Chamber Jazz Duo to Present Bowl Concert, July 9

The chamber jazz duo of Darrell Grant and Dmitri Matheny will offer their adventuresome brand of music at the Tuesday, July 9, concert of the Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival.
"Jazz audiences who are used to hearing Tin-Pan Alley or
Broadway-turned-jazz styles will be more-than-a-little intrigued by our repertoire," explained flugelhornist Matheny. "And chamber music enthusiasts will be equally surprised to hear our renditions of Mendelssohn, Bach, and Barber."
The duo's repertoire ranges from the playful, spontaneous American jazz to European art songs to sacred and secular works from around the world.
"We've been polishing this repertoire for a few years," said
Matheny, "and we like to announce the program from the stage. For the bigger venue at the Redlands Bowl, we will probably perform the more spirited, lively music."
Matheny on flugelhorn and Grant on piano joined forces more than
five years ago when Grant's agent brought them together. Since their debut at Carnegie Hall, Matheny and Grant have performed 100 concerts each year to audiences like the 10,000 at the Telluride Jazz Celebration to an intimate group of 50 private patrons in a home in New Jersey. Both musicians are classically trained and both have multiple awards and recognitions for their work.
"Not many musicians specialize in the flugelhorn like I do,"
explained Matheny, who said that the flugelhorn, often used in symphonies as the hunting horn, resembles a trumpet, but has a warmer, more lyrical tone, like a sexy woman's voice.
Grant, a professor of jazz studies at Portland State University,
has been recognized by the New York Times as making one of the "Top 10 Jazz Recordings of the Year". Considered a stellar musician, he has appeared in bands of Little Anthony, Betty Carter, Woody Shaw, and others. Like Matheny, Grant composes, teaches, performs, and records.
Grant and Matheny will present the Children's Summer Music Festival Workshop on Tuesday afternoon at 3 p.m. Developed for children from kindergarten through sixth grade, the workshop will incorporate work that Matheny has done with the San Francisco Symphony's Adventures in Music Program which he and others take to the schools. "We integrate our music lessons with the school's curriculum," said Matheny, "so in addition to teaching music, we may teach science to explain how sound is made, or we
may emphasize the concepts of democracy as we discuss the freedom of jazz."
The workshop, underwritten by Redlands Community Hospital and Redlands Knights of the Round Table, is free to the participants, and will be presented at the First congregational Church Workshop series . This concert, co-sponsored by John C. Morgan Production Framing, will begin at 8:15 p.m., preceded at 7:20 by the Community Sing. Ushers will be representatives from Professional Women of Redlands, an Auxiliary of the Assistance League of Redlands; Zonta Club of Redlands; and RE/MAX Advantage.
Continuing the tradition begun in 1924, this and all concerts are
open to the public at no charge, and a free-will offering will be
collected at intermission. For more information about this concert, call the Redlands Bowl office at 909/793-7316 or visit the web site at www.redlandsbowl.org. The Redlands Bowl is located between Grant and Eureka Streets in Redlands, off Brookside Avenue.