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IMPORTANT NOTE: Because of inclement weather, the concert will now be held at St. James Episcopal Church, 1941 Webberville Road, Austin, 78721
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
e-mail: creop@texas.net
Photos available on request
Stop Date: September 12, 2009
Contact: Susanna Sharpe: Sansharpe@aol.com: Phone: 459 0016
What: Echoes of the Heart: Music in Living Memory
The Creative Opportunity Orchestra performs a tribute to Tina Marsh
When: September 11, 2009; 7pm
Where: Laguna Gloria Amphitheatre (3809 West 35th St.)
Austin's legendary jazz group, the Creative Opportunity Orchestra, led by John Mills, is gathering again after the recent loss of longtime Artistic Director Tina Marsh. This concert will be held at the Laguna Gloria Amphitheater, Tina's most beloved performance location.
Tina Marsh was a visionary artist for whom the themes of peace and tolerance among humankind were front and center. In the days after the attacks in 2001, Tina was one of numerous Austin musicians invited to perform live on KUT-FM in a musical response to 9/11. Her work with Austin school children through the multicultural Circle of Light project became especially meaningful after the attacks. It is fitting that this tribute to Tina takes place on September 11.
Middle Eastern cuisine and drinks will be available through Ararat.
More details coming soon.
Too few people know that the CO2 is a killer band ... great, wise recordings stomping into disparate passions, touching on Ellington, Sun Ra, Stravinsky in tandem with CO2’s sweeping Big Band sound.
- THE SEATTLE WEEKLY
About the Creative Opportunity Orchestra
Among the many pioneers on the Austin music scene, the Creative Opportunity Orchestra stands as one of the boldest and certainly the jazziest. Beginning in 1980, CO2 dared to cross the unknown frontiers of avant-garde jazz and improvisational music. Led by Texas Hall of Fame vocalist Tina Marsh, whose singing has been called "scat to the highest power" CO2 set out to break free of the pressures of commercial nightclub performance and explore composition and improvisation possibilities in a large-group format. With innovative compositions, laced with free-form inventions and the unique vocalization of Marsh, CO2 has accelerated the genre into the modern age with an avant-garde jazz sound mixed with a world music sensibility. Originally consisting of 20 members, the orchestra has expanded to more than 100 musicians, including guest artists such as Roscoe Mitchell, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Billy Hart, and Kenny Wheeler. Its mission to promote and present jazz to a diverse audience has long led CO2 to reach out to Austin elementary schools, most recently with Circle of Light, a program that promotes cultural understanding through the music of the world’s many holiday traditions, including Christmas, Las Posadas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, and Ramadan. The orchestra has received numerous prestigious national grants and commissions and has toured to Corpus Christi, San Angelo, Albuquerque, Berkeley, Eugene and Portland, Oregon, Seattle and Spokane, Washington, Helena, Atlanta, Chattanooga, and Tuscaloosa. Since 2001 CreOp has held its annual NEW JAZZ Series, featuring the best of Austin's jazz scene as well as national guests including jazz legend Hamiet Bluiett, Ron Miles, Fred Hess, and others.
Creative Opportunity Orchestra is funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Chamber Music America, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Still Water Foundation, SBC Foundation, with generous help from the Austin Lyric Opera, Brenda Ladd Photography, Epistrophy Arts, DiverseArts, Blue Lapis Light, and Zachary Scott Theatre.
Here's a few music clips from our various recordings:
'Where or When' from Tina Marsh's Inside the Breaking:
Excerpts from 'Courage of the Butterfly' by Tina Marsh from the Creative Opportunity Orchestra's Migration:
Excerpt from'ABZ' by John Mills from the Creative Opportunity Orchestra's The Heaven Line:
Creative Opportunity Orchestra is funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Chamber Music America, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, SBC Foundation, with generous help from the Austin Lyric Opera, Brenda Ladd Photography, Epistrophy Arts, DiverseArts, Blue Lapis Light, and Zachary Scott Theatre.
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