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For more information, please contact Lex Leifheit at 860-685-2806 or lleifheit@wesleyan.edu.

WESLEYAN'S CFA PRESENTS JAY HOGGARD'S AFRICARIBBEAN VIBES

FRIDAY, JULY 15 AT 8PM

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MAKING BASQUIAT, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE DANCE ON CAMERA FESTIVAL 2005 ALSO OFFERED JULY 14-20 DURING WEEK THREE OF SUMMER AT THE CFA

July 7, 2005, Middletown CT—Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts presents Jay Hoggard’s Africaribbean Vibes, July 15 at 8pm in Crowell Concert Hall. Hoggard—a master jazz vibraphonist and director of the Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra—has composed, recorded and performed music around the world, collaborating with jazz greats including Lionel Hampton, Tito Puente and Anthony Braxton. For Africaribbean Vibes, Hoggard’s program will include original compositions as well as works by Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and John Coltrane. He will be joined onstage by musicians Pheeroan Aklaff, Belden Bullock, Jimmy Greene, Yoron Israel, Kwaku Martin Obeng and James Weidman.

Jay Hoggard’s Africaribbean Vibes is presented as part of Days & Nights: Summer at the CFA, a series of arts events at Wesleyan throughout the month of July. Admission to Vibes is $15 general, $12 senior citizens and $10 students. Tickets may be purchased by calling the box office at 860-685-3355, more information about the series is available at www.wesleyan.edu/cfa.

Jay Hoggard’s performances, compositions, and recordings have touched listeners in America, Africa, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, and Asia for the past 25 years. His music draws on ancient and contemporary vocabulary to develop new directions for the vibraphone. His repertoire includes the vocabulary of jazz tradition (blues, ballads, bop) along with original innovations. He has recorded 16 CDs as a leader and over 50 as a collaborator.

As a performer, Jay Hoggard has toured the globe to rave reviews.  He has played throughout the United States, Africa, Europe, South America, the Caribbean, and Asia, including major venues (Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Schomberg Center) jazz festivals (St. Lucia. JVC, Montreux, Mt.Fuji), colleges, universities, churches, galleries, libraries, and clubs. Hoggard has been featured on radio (NPR, Pacifica) and television (CBS Sunday Morning, BETJazz) nationally and internationally. He led a quintet on an extensive tour sponsored by the United States government to North Africa, the Middle East and India.

Jay Hoggard’s Songs of Spiritual Love (2004), is a duo recording of sacred music with pianist/organist James Weidman. The Right Place (2003), features vibraphone, marimba, woodwinds, keyboard, bass, and percussion  embracing jazz improvisation with African and Caribbean rhythms.

Other Events This Week (July 14–20):

CFA Days: On Tuesday, July 19 at 12:10pm, the CFA presents Making Basquiat in the CFA Cinema. New York-based art writer and curator Franklin Sirmans (BA ’91) discusses the creation of the Brooklyn Museum’s recent retrospective on artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who many believe contributed to a revival of American painting in the 1980s. Sirmans’ writing has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times and Art News; he has organized exhibitions in New York, Milan, Seoul and Los Angeles.

CFA Nights: On Tuesday, July 19 at 8pm, the CFA will screen three short films, together under an hour, exploring the on-camera impact of dance: Tongue Bully (choreographed by Learie McNicholls, directed by Annie Bradley) This pithy short combines movement and spoken word to create a portrait of contemporary Havana. Tap Heat (choreographed by Danny Daniels, directed by Dean Hargrove) A young man raised on urban funk and an elder statesman of sophisticated style face off on the streets and the stage, backed up by a team of tappers. The Cost of Living (choreographed and directed by Lloyd Newson) Street performers David and Eddie struggle to find work and romance in a faded, seaside town. Material in The Cost of Livingmay not be suitable for children.

The Center for the Arts (www.wesleyan.edu/cfa) is made up of 11 buildings, which house the departments of art and art history, music, theater and dance, and also film studies events. It serves as a cultural center for the region, the state and New England. The CFA includes the 414-seat Crowell Concert Hall, 400-seat CFA Theater, 260-seat Cinema, the World Music Hall (a non-Western performance space) and the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery.  Summer at the CFA is planned in collaboration with the Capitol Regional Education Council’s Center for Creative Youth and Wesleyan's Graduate Liberal Studies Program.

*Performers and schedule are subject to change.