulo Moura. They
enchanted the audience with a delicate and penetrating insight
that brought them back to the poetry that early jazz must have
had.”
Michele Mannucci, Piano Time, June 1996