WHAT? Cars & Stars 2009
WHERE? Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts
WHEN? Friday, June 12th
WHO? Featuring a very special commissioned work performed by legendary dancer, Savion Glover accompanied by Jeff “Tain” Watts, in the round, which includes concert and dinner.
WHY: A major year-end fundraiser for Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts.
On June 12th, 2009, Music Hall presents its 8th annual Cars & Stars Fundraiser with a three-tiered way to a great night in Detroit! Dance legend, Savion Glover and premier Jazz drummer and band leader, Jeff “Tain” Watts, will present a one-of-a-kind music / dance performance on the main stage with David Kikoski- piano, James Genus-bass and Marcus Strickland –tenor/soprano Saxes.
It’s the party of the year! An elegant night of sights, sounds and movement as Music Hall opens its doors to present an exclusive in-house event for Cars & Stars. The evening commences with a VIP Patron cocktail party on-stage, a buffet dinner, performance with dessert and dancing to follow on the historic Music Hall main stage.
The Music Hall Supporter ticket ($125) includes cocktails and hors d’oeuvres in the Tina and Leland Bassett Lounge, the performance, with dessert and dancing to follow on the historic Music Hall main stage.
NOTE * There will be a limited balcony seating for the public, with tickets priced at $25 and does not include any of the VIP or Supporter perks.
In a year that has seen drastic changes in the auto industry due to the current economic climate, Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts is still committed to these great Detroit-based auto corporations who have helped make it possible through their generous funding, in bringing decades of great performances in countless genres and artistic disciplines to Music Hall and every cultural institution that these valuable Funds and Foundations help sustain.
Now, we are asking for individuals to help us bridge this shortfall, and in return, Music Hall is offering a three-tiered patronage package that includes a night of Jazz, dinner and dancing in one of the city’s most beautiful and historic performance arts venues.
The 2009 Cars & Stars Fundraiser is also a time to say, “Thank-you” to: The Ford Motor Company Fund, the Chrysler Foundation and the General Motors Foundation for their continued support over the years. While it’s true that due to current economic conditions these great champions for the arts have been unable to help cultural institutions including Music Hall this year as they have in the past, Music Hall still sees it as an important gesture to both the auto companies and the performing arts community that we carry on this message to the public.
THE PERFORMING ARTS NEEDS A STRONG AUTO INDUSTRY!
Tickets available at Music Hall Box Office and Ticketmaster.com
MUSIC HALL
350 Madison Ave
Detroit, MI 48226
(313) 887-8500
www.musichall.org
Biographies:
Savion Glover is one of the youngest men to be nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in Black and Blue. He made his Broadway debut as the title character in The Tap Dance Kid at the age of 12. He appeared on Broadway opposite Gregory Hines in Jelly's Last Jam and toured with that show. In 1988, Savion co-starred in the film Tap with Mr. Hines and Sammy Davis, Jr. On television he has appeared in Dance in America: Tap! With Mr. Hines and Tommy Tune for PBS and Nickelodeon, The Academy Awards, Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and is currently a series regular on Sesame Street. He has also danced in a tribute to the Nicholas Brothers on The Kennedy Center Honors for CBS.
In 1996, Savion won the Tony Award for his dancing and choreography of the Broadway smash-hit, Bring In Da Noize, and Bring In Da Funk. The show had a successful international tour in 2002. Savion has danced on concert stages throughout the world, including the Moulin Rouge, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. He choreographed a work for the Washington Society for the Performing Arts in association with the NEA and has received an Endowment Grant for Choreography, making him the youngest person in NEA history to receive this honor.
Additional Broadway credits include Black and Blue. He appeared in an ABC TV special, Savion Glover's Nu York. Other film credits include Bamboozled. In 1997, he created a dance company, NYOTs (Not Your Ordinary Tappers), with which he performed on the 1997 ABC opening to Monday Night Football and on a PBS special at the White House, n 2007, Glover partnered with spoken word artist Reg E. Gaines and saxophonist Matana Roberts in a John Coltrane-inspired improvisation session, If Trane Wuz Here. In 2005, he collaborated with a string chamber orchestra and his band.
His most recent credit is as co-choreographer and central motion-capture dancer for the role of the penguin Mumble, the main character in the animated release Happy Feet.
He is currently in a production called "Classical Savion", where he taps to classical pieces played by a chamber string group. The show jazzes and blues it up a bit towards the end adding drums and a pianist.
Jeff “Tain” Watts was raised in Pittsburgh, PA, Watts is one of the most respected jazz drummers in the world today, Jeff started out majoring in classical percussion at Pittsburgh's Duquesne University, where he studied to be a timpanist, but then matriculated to the Berklee School of Music, where he pursued jazz studies alongside such soon to be household name players as Branford Marsalis, Kevin Eubanks, Greg Osby, Aimee Mann, Steve Vai and Marvin "Smitty" Smith.
Jeff Watts joined the Wynton Marsalis Quartet in 1981 and proceeded to win three Grammy Awards with the ensemble. Watts left Wynton Marsalis in 1988. After working with George Benson, Harry Connick Jr. and McCoy Tyner, he joined the Branford Marsalis Quartet in 1989.
Watts has worked in the film and television industry as both a musician on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and as an actor, Rhythm Jones in Spike Lee’s "Mo Better Blues". Jeff joined Kenny Garrett's band after returning to New York in 1995 after three years in LA on the Tonight Show. Watts also continued to record and tour with Branford Marsalis as well as Danilo Perez, Michael Brecker, Betty Carter, Kenny Kirkland, Courtney Pine, Geri Allen, Alice Coltrane, Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Ravi Coltrane.
Tain’s euphonious titled 2009 release, “Watts” has been one of the best-reviewed jazz albums of the year and a frontrunner for this year’s Grammy Award for best Jazz Album.
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