Trumpeting and curating San Diego Symphony’s brand new jazz series is coincidentally none other than trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos, well-known San Diego jazz musician who will open three of the four Jazz @ The Jacobs concerts. Castellanos, a native of Los Angeles, has lived in San Diego for the past 20 years. The first concert of the series which takes place at the Jacobs Music Center on Saturday,
November 21 is Living Legends of Jazz + The Young Lions. This kickoff concert features many of the most experienced jazz musicians working across the country today including Mike Wofford, local pianist and music director for Sarah Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald and the great Barbra Morrison, a favorite vocalist for Count Basie and Doc Severinsen. The kickoff also features Castellanos’ protégés, The Young Lions, the very best high school jazz musicians in San Diego County. The star-studded second concert is Jazz Piano Masters: A Tribute to Thelonious Monk, Art Tatum and Bud Powell. It features Joshua White, second-place winner of the prestigious 2011 Thelonious Monk International competition, Downbeat Magazine “Rising Star” Helen Sung and frequent Wynton Marsalis collaborator Eric Reed. This tribute concert also includes Jazz at Lincoln Center drummer Willie Jones III and Terrence Blanchard Quintet bassist Rodney Whitaker. The evening culminates as four master pianists perform four hands per piano for the grand finale. For the final two concerts in February and May, Jazz @ The Jacobs welcomes Grammy Award- winning vocalists Dianne Reeves and Gregory Porter, respectively. Reeves, who has won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for an unprecedented three years in a row, is the pre-eminent jazz vocalist in the world. Opening for Reeves is Gilbert Castellanos and the New Latin Jazz Quintet. Former San Diego State University student Gregory Porter closes the four-concert series in May. Porter is today’s top-selling Blue Note Records artist. The New York Times reported that Porter is “strong and sometimes experimental yet serenely unacademic, and mightily good.”
