New York, NY – Mon 10/04/10
Bethlehem, PA – Sat 10/02/10
NY, NY – Sat 09/25/10
New York, NY – Thu 09/23/10
2010 West Coast Tour in October
· www.RobertaJazz.com ·
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jazz Pianist Roberta Piket’s Trio Featuring Billy Mintz and
Jeff D’Angelo tours the West Coast in October
Critically acclaimed New York pianist Roberta Piket and drummer Billy Mintz bring their music to the West coast in October featuring L.A. mainstay Jeff D’Angelo on bass. In addition to performing originals by Billy and Roberta, the trio will play works from the upcoming CD release Sides, Colors. (Preview copies will be available.) Roberta’s musical point of view is sophisticated and mature, yet accessible to the sensitive listener. Always passionate and heartfelt, this is music that touches the audience without coddling it. By popular request this year, look for Roberta to sing more as well. The Roberta Piket Trio’s unique combination of artistry, creativity and swing is not to be missed!
Roberta Piket has played professionally as a sidewoman with David Liebman, Rufus Reid, Michael Formanek, Lionel Hampton and the BMI/New York Jazz Orchestra and has twice been a featured guest on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, on National Public Radio. Roberta regularly tours Europe, and plays at some of New York’s most distinguished venues including Smalls and Dizzy’s Jazz Club at Lincoln Center. She has six CDs released as a leader on various independent labels.
Jeff D’Angelo is a self-taught musician who briefly lived in New York City where he worked with such artists as John Scofield, Jeremy Steig, Karl Ratzer, Bob Devos, Chuck and Gap Mangione. In 1981 he moved to Los Angeles at the request of Doc Severinsen, who hired Jeff to be part of his newly formed jazz fusion band, Xebron. Jeff has lived and worked in Los Angeles ever since, performing both as a member of Xebron and as a featured soloist in Doc’s pop symphony act, sharing the stage with almost every major American orchestra. Jeff is currently a working bassist on the L.A. jazz scene. Over the years he has had the great pleasure to perform and record with Bob Sheppard, Bill Cunliffe, Tom Scott, Roger Kellaway, Rob Lochart, Rich Eames, and many more.
In an extraordinary career spanning nearly 40 years, Billy Mintz has played with some of the biggest names in the jazz world including Lee Konitz, Eddie Daniels, Harold Danko, Mose Allison, Mark Murphy, Bobby Shew, Charles Lloyd, Vinny Golia, and the Alan Broadbent Trio. Mr. Mintz has written two books: Different Drummers, originally published by Aamsco Music Publishing and Advanced Sticking and SightReading (BM Publications). In recent years, Mr. Mintz has taken on new roles as a bandleader and a composer, performing his own compositions with various ensembles. He also frequently performs solo drumset concerts.
For details please see itinerary below.
Roberta Piket Trio: Fall 2010 tour
Thursday, October 14, 2010 Palomar College of Performing Arts
12:30pm – 1:30pm 1140 W. Mission Road
Free Admission San Marcos, CA 92069
www.palomar.edu/performingarts
Thursday, October 14, 2010 Santa Barbara New Music Series
8pm Muddy Waters
$8 Cover 508 East Haley Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93103
www.colterfrazier.com/sbnewmusicseries.html
Saturday, October 16, 2010 South Pasadena Music Conservatory
8pm 1509 Mission Street
$10 Cover (Discount for Seniors/Students) South Pasadena, CA 91030
Opening group: Call and Response www.southpasadenamusic.com
ft. Dottie Grossman, poetry and
Michael Pierre Vlatkovich, trombone
Monday, October 18, 2010 California Institute of the Arts
2pm – 4pm 24700 McBean Parkway Valencia, CA 91355
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 Saddleback College
4pm – 5pm Clinic 28000 Marguerite Parkway
7pm Concert Mission Viejo, CA 92629
$10 cover; $7 students/seniors www.saddleback.edu/arts/Music.html
Thursday, October 21, 2010 Dizzy’s
8pm San Diego Wine & Culinary Center
$10 Cover Harbor Club Towers Ground Fl.
2nd & J Street
San Diego, CA 92101
Sunday, October 24, 2010 Chez Hanny
4pm 1300 Silver Avenue
$20 suggested donation San Francisco, CA 94134
www.chezhanny.com
Monday, October 25,, 2010 Luna’s Café
Roberta Piket-Billy Mintz Duo 1414 16th Street
8pm Sacramento, CA 95814
Saturday, October 30, 2010 Artistic Piano Gallery
with Steve Willis, bass 1390 Biddle Road Suite 102
6:30pm Pre-Show Talk Medford, OR 97504
7:30pm Concert www.artisticpianogallery.com
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$20 cover, $15 Siskiyou Institute members, $5 students |
Thursday evening and beyond
I’m looking forward to my “special guest” appearance with Billy Mintz’s Two Bass Band tomorrow (Thursday)night at ibeam in Brooklyn.
On October 4th I’ll be at Dizzy’s at J@LC with Marian McPartland and other piano luminaries.
October 8th brings a trio gig at the Stone with Louie Belogenis, not to mention a tribute to Coltrane on Sept. 23 with Louie, Dave Hofstra, Michael Wimberly, and special guest Mark Feldman.
