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Pitt Jazz Seminar and Concert offers great opportunities
Nov 03, 2009 (The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
For guitarist Yotam Silberstein, appearing at the Pitt Jazz Seminar and Concert is simply an event he cannot pass up.
"It is very important to jazz, education and Pittsburgh," he says. "There are not many events like it. In fact, I can't think of any."
Words like that are quite satisfying to those who mastermind the program at the University of Pittsburgh in Oakland. The seminar began with a film Tuesday, will continue with a lecture Thursday and then work its way to the climatic concert Saturday, one of the highlights of every jazz year in this city.
Nathan Davis, director of jazz studies at Pitt, says blending players like Silberstein with giants such as Benny Golson is one of the goals he had in mind when he put the seminar together the first time 39 years ago.
"I played with Yotam a few years ago in D.C.," he says, "and as soon as I heard him, I said, 'Whoa, we got to get him at the seminar.' "
Having players like Silberstein is one of the things "the seminar is all about," says Leon Lee Dorsey, an assistant professor at the university, who also acts as coordinator of the jazz program.
Silberstein, a guitarist, who was born and grew up in Tel Aviv, will be performing with pianist George Cables, drummer Terri Lynn Carrington, tenor saxophone legend Benny Golson, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, trumpeters Jimmy Owens and Lew Soloff and bassist Dorsey.
Silberstein will join other members of the performing crew offering workshops Friday and Saturday in the Frick Fine Arts Building. His, on Friday, will be titled "The Genius of Wes Montgomery," looking at the work of the guitarist Davis says "still sets that standard" in his play.
The talks will build to the final offering by Golson, "A Tribute to Jazz in Film." Besides a long performing career, the saxophonist-composer has done music for films and such TV programs as "The Cosby Show" and "M*A*S*H."
He was honored for that work in January at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts at a concert emceed by actor Danny Glover.
Silberstein, who started playing at age 10, says Montgomery was one of the great players who turned him onto jazz after beginning as largely a rock and blues player.
"It just happened," he says about his conversion to jazz. "I just started hearing all the influential figures and it led me to the music."
He moved to New York City after attending an arts high school in Israel and eventually won a scholarship to the New School in Manhattan. Amid his education, he started becoming a regular in the city's jazz scene, performing with stalwarts such as James Moody, Frank Wess, Antonio Hart and Avishai Cohen.
He is a little nervous about his talk, saying usually "I just answer questions."
"But Nathan will figure it out," Silberstein says. "It will be OK."
Bob Karlovits can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7852.
To see more of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review or to subscribe to the newspaper,
go to http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/. Copyright (c) 2009, The
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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