Explore Jazz

Explore Jazz at Boosey & Hawkes, including music by David Benoit, Chick Corea, Paquito D'Rivera, Andrew Hill, Wynton Marsalis and the historic catalogs of Jazz Workshop, Inc. (The Works of Charles Mingus), Second Floor Music and Vernon Duke. B&H anticipates additional composer signings to its distinguished jazz roster this year.

B&H launches Jazz strand

Spring 2006 ushered in a brand new tradition at Boosey & Hawkes—jazz publishing. B&H signed eminent pianist/composers Chick Corea and David Benoit and secured a worldwide agency agreement for the Second Floor Music catalog, which features some of the best-known compositions of the bop and post-bop eras. In April of 2007, B&H was honored to add late jazz legend Andrew Hill to its distinguished roster of composers. As of October 2007, through an agreement with Jazz Workshop, Inc., Boosey & Hawkes now administers Jazz Workshop's rights to Charles Mingus' compositions for synchronization and choreographic uses and also anticipates making certain works available for rental in the near future. Jumpstarting the new year, B&H signed Wynton Marsalis, Paquito D'Rivera and the catalog of Vernon Duke to exclusive agreements in January 2008.

Jazz News

David Benoit conducts the The Colorado Symphony Orchestra on December 23, as part of his Charlie Bown Christmas national tour: http://www.coloradosymphony.org/

Congrats to Chick Corea on his GRAMMY Nominations:
Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group, Best Instrumental Composition
www.grammy.com

Congratulations to Wynton for being named “Best Jazz Artist” at the First Annual BET J Virtual Awards!.

Downbeat 73rd Annual Readers Poll Winners (Dec. Issue):  http://www.downbeat.com/
Chick Corea (Electric Keyboardist/Synthesizer of the Year),  Paquito D'Rivera (Clarinetist of the Year), Wynton Marsalis (Trumpeter of the Year)

Paquito D'Rivera and his "Invitación al Danzón" featured on Yo-Yo Ma's New CD, Yo-Yo Ma & Friends: Songs of Joy & Peace. "Invitación al Danzón" is now available through B&H.
To purchase CD, please go to Amazon.

New Andrew Hill and Chico Hamilton CD: Dreams Come True (Joyous Shout!):
To purchase CD, please go to Amazon.
To hear rare Andrew Hill interview (2005) on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on NPR, please go to:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17460558
Acclaimed pianist and Hill protege Vijay Iyer talks about some of his favorite Andrew Hill recordings for Jazz.com:
http://www.jazz.com/dozens/iyer-selects-hill

David Benoit and Jeff Lorber's Beat Street:
http://www.halleonard.com/item_detail.jsp?itemid=48019787&order=1&catcode=00&refer=search&type=product&keywords=benoit
Today Show with Matt Lauer: David Benoit's Cafe Rio and First Day of School Featured:  http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/27782284#27782284

B&H Jazz Featured in Billboard, "Boosey & Hawkes Ramps Up Jazz Initiative," September 10, 2008, by Larry Blumenfeld:
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/genre/e3i0df7faafa28db3e907928d8ce92f9e3e

Read Jazz-related Articles

>Jazz on Classical: Classical on Jazz
>Composer Reich discusses his work
>B&H Classical Composers on Jazz

David Benoit

Over the last quarter century, composer and pianist David Benoit has been a passionate musical innovator committed to the exploration of many different art forms on the American landscape. A five-time Grammy nominee for his seminal contributions to the genre of contemporary jazz, Benoit has also embarked on a multi-faceted journey into the classical music world. Benoit's new works reflect his intentional recent shift toward more classically-focused projects. 