My own trio featuring Cameron Brown this time is at Miles’ Cafe Sept. 25th.
All in all an enjoyable start to fall before I leave for our west coast tour in mid-October.
Some old pictures
In preparation for the CD launch I’m giving my web site a makeover. For the past few years I’ve been posting pictures as part of the blog. So I’ve decided to remove the Photos Gallery page. I didn’t want to lose all the pics though, So I’m posting them here. Enjoy!
[album: https://robertajazz.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/dm-albums/dm-albums.php?currdir=/wp-content/uploads/dm-albums/From Photo Gallery/]
Please Save the Date… RP Trio Saturday August 28th
Saturday Aug. 28th, 2010
9:30pm—midnight
Roberta Piket Trio at Miles’ Café— Saturday August 28th
Roberta Piket Trio
Roberta Piket piano
Daryl Johns bass
Billy Mintz drums
Join us at this brand new midtown venue for a rare opportunity to hear Roberta in New York on a Steinway baby grand.
Roberta Piket‘s trio has toured Japan and Spain as well as the U.S. She has performed her music at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., at the Earshot Festival in Seattle, at the Rochester (NY) Jazz Festival, and in New York at Small’s, the Blue Note Club, Birdland, the Knitting Factory and Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Roberta’s CDs frequently make the “best of” lists of the major jazz magazines. Whether performing her original compositions or highly personalized reworkings of standards, Roberta’s daring rhythmic modulations and vast harmonic expansiveness set a new standard for the piano trio.
Daryl Johns is a 13-year-old jazz bassist who was a semi-finalist in the 2009 Thelonious Monk International Bass Competition and came in honorable mention. Daryl was awarded “Best Soloist” and “Best Original Song” in Downbeat Magazine’s 2010 33rd Annual Student Music Awards. He has performed with jazz greats Randy Brecker, Jimmy Owens, Dave Liebman, Geoff Keezer, Carl Allen, Jay Leonhart, Warren Vache, Les Paul, Bucky Pizzarelli, Valery Ponomorev, Don Sickler and his father Steve Johns. He has recorded his first CD with his own piano trio at the Bennett Studio in his home town of Englewood, NJ and is currently doing recording projects at Rudy Van Gelder’s Studio produced by Don Sickler.
In an extraordinary career spanning nearly 40 years, Billy Mintz has played with some of the biggest names in the jazz world including Lee Konitz, Eddie Daniels, Harold Danko, Mose Allison, Mark Murphy, Bobby Shew, Charles Lloyd, Vinny Golia, and the Alan Broadbent Trio. Mr. Mintz has written two books: Different Drummers, originally published by Aamsco Music Publishing and Advanced Sticking and Sight-Reading (BM Publications). In recent years, Mr. Mintz has taken on new roles as a bandleader and a composer, performing his own compositions with various ensembles. He also performs solo drum set concerts with increasing frequency.
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Miles’ Jazz Café New York 212 E. 52nd St. 3Fl. (between 2nd & 3rd Ave.) 212-371-7657 6 train to 51st St. $10 cover charge/$10 min |
The Music Is What it Wants to Be
Edited 9/10/2010
This is the most complex project I’ve done as a leader. We recorded several string/wind arrangements of mine (and one gorgeous ballad arrangement of Billy’s). There are also a couple of tracks with organ, including a funky 17/16 tune with several organ and percussion overdubs. (Overdubbing on my own CD is a first for me. It goes against my jazz grain. But in this case I think the results are worth it.) Also a vocal overdub.
It’s very exciting, and I feel great about the music. But today, I started thinking about the CD from the perspective of the listener. There’s so much variety on this recording. There is an African American spiritual on which I do a free improvisation. There’s a burning modal piece of Billy’s. There’s a beautiful, lyrical arrangement of Bill Evans’ ballad Laurie and a strings/winds/vocal arrangement of the standard “If I Loved You” which is rather epic in scope. (Then there’s that troublesome organ overdub on Degree Absolute.)
I find myself wondering if listeners who like one style of jazz, or who expect a CD with a consistent “mood”, are going to be disappointed. I’d like to believe that most listeners understand that, as Duke said, there are only two kinds of music, good and bad. I’d also like to think that despite the variety, the recording has a certain coherence, a certain “sound” or, as musicians like to say, a “vibe”.
Ultimately I’m interested in making the best music while expressing what I need to express and experiencing what I need to experience. I wanted to write for strings, so I did. I wanted to play more organ, so I wrote for organ. For several years I’ve been expanding beyond mainstream jazz into improvised chamber music with musicians like Billy Mintz, Klaus Kugel, Louise Belogenis, Mark Reboul. So the recording reflects that as well. I explore the musical paths that excite me. If I did anything less, then the music would be less.
It’s great when people appreciate what we do. We all love praise. As artists we want to communicate something to the listener. And of course I’d prefer for people to like and enjoy every inch of the CD. But the music comes from within. It happens organically. No “decision” can be made. Some listeners (and critics) may not understand the “choices” I’ve made. But there is no choice, only what the music wants.