IMPULS Promotion & Special Events
Infos zur Veranstaltung: CURTIS STIGERS - LOST IN DREAMS – Summer Tour 2010 am 01.08.2010 in Dortmund
Special Guest at the trumpets: John Sneider
INTERNATIONALLY CELEBRATED JAZZ SINGER CURTIS STIGERS IS NOMINATED AS BEST INTERNATIONAL MALE JAZZ SINGER AT GERMANY’S INAUGURAL ECHO JAZZ AWARDS. THE CONCERT AND AWARD CEREMONY WILL BE BROADCAST ON GERMAN TELEVISION IN MAY.
“If voices, like wines, had noses, Curtis Stigers' would be dusky oak with hints of Willie Nelson, Harry Nilsson, Ray Charles and Matt Dennis. It's a voice that's at once young and old, tender and tough, warm and inviting as a caress, yet sturdy as a firm handshake..." Jazz Times
“...the American jazz-blues vocalist simply goes about the business of winning converts among listeners who are not weighed down by preconceptions...” The Times
Multi-million selling singer, saxophonist and songwriter Curtis Stigers releases his hugely anticipated new album Lost In Dreams on September 14th 2009.
Lost in Dreams is the latest chapter in a career that can only be described as a musical odyssey – an adventure with more than the usual share of twists and turns, and even a few perils. Born and raised in Boise, Idaho, Stigers spent his grade school years studying clarinet and saxophone – two instruments that awakened his jazz sensibilities at an early age. During his teenage years and beyond, he often sat in with legendary jazz pianist Gene Harris, who held weekly jam sessions at a local club in Boise. “I would go down on Tuesday nights and sit in with Gene,” he recalls. “I had a jazz group that I played with back then, and we sort of became his pet project. He would help us get gigs around town and enthusiastically encourage us to keep growing and exploring the music and our talents. Playing sax and clarinet with Gene is one of the main reasons I’m a jazz musician now.”
But coming of age in the ‘70s and ‘80s, Stigers was also immersed in the prevailing punk rock and new wave aesthetic of the day. Bands like the Sex Pistols, The Police and the Clash were just as much a part of his musical consciousness as Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Dave Brubeck and other jazz icons.
It’s no surprise, then, that the circumstances surrounding his first records were marked by confusion between artist and label about creative direction. His self-titled debut album on Arista in 1991 was a straight-ahead pop album that sold 1.5 million copies worldwide, thanks to several hit singles and numerous appearances on the talk show circuit. In addition to tours with Eric Clapton, Elton John and Bonnie Raitt, and Tonight Show and Letterman appearances, Stigers recorded a track for the wildly successful soundtrack to the Whitney Houston film The Bodyguard. When his second studio effort started leaning toward roots rock, the label resisted. A three-year battle ensued, and when his second album was released the pop world had moved on and the disc was a commercial disappointment. Relations grew worse when his third album turned in a jazz direction. After another stalemate, Stigers took his unreleased jazz record and left Arista in 1997.
Around this time, Stigers had begun to branch into a variety of musical directions. He reconnected with his jazz roots via a series of performances in Denmark. He also indulged an emerging singer-songwriter muse by playing a few acoustic shows at The Bottom Line and making guest appearances on records by Jules Shear, Julia Fordham, Al Green and Suzzy Roche, and in concert with Carole King, Paul Brady and the Allman Brothers Band. “I wanted to be Loudon Wainwright meets John Hiatt,” Stigers admits.
He eventually signed with Columbia, where he released a third pop album, Brighter Days, in 1999. “I was really proud of that record. It was more organic sounding, more like a rocking singer/songwriter album, but about eight people bought it, and one of them was my mom,” he jokes. He left Columbia after Brighter Days, once again taking his unreleased jazz record with him.
During session work as a guest vocalist on one of Gene Harris’ last records, Stigers met Concord exec and producer John Burk, who offered to release the orphaned jazz record. “And that was the beginning of my jazz recording career,” says Stigers. “That was Baby Plays Around, [named after an Elvis Costello tune on it], my first record on Concord, released in 2000. I’d recorded it four years earlier, and it had just sat in the can all that time, waiting for the right time, waiting for me to realize that this was what I was best at, and what I was supposed to be doing.”
Baby Plays Around was followed by four more albums on Concord: Secret Heart (2002), You Inspire Me (2003), I Think It’s Going To Rain Today (2005) and Real Emotional (2007). Each outing has taken increasingly bold steps toward juxtaposing material that might otherwise seem incongruous, cutting to the heart of the story within each song and retelling it in a jazz context.
“What I like about what I do for a living is that it’s never boring,” he says. “It’s always changing – from song to song, from gig to gig, from album to album. It’s always a surprise – not just to the audiences and the critics and the record company and the publicist, but to me too. Every time I sing a song, something in it surprises me. There’s always something I hear that’s new.”
| Datum: | 01.08.2010 |
| Beginn: | 20:30 Uhr |
| Tickets: | Jetzt online bestellen! |
| Anmerkung: | Tickets an allen bekannten VVK-Stellen und online unter www.eventim.de |
| Location: | Jazzclub Domicil Hansastraße 7-11 44137 Dortmund |
| Location Info: | Tausende von Veranstaltungen organisierte der Verein bisher mit fast ausschließlich ehrenamtlich tätigen Mitglieder, darunter auch die beliebte Weihnachts-Jazzmatinee im Opernhaus, die 2001 bereits zum 30-sten Male stattfinden wird. Internationale Stars wie Chet Baker, Betty Carter, Albert Mangelsdorff, Joyce, Baden Powell, junge zeitgenössische Musiker wie Nils Wogram, Theo Bleckmann, Erika Stucky und auch die regionale Szene gehören zu den festen Programmpunkten im Club. WDR und Deutschlandfunk nutzen den Club regelmässig zu Konzertmitschnitten. |
| Homepage: | www.domicil-dortmund.de |
