Celebrity Series of Boston to Present Newport Jazz Festival: NOW 60, 2/13

Celebrity Series of Boston will present Newport Jazz Festival: NOW 60, on Thursday, February 13, 2014, at 8pm at Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Avenue Boston. Sponsored by Donna and Mike Egan. Media partner is Boston Public Radio 89.7 WGBH.

Tickets start at $44, and are available online at www.celebrityseries.org, by calling CelebrityCharge at (617) 482-6661 Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., or at the Berklee Performance Center box office, 136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston.

This performance marks the second collaboration between the Celebrity Series of Boston and the Newport Jazz Festival, which first appeared in a 1994 tour.

Anat Cohen is an established bandleader and prolific composer, acquainted with modern and traditional jazz, classical music, Brazilian choro, Argentine tango, and an expansive timeline of Afro-Cuban styles. She has established herself as one of the primary voices of her generation on both the tenor saxophone and clarinet since arriving in New York in 1999.

Vocalist Karrin Allyson has recorded a series of eleven CDs for Concord Records, each of which have showcased her breadth of repertoire, from standards by Gershwin and Porter to Brazilian bossa nova, to samba and Thelonious Monk. She has also taken on French and Brazilian music (From Paris to Rio), the genius of John Coltrane (Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane) and the blues (In Blue).

Trumpeter Randy Brecker has been shaping the sound of jazz, R&B and rock for more than four decades. His trumpet and flugelhorn performances have graced hundreds of albums by a wide range of artists from James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen and Parliament Funkadelic to Frank Sinatra, Steely Dan, David Sanborn, Jaco Pastorius, Horace Silver and Frank Zappa.

Guitarist Mark Whitfield graduated from Boston's Berklee College of Music in 1987 having studied composition and arranging as well as all styles of guitar performance. Upon graduation, he returned to his native New York to embark on a career as a jazz guitarist that afforded him the opportunity to collaborate with many legendary artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Clark Terry, Jimmy Smith, Carmen McCrae, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Jack McDuff, BetTy Carter, Shirley Horn, Ray Charles, Gladys Knight, Burt Bacharach, Joe Williams, Wynton Marsalis, Bradford Marsalis, Stanley Turrentine and his teacher and mentor George Benson.

Peter Martin is an acclaimed jazz pianist, composer, arranger and educator. His touring career has taken him to six continents numerous times. In January 2011 Peter performed with a select group of jazz artists at the White House for a State Dinner hosted by President Obama, and he returned to perform for the Governor's Dinner in February 2012 for the first family and other guests.

Larry Grenadier has built an expansive body of work as a bassist, encompassing a variety of projects with many of the genre's most influential musicians. Over the course of a performing and recording career that spans three decades, he has earned a far-reaching reputation for his instrumental talent, his instantly recognizable tone, and sensitivity, imagination and creative curiosity.

Drummer Clarence Penn left his native Detroit, Michigan to attend the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy. Upon graduation, he headed for the University of Miami, but transferred to Virginia Commonwealth (VCU) at the suggestion of Wynton Marsalis, whose father Ellis, was a faculty member. In 1990, Penn accompanied Ellis and Wynton Marsalis to Japan, where he met Lewis Nash. Impressed by the young drummer, Nash recommended him to BetTy Carter. Penn was hired and moved to New York City in 1991. Remaining with BetTy Carter for several years, Penn went on to play with Stanley Clarke. Since then, he has toured, performed and recorded with a wide range of different artists, including Christian McBride, Michael Brecker, Dizzy Gillespie, Luciana Souza, Gary Burton, Joshua Redman, Richard Galliano, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Charlie Haden, Makoto Ozone and Maria Schneider.

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