Benoit was deeply inspired to write Dolores Del Carmen, as it offers a rich and lasting tribute to his great aunt, Dolores Ellsworth. More widely known to the world as the vivacious Dolores Del Carmen—a noted Flamenco dancer who regularly performed with the legendary José Greco. The world premiere performed by the Asia America Symphony on June 7th, 2008, at the George and Sakaye Aratani Japan America Theatre in the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Los Angeles, will feature Sir Angel Romero of the famed “Royal Family of the Guitar” as soloist. At the request of the Ahn Trio, Benoit was commissioned to write a new work for the celebrated sister trio, as part of the Laguna Beach Festival’s first series of specially commissioned works written for the festival’s artists-in-residence. A suite in three movements—“Red, White, and a Little Bluegrass”, “Major Minor Interlude”, and “Conversation”—Music for Two Trios (2006) was well-received at its January 2007 world premiere. David's website is: http://www.benoit.com/ To listen in on an interview with him, please click here.

Chick Corea

Chick Corea is one of the most admired and prolific jazz composers of our time. First gaining notice for his work with Miles Davis’s ensembles in the late 1960s, he quickly established himself as a groundbreaking leader in his own right. His catalog ranges from solo pieces for piano to large-scale classical concert works, from straight-ahead jazz to avant-garde explorations, hard-hitting fusion, and world music. Boosey & Hawkes is the exclusive agent for both existing works (from 1995) and forthcoming pieces.  

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wiener Mozartjahr 2006 commissioned a new piano concerto from Chick Corea. His composition, Piano Concerto No. 2—The Continents, premiered at the Vienna State Opera House on July 1, 2006. Chick's website is: http://www.chickcorea.com  Click here for a video interview with the jazz master. 

Paquito D'Rivera

Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. is pleased to announce the signing of Paquito D'Rivera to an exclusive agreement in which the company will represent all of Mr. D'Rivera's compositions worldwide for all publishing rights.

Fluent in multiple musical languages, electrifying composer and performer Paquito D'Rivera has impacted American music across Latin, Jazz, and Classical genres. Proclaimed "the consummate multinational ambassador" by the NEA, Mr. D'Rivera is the only artist to have won Latin GRAMMYs in both Classical and Latin Jazz categories. Says Boosey & Hawkes General Manager, Marc Ostrow: "Both as a composer and performer, Mr. D'Rivera's music successfully and easily crosses all geographical borders and musical genres. His compositions exemplify the diversity of our classical and jazz catalogues and I am delighted that that he is the newest addition to our unparalleled roster of composers." Paquito D'Rivera's official website is: http://www.paquitodrivera.com/

Vernon Duke (Vladimir Dukelsky)

Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. is pleased to announce the addition of a new catalogue to its growing jazz initiative, now representing the music of renowned composer, Vernon Duke (Vladimir Dukelsky, 1903-69), in the United States and Canada as well as selected territories including UK, Australasia and South Africa.

Under the name of Vernon Duke, he enjoyed a highly successful Broadway and film career and was one of the composers, along with Berlin, Gershwin, Porter, Rodgers, Arlen and Kern, who contributed to The Great American Songbook. Among the standards Duke wrote (and which B&H will now have the ability to license) are "April in Paris," "Autumn In New York," "I Can't Get Started," and "Taking A Chance on Love." As Vladimir Dukelsky he was also an admired composer of concert music. Born in Russia, he studied under Glière and was influenced particularly by Prokofieff and Lourié. He composed Zephyr and Flora for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes with choreography by Massine and scenography by Braque and his symphonies were championed by Koussevitszky.

Andrew Hill

“Andrew Hill [was] one of the most original artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, as both a pianist and a composer. He [was] one of the true geniuses on Blue Note,” Bruce Lundvall, President & CEO of The Blue Note Label Group.  Click here for the B&H press release. 

Legendary pianist and composer Andrew Hill defied categorization for over four decades with his enigmatic and sophisticated musical style. He had been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the 1960’s jazz heroes” and has alternately been referred to as a genius and a master by critics and colleagues alike. He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Foundation of America (1997), received the JAZZPAR Award (2003), and was named Jazz Composer of the Year five times by the Jazz Journalists Association, including this year. A champion of Hill's music, the late Blue Note Records founder Alfred Lion proclaimed Hill his "last great protégé". With over 40 recordings over just as many years, Hill consistently astounded listeners with his unorthodox compositions. Please visit Andrew Hill's website: http://www.andrewhilljazz.com/ To experience a clip from filmmaker Markie Hancock's documentary 15/8, which explores one composition, one rehearsal, and one performance of Andrew Hill's complex and alluring piece entitled "15/8", please click here.

