Mark your Calendar for Sunday, February 24, 2008 for the first "Living Legends Concert" of this year.

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UC Jazz Features

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Oscar Petersen
Stanley Jordan
Stanley Clarke
Duke Ellington
Louis Armstrong
Dave Brubeck
Bing Crosby
Thelonious Monk
Ella Fitzgerald
Benny Goodman
UC Jazz Ensembles perform at Yoshi's
and Teaching Jazz
UC Jazz Affecting Lives
Jazz Afficionados
Frankye Kelly
John Handy
Count Basie
Noah Griffin
Frank Martin
Angela Bofill
Leigh Jones
Blossom Dearie

"Music elevates the human spirit"
-- John Handy

John Handy is a performer and composer who continues to sweep audiences into ecstasy with his vast range of creative, emotional, and technical inventiveness. With a superb knowledge and practical experience with music of several cultures, he fuses, with each selection, a musical genre that is coherent, provocative, logical, and enjoyable. As a singer, he brings a kind of storytelling narrative to the blues that is entertaining, educational, and moving; while his up tempo scat vocals could be compared to the best scat singers anywhere. He sings ballads with inventiveness that is rare among singers.

John Handy has written a number of highly acclaimed, original compositions. "Spanish Lady" and "If Only We Knew" both earned Grammy nominations for performance and composition. The popular jazz/blues/funk vocal crossover hit, "Hard Work", brought him fame in another realm; while "Blues for Louis Jordan" displayed his talents in rhythm and blues. He has written many compositions of various sizes for both instrumental and vocal groups. His more extensive works include Concerto for Jazz Soloist and Orchestra which was premiered by the Parnassus Symphony Orchestra; and Scheme Number One which was lauded as a fine example of fixed and improvised music by the great composer, Igor Stravinsky.

John Handy has performed in the world great concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Berlin Philharmonic Auditorium, San Francisco Opera House, Davies Hall; the major performance venues including Tanglewood, Saratoga (NY), and Wolf Trap; and the pre-eminent jazz festivals including the Monterey Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Playboy Jazz Festival, Chicago Jazz Festival, Pacific Coast Jazz Festival; and international jazz festivals at Montreaux (Switzerland), Antibe (France), Berlin (Germany), Cannes (France), Yubari (Japan), Miyasaki (Japan), among others. His album and CD covers read like a who's who of record labels - Columbia, ABC Impulse, Warner Brothers, Milestone, Roulette, Boulevard, Quartet (Harbor), MPS Records and many others.

His most recent recordings are "John Handy Live at Yoshi's" and "John Handy's Musical Dreamland" (available only on Boulevard Records, Stuttgart, Germany), "Centerpiece", and "Excursion in Blue". Some of his earlier works have been reissued on CD - "John Handy: Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival", "The Second John Handy Album", "New View", and "Projections". He recorded with Sonny Stitt, and recorded nine albums with Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop.

John Handy has performed in the world's great concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Berlin Philharmonic Auditorium, San Francisco Opera House, Davies Hall; the major performance venues including Tanglewood, Saratoga (NY), and Wolf Trap; and the pre-eminent jazz festivals including the Monterey Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Playboy Jazz Festival, Chicago Jazz Festival, Pacific Coast Jazz Festival; and international jazz festivals at Montreaux (Switzerland), Antibe (France), Berlin (Germany), Cannes (France), Yubari (Japan), Miyasaki (Japan), among others.

His album and CD covers read like a who’s who of record labels - Columbia, ABC Impulse, Warner Brothers, Milestone, Roulette, Boulevard, Quartet (Harbor), MPS Records and many others. His most recent recordings are "John Handy Live at Yoshi's" and "John Handy's Musical Dreamland" (available only on Boulevard Records, Stuttgart, Germany), "Centerpiece", and "Excursion in Blue". Some of his earlier works have been reissued on CD - "John Handy: Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival", "The Second John Handy Album", "New View", and "Projections". He recorded with Sonny Stitt, and recorded nine albums with Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop.

His next performance will be at one of this year's first “Living Legends of Fillmore” concert on Sunday, February 24, from 2PM and 5PM at the West Bay Conference Center 1290 Fillmore St. (Eddy), San Francisco, CA  94102.

Jazz Heritage Center and Wells Fargo are jazzing up Fillmore by arranging a “Living Legends of Fillmore.”  

The concert will be performed by these legendary jazz musicians:

Frank Jackson (Piano & Vocals)
John Handy (Sax)
Denise Perrier (Vocals)
Eddie Duran (Guitar)
Al Obidinski (Bass)
Allen Smith (Trumpet & Flugelhorn)
Akira Tana (Drums).

Additional performances include the Village Project Kids and Handful Players as they unveil a scene from the new play "The Fillmore Five: A jazz musical rhapsody" by award winning playwright, Marcus Gardley.

On this day these pioneers of jazz will be honored by The Jazz Heritage Center and Wells Fargo for their contribution to the jazz genre. They are the first legends to have this honor bestowed upon them this year.

The concert will be held in the West Bay Community Conference Center situated across the street of the brand new Jazz Heritage Center.  It seats over 800 people.

Admission is FREE

Join this growing Jazz is a movement ….
Jazz is alive and ever evolving.  The Jazz Heritage Center celebrates the  “Rebirth of the Cool”  and celebrates as well as archives Jazz of the presents and the past for future generations.

Rebirth of the Cool!  

The Jazz Heritage Center, a major real estate development project, has been conceived and developed by visionary real estate developer Michael Johnson and Jazz Enthusiast and Executive Director Peter Fitzsimmons.  It officially opened its doors in 2008.  The Jazz Heritage Center’s goal is to rediscover, identify, and celebrate San Francisco’s contribution to the history of Jazz. Located at 1320 Fillmore, on the corner of Fillmore and Eddy Streets, the JHC is based in the hub of the historic Jazz Preservation District.  This location will include an exhibition space to showcase the history of San Francisco’s origins of jazz as well as the national contributions to the evolution of jazz. Their primary goal is to showcase our important place in the history of jazz through interactive and traditional exhibitions, live presentations and jazz themed art as featured in the Lush Life Gallery.  www.jazzheritagecenter.org