The Mainstay, the storefront performing arts center in Rock Hall, MD, celebrates the 90th anniversary of the birth of the legendary jazz guitarist and early Mainstay mentor Charlie Byrd with a series of concerts in 2015.
Among the concerts are two by students who are recipients of the Charlie Byrd Memorial Endowed Scholarship at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, several concerts by guitar virtuosos playing in styles heavily influenced by Byrd, a tribute and film from the group Veronneau about the Bossa Nova craze started by “Jazz Samba,” the Charlie Byrd/Stan Getz 1962 hit recording, an all-star tribute to the Great Guitars from Bucky Pizzarelli, Frank Vignola and Steve Abshire and a tribute Charlie Byrd and his brother, bassist Joe Byrd, with Chuck Redd, who played for many years as a member of the Charlie Byrd Trio and the world renowned jazz guitarist Frank Vignola.
The website AllAboutJazz.com has perhaps the most succinct summary of Byrd’s career: “Charlie Byrd jammed with Django Reinhardt, recorded with Woody Herman, studied with the great Segovia, and with Stan Getz introduced the Brazilian bossa nova to international audiences. He then proceeded to form a super guitar trio with Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis. His musical interests took in virtually every form in which the guitar found a prominent voice.” He played mostly the nylon string classical guitar and influenced every style of music that uses the instrument.
Mainstay founder and director, Tom McHugh attributes much of the Mainstay’s national reputation as a jazz venue to its early association with Byrd. He says, “Byrd played at The Mainstay several times. He charged us very little, and seemed to realize that small places like ours needed nurturing. Charlie passed our name on to others…and they came and played… and soon our jazz reputation just took off.”
“In choosing these concerts, I considered Charlie’s role as teacher, his interest in mentoring young people, his interest in fusing American Jazz with the music of Latin and South America, his love of The Great American Songbook, his ability to perform not only jazz, but classical music, and his momentous influence on the performance of jazz guitar. I think our lineup of eight events in “The Byrd Series: Celebrating Charlie’s 90th” reflect those threads.”
The concerts in The Byrd Series: Celebrating Charlie’s 90th are:
- Sunday April 12 The Saia – Garcia – Fournier Trio with Nick Saia, jazz guitar recipient of the Charlie Byrd Memorial Endowed Scholarship at Peabody
- Sunday April 26 Peabody Classical Guitar Quartet with Young Won, guitar recipient of the Charlie Byrd Memorial Endowed Scholarship at Peabody
- Sunday May 10 A private function with Gene Bertoncini
- Saturday May 23 Veronneau & film “Bossa Nova: The Brazilian music that seduced the world!”
- Friday June 12 Great Guitars: Bucky Pizzarelli, Frank Vignola & Steve Abshire
Sunday July 12 Matt Palmer, classical guitar - Saturday November 7 Tom Lagana, jazz guitar
- Saturday December 12 Frank Vignola with Chuck Redd, Gary Maseroppi & Jan Knutson “Thank You Charlie & Joe”
The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street.
For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.
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