Wynton Marsalis

Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. is pleased to announce the signing of Wynton Marsalis to an exclusive agreement, in which the company will represent Marsalis' compositions on a worldwide basis for Grand and Rental rights, and in North and South America and the majority of territories in the Caribbean and Africa for small rights, mechanicals, print, and synchronization usages.

Wynton Marsalis has been hailed as the most outstanding jazz musician and trumpeter of his generation, as well as one of the world’s top classical trumpeters. Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Marsalis is a big band leader in the tradition of Duke Ellington, a gifted composer, a devoted advocate for the Arts, and a tireless and inspiring educator. In addition to being the first jazz artist to receive the Pulitzer Prize in music for his work Blood on the Fields, Marsalis has garnered nine Grammy awards, France's Grand Prix du Disque, the Edison Award of the Netherlands, National Medal of Arts, named Musical America’s Musician of The Year and has been elected an honorary member of England's Royal Academy of Music. Wynton Marsalis' official website is: http://www.wyntonmarsalis.org For the Jazz at Lincoln Center website, go here: http://www.jalc.org/

Charles Mingus (Jazz Workshop, Inc.)

Boosey & Hawkes now administers Jazz Workshop's rights to Charles Mingus' compositions for synchronization and choreographic uses throughout the world with the exception of Japan and certain territories in Europe, and anticipates making certain works available for rental in the near future. Jazz Workshop, Inc. will continue to handle all other rights to the Mingus catalogue directly. Please click here for the B&H press release.

At a memorial following Mingus’ death, Steve Schlesinger of the Guggenheim Foundation remarked: “I look forward to the day when we can transcend labels like jazz and acknowledge Charles Mingus as the major American composer that he is.” The New Yorker wrote, “For sheer melodic and rhythmic and structural originality, his compositions may equal anything written in western music in the twentieth century.” The official Charles Mingus website is: http://www.mingusmingusmingus.com/

Second Floor Music

In the field of straight-ahead jazz Second Floor Music is one of the most important catalogs with more than 3500 works. Clifford Brown, Ray Bryant, Kenny Dorham, Roy Hargrove, J.J. Johnson, Hank Mobley, Renee Rosnes, Bobby Watson, and James Williams are only a few of the major figures represented. The exclusive worldwide agency agreement with Second Floor Music gives B&H the ability to license recordings by many jazz greats of the post-war era for film, television, and commercial uses.

The Second Floor Music catalog includes the historic 1939 releases on Blue Note Records (Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis), together with such well-known titles as Lona (Mario Bauza recorded by Chick Webb’s orchestra), Boperation (Howard McGhee and Fats Navarro), Something in B Flat and Cuban Fantasy (Ray Bryant), Frame for the Blues (Slide Hampton), Long as You’re Living (Oscar Brown/Julian Priester/Tommy Turrentine), and Una Mas (Kenny Dorham). The Second Floor Music website is: http://www.secondfloormusic.com/ Please click here to learn more about Jazz Icons-a rare series of DVDs that feature full-length concerts and in-studio perfromances by great legends of jazz and in which the SFM catalog is featured.

Photo Credits:
Clifford Brown by Francis Wolff © Mosaic Images. For more information on Francis Wolff's Blue Note photography, please visit http://www.mosaicrecords.com/photography.asp
Chick Corea © by Michael Grecco; David Benoit © by Carl Studna; Paquito D'Rivera © R. Andrew Lepley; Andrew Hill © by Jimmy Katz; Wynton Marsalis © Clay McBride; Charles Mingus, courtesy Jazz Workshop, Inc.; Vernon Duke courtesy Mrs. Kay Ingalls Duke