Grantee Spotlight
March 2013: The Midtown Arts Common presents Prez Fest 2013
Midtown Arts Common at St. Peter’s Church presents its annual one-day public jazz festival Prez Fest 2013, celebrating legendary jazz bassist, educator and photographer, Milt Hinton on March 3, 2013 at Saint Peter’s Church in Midtown Manhattan. The program will feature a documentary film based on Milt Hinton’s photographs and a jazz concert of Hinton’s music and the styles of ensembles with which he performed. A month-long show of Hinton’s photographs will also has been on view from January 24 in the Living Room Gallery of Saint Peter’s Church and will be closing on March 4, 2013.
Founded by Rev. John Gensel in 1965, the Jazz Committee of Midtown Arts Common is committed to supporting Jazz, a unique American arts form, presenting jazz programs at St. Peters Church, including programs like Prez Fest, Jazz on the Plaza, and Midtown Jazz at Midday. Prez Fest is an annual jazz festival, which seeks to further the jazz idiom while keeping the contributions of a late musician alive for the next generation of musicians and lovers of jazz. The festival explores the roots and the fruits of a particular musician’s life’s work in detail through concerts, exhibits, workshops, and lectures. Prez Fest has celebrated musicians such as Art Blakey, Gil Evans, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Strayhorn, and Billie Holiday and Lester Young.
The 2013 Prez Fest festival program includes:
Keeping Time: The Life, Music and Photographs of Milt Hinton, an award-winning documentary film followed by a panel discussion led by David G. Berger with bassist Bill Crow, jazz historian Dan Morgenstern, bassist Rufus Reid, and trumpeter Joe Wilder.
The Legend Wall exhibit tells the life story of Milt Hinton through photographs and other memorabilia. Thirty of Milt Hinton’s photographs drawn from the 60,000 he took during his lifetime are on display in the Living Room Gallery of Saint Peter’s Church from January 24 to March 4, 2013.
Jazz Vespers with Ben Williams Trio Each Sunday at 5:00 P.M. an open community gathers for prayer and reflection on the lines of jazz.
The Keeping Time Concert, presents Milt Hinton’s music and the styles of ensembles with which he performed, featuring preeminent, as well as emerging, artists. The 17-piece Purchase Jazz Orchestra (PJO) from SUNY Purchase, conducted by bassist Todd Coolman, plays works Hinton performed with the Cab Calloway Orchestra. Rufus Reid leads a 20-piece bass choir performing The Judge for the festival’s grant finale.
Location
Saint Peter's Church - Midtown Manhattan
619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street
New York, New York 10022
Dates & Times
Sunday, March 3, 3pm-9pm
Exhibition on view through March 4.
Tickets: See event website for details and discounted tickets
