GBH and JazzBoston presented JazzNOW featuring Donal Fox, originally streamed live from the beautiful Fraser Performance Studio at GBH on December 3, 2021, with co-hosts Eric Jackson and Cathy Fuller. This solo program includes jazz and classical compositions inspired by artists such as Bach, Monk, Chopin, Coltrane, Piazzolla, Scarlatti, Horace Silver and others.
Eric Jackson, host of GBH’s Eric in the Evening, and Cathy Fuller, host of CRB’s Classical Music with Cathy Fuller, will co-moderate tonight's event and speak with Donal Fox at various intervals during the evening. Following the performance, the event will include a live virtual audience Q&A with Fox.
The performance includes:
Set #1:
Orlando Gibbons: The Lord of Salisbury his Pavin
Donal Fox: Orlando Strides
Donal Fox: Improvisations on Bach’s Prelude in D Minor, Book II, No. 6
Duke Ellington, arr. Donal Fox: Reflections in D
Set #2:
Donal Fox: The Silver Fox (Tribute to Horace Silver)
Donal Fox: Notice the Moments (based on Coltrane’s Moment’s Notice)
Thelonius Monk, arr. Donal Fox: Thelonius
John Coltrane, arr. Donal Fox: Countdown
Set #3:
Astor Piazzolla, arr. Donal Fox: Ausencias
Donal Fox: Variations on Chopin’s Nocturne in F Minor, Op. 55, No. 1
J.S. Bach: Two-Part Invention in F Major
Donal Fox: Coda Blues
Set #4: (Encore):
Donal Fox: Variations on Brahms’ “Die Trauernde“
Donal Fox: Stride for GBH
About the performer:
DONAL FOX Composer, Pianist, Improviser
Internationally acclaimed as a composer, pianist and improviser, Donal Fox expertly fuses jazz, Afro-Latin and classical idioms into intricate new works and electrifying performances. Praised by The Boston Globe as “unique and utterly commanding,” Fox de- and reconstructs Bach, Piazzolla, Schumann, Monk, Schoenberg and more, adding propulsive grooves and using composed themes as springboards for glorious improvisational flights that blend baroque with bebop and twelve-tone techniques with twelve-bar blues.
Fox premiered his “Monk and Bach Project” at Jazz at Lincoln Center, his “Scarlatti Jazz Suite Project” at Tanglewood, and his piano concerto “Peace Out for Improvised Piano and Orchestra” at Carnegie Hall with the American Composers Orchestra.
Among his many accolades, Donal Fox has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Bogliasco Fellowship and an Academy Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Fox served as the first African- American composer-in-residence with the St. Louis Symphony and was a visiting artist at Harvard University, where he received a Certificate of Recognition from the President of Harvard College for his contribution to the arts.
A Steinway Artist, Fox has recorded for New World Records, Evidence Records, Music & Arts, Passin' Thru Records, Steinway Spirio, Yamaha's Original Artist Series, Flipside Music and Wergo Records. His works are published by Margun Music, G. Schirmer and Leonellis Music.
The tickets for JazzNOW featuring Donal Fox are provided by GBH, with support from JazzBoston. Eric Jackson, host of GBH’s Eric in the Evening, moderated an audience Q&A with the musicians following the performance.
JazzNOW featuring Donal Fox is presented by GBH Music and JazzBoston.
About Jazz Boston: JazzBoston connects, promotes and advocates for the musicians, audiences and venues of Greater Boston’s dynamic and diverse jazz community. The nonprofit organization spreads the music and message of jazz and celebrates Boston as one of the world’s great jazz cities. Find more information at jazzboston.org.
During the show, you’ll see and hear Jaime Reese from GBH’s Member Engagement Department, thanking our members for supporting Jazz at GBH. The specific thank you gifts Jaime mentions are no longer available. But you’ll find plenty of other gifts when you support GBH at gbh.org/supportevents with your donation. Every
dollar makes a difference.
Photo credit: Lou Jones
