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Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival
Presented by the Redlands Community Music Association, Inc.
John Jorgenson plays guitar at Redlands Bowl
With solid grounding in classical music, and more than 15 years playing music with the likes of Elton John, guitarist John Jorgenson comes to the Redlands Bowl for a program of his brand of Gypsy jazz on Tuesday, August 23.
Gypsy jazz evolved from Europe in the 1930s when French Gypsy Django Reinhardt combined his Gypsy guitar style with the jazz of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.
Jorgenson hooked up with the style during his stint at Disneyland, playing bluegrass mandolin, Dixieland clarinet, and Gypsy-jazz guitar.
Immersed in classical music since piano studies at age 5, Jorgenson moved into guitar as soon as he heard the Beatles. After earning a degree in woodwinds performance and touring Europe with a chamber orchestra as a bassoonist, he entered the LA club scene before moving on to Disneyland.
These multi-faceted experiences honed his performance skills and placed him in high demand. The 15 years following Disneyland took him with the country-style Desert Rose Band, the award-winning guitar trio The Hellecasters, and Elton John’s Band playing electric and acoustic guitars, saxophone, pedal steel guitar, bass guitar, and vocals. After three world tours, studio and live albums, and TV appearances with Elton John, Jorgenson finally branched out to do something he had intended all along: pursue a solo career.
With the John Jorgenson Quintet, including Jorgenson on guitar, clarinet, and vocals, a rhythm guitar, a five-string viola, a bass, and light percussion, Jorgenson has created his own style of Gypsy jazz.
For the Redlands Bowl program, the group will perform in typical jazz style without a pre-planned program, essentially figuring it out when they get here from a repertoire that includes some standards from Reinhardt and some original Jorgenson compositions.
At 3 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, Jorgensen will present “Free-spirited Gypsy Jazz” at the Children’s Summer Festival Workshop. The program, free and open to children ages 4 – 10, will be held at the First Congregational Church at 2 W. Olive Avenue in Redlands.
The program begins at 8:15 p.m., following the Community Sing at 7:20 led by Curtiss Allen, Sr. Like all Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival performances, this event is free of charge, and a free-will offering will be collected at intermission.
The ushers will be representatives of San Bernardino Crossroads Rotary, the Redlands Conservancy, and ESRI. The intermission speaker will be Fred Board, publisher, Redlands Daily Facts.
The Redlands Bowl is located on Eureka Street just south of Brookside Avenue in Redlands. For information and directions, call (909) 793-7316 or visit the Web site at www.redlandsbowl.org.
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