My special guest today, 12/07, is jazz pianist, composer, arranger Richard Helzer!

Rick has performed extensively over the last twenty-six years in a number of jazz groups. Notably he performed with the trio Big World, touring Germany and the Pacific Northwest, and recording Devotion (Cexton Records) and Angels (9 Winds Records). Both albums received critical acclaim in Jazz Times, Cadence, Coda, Saxophone Journal and numerous other publications. In Saxophone Journal reviewer Tim Price said of Angels, “Their artistic greatness is the likes of which you need to hear. This is essential music played by a world class ensemble.”

Rick Helzer has been Professor of Music and the Associate Director of the Jazz Studies Department at San Diego State University where he coordinated the undergraduate jazz theory, jazz composition, graduate jazz theory, and combo programs.

Other commercially released recordings featured partnerships with flutist James Newton, saxophonist Kim Richman, woodwind artist Vinny Golia. Jon Worley, said of Friendship and Remembrance, “The setting is simple. The execution is elegant. The music is stunning.”

Rick is a prolific composer who has written over three hundred compositions, many of which have been published via recordings and print media. He has written a number of commissioned works as well. They include a jazz ensemble composition, The Refiner’s Fire, performed by the San Diego State Jazz Ensemble and featured on the 1997 release of the School of Music and Dance’s 100 Years, 1897-1997, compact disk. In 1996 he wrote Spherical Connotations (Variations on Themes of Thelonious Monk). The piece was performed during a South American tour in April under the auspices of the United States Information Agency and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 1997 Artistic Ambassador Program, and received many favorable reviews. A more recent commission includes his Saxophone Quartet No.1 (2001), a major work for the Spectrum Saxophone Quartet.

Rick was also a regular contributor for Jazz Inside magazine, providing numerous solo transcriptions, annotations, record reviews and a regular column entitled Piano Perspectives, from 2000 through 2011.

In the scholarly arena, He co-authored an article with Dr. Nan McDonald, Jazz Listening Activities…and authored an article on jazz composition in the 2004 May/June issue of the Jazz Education Journal entitled Cultivating the Art of Jazz Composition.

In other international touring, during June of 2002 Rick did a highly successful performance tour of Costa Rica with the faculty/student jazz trio. During the summer of 2003, Rick and “Jazz Express” presented concerts during a very successful twelve day tour in the Bolivian cities of Santa Cruz, Sucre, La Paz and the indigenous village of Urubicha in the Bolivian jungle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Coming days: Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, Rick Baptist, Sacha Boutros, Darlene Koldenhoven, Bill Cantos, Doug Webb, Bob Moses, Bill Cunliffe, Norma Winstone, Greg Abete, Frank Griffith, Moira Smiley, Gina Eckstein, Alison Wedding, Zvon Tot…and more!

www.cathysegalgarcia.com for more info and Future guests

Archives: [ Ссылка ]

And if you feel like you'd like to help jazz musicians who are in dire financial need, please go to [ Ссылка ] Thanks!

свернуть