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Marty Ashby’s Holiday Jazz Celebration 2021 Featuring Ann Hampton Callaway and the music from her album “The Hope of Christmas”
A musical review of traditional favorites and new songs for the Holidays; performed by the Marty Ashby Quartet including Lewis Nash with special guest Ann Hampton Callaway. Celebrate the Holiday season with songs that feel familiar yet fresh.
Marty Ashby is a jazz guitarist, GRAMMY® Award-winning producer, programming consultant, motivational speaker and lifelong advocate of jazz music and its unique place in American culture. Ashby has performed and recorded with Slide Hampton, Claudio Roditi, Nancy Wilson, Paquito D’Rivera, Herbie Mann, Phil Woods, The Dizzy Gillespie™ All-Star Big Band and others. In addition to his musicianship, Ashby has curated and managed national tours for Jazz Across the Americas, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra’s Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and SJMO’s 2019 world tour Jazz Beyond Borders: From the Golden Gate to the Great Wall. Ashby is Executive Producer of MCG Jazz, which he started in 1987.
An artist who has made indelible marks on jazz, cabaret, and on Broadway as a writer and performer, Ann Hampton Callaway has composed over 250 songs for stage, screen, and television, and her music has been recorded and performed by the likes of Barbra Streisand, Michael Feinstein, and Carole King. Callaway has shared the stage with great artists from many genres including George Shearing, Dizzy Gillespie, Stevie Wonder, Dr. John, Liza Minnelli, Betty Buckley, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Audra McDonald, Harvey Fierstein, Ramsey Lewis, and Kurt Elling. Callaway has released 15 albums since 1992 including her 2015 MCG Jazz album “The Hope of Christmas.”
Q ON STAGE says, “The album is jazzy, hopeful, modern, and infused with the dark golden honey of one of the finest voices in jazz today. The pure heart and the hope that Christmas feelings will last all year.”
Please note, the MIM is requiring that audience members either be vaccinated or have a negative COVID test within 72 hours prior to the performance. We also strongly encourage guests to wear masks.
Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test result will be required for entry and may include the following options: a vaccination card (or photo), a digital record within an app, an official immunization record, or documentation of a negative test result. All MIM Music Theater team members are vaccinated and will wear masks.
Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra Holiday Concert co-produced with MCG Jazz
The Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra (PJO) is one of the finest ensembles in the country and is comprised of top jazz musicians from the Pittsburgh region. The orchestra’s holiday celebration concert has become a tradition for families all over the Greater Pittsburgh region as a way to take a break from the busy prep of the season. The critically acclaimed PJO recording, “Joyful Jazz,” was one of the top holiday albums of 2015 and continues to receive widespread airplay each holiday season. The concert will feature music from the album as well as some special new surprises.
Tony Martucci Quartet
On Friday, January 21, Tony Martucci bring his stellar quartet featuring James Moore, Marty Ashby and Tom Baldwin to Con Alma Downtown Pittsburgh.
Find out more »Marty Ashby at Con Alma Downtown
Jobim with Strings
“JOBIM WITH STRINGS”
PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
THE PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
MARCH 19, 20 22, 6:00 pm & 8:30 pm
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and MCG Jazz celebrate the music of Brazilian icon, Antonio Carols Jobim. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Pops Conductor, Byron Stripling, will conduct and play and will be joined by native Brazilian’s and Jobim collaborators: Maucha Adnet, vocalist, and Duduka da Fonseca, percussionist, and members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra strings and woodwinds sections.
Find out more »Jazz, Modernism and Frank Lloyd Wright
Join me for this FREE Fallingwater Webinar. We will be exploring the correlation between jazz music and Frank Lloyd Wright’s approach to architecture. With live demonstrations examining elements of melody, harmony and rhythm, Ashby will draw comparisons between Wright’s organic architecture and jazz improvisation and explain how Fallingwater is an example of a great jazz composition. Live and recorded musical examples will be interspersed throughout the presentation.
Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra at Pittsburgh Playhouse Inside/Outside
Inside Outside Summer Concert Series
Join us for drinks and live entertainment in our beautiful Highmark Theatre which opens onto our Forbes Avenue plaza. Ticket price includes a complimentary drink.
The Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra celebrates Pittsburgh’s rich jazz history in the here and now by uniting Pittsburgh jazz musicians of all ages and ethnic backgrounds to perform the broad scope jazz styles in an orchestral format.
© Martha Rial
Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra
Ashby Family at Con Alma Ellsworth
Join Marty and his nephews, Lucas Ashby and Ian Ashby and his brother, Jay Ashby, for an evening of Brazilian Jazz at Con Alma Ellsworth. Some other musical Ashby’s may show up too.
Marty Ashby-John Shannon Quartet
Marty Ashby Trio — Con Alma Ellsworth
Marty Ashby with featured guests and MCG Jazz Pittsburgh Jazz Legends Dwayne Dolphin and Roger Humphries will be performing at Con Alma Ellsworth on Wednesday, September 21, from 6:30-8:30pm. Marty will be playing music from the Jazz at the Philharmonic series by Barney Kessell, Ray Brown and Shelley Mann as well as his favorite Brazilian Jazz songs.
Westmoreland Museum of American Art Jazz Nights
Jazz Concert Series: Craig Davis Jazz
Marty Ashby joins pianist Craig Davis for the Fall return of Jazz Nights at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. Special cocktail hour from 6:00-7:00pm and concert runs 7:00-9:00pm.
Aurora Jazz Fusion at Steel Mill Saloon
In 1979, Marty Ashby started a band called AURORA JAZZ FUSION to perform the contemporary jazz cross-over music of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Jazz was mixing with rock, funk, Latin and R&B which gave musicians the opportunity to explore unique connections and seek out new possibilities. This new iteration of AURORA, with veteran and younger musicians, allows the band to take a fresh look at the music from this important time in the evolution of jazz. AURORA focuses on playing instrumental jazz by such artists as Jeff Lorber, Chick Corea, The Brecker Brothers, The Crusaders, Weather Report as well as renditions of Freddie Hubbard’s “Super Blue” and Grover Washington Jr.’s “Winelight.”
AURORA is Marty Ashby on guitar, Mike Tomaro on saxophones, Jeff Bush on trombone, Max Leake on keyboards, Brian Stahurski on bass and Hugo Cruz on drums.
Find out more »Marty Ashby Quartet Con Alma Downtown
Marty Ashby trio with Dwayne Dolphin and Roger Humphries and special guest Mike Tomaro.
Eliane Elias at Catalina Jazz Club
Hot off her 2022 GRAMMY win for Best Latin Jazz Album for “Mirror Mirror,” and Latin GRAMMY Nomination for Best Jazz Album, internationally acclaimed recording artist, pianist/singer/composer/arranger Eliane Elias’ distinctive musical style and artistry is one of the most celebrated and recognizable sounds in jazz and Brazilian music. She blends her Brazilian roots and alluring voice with her virtuoso instrumental jazz, her classical and compositional skills, while she consistently displays her piano mastery and ability to integrate the many artistic roles she takes on. With 31 albums and over 2.4 million albums sold to date, Eliane Elias has a strong presence on Spotify with over 600,000 monthly listeners and over 26 million Spotify listens of her song “Little Paradise.” She has toured 74 countries, is a four-time Gold Disc Award recipient, a three-time Best Vocal Album winner in Japan and winner of the 2018 Edison Lifetime Achievement Award in Holland, to name a few accolades. Her 2019 and 2021 albums (Love Stories and Mirror Mirror) were both voted “Downbeat’s Best Album of the Year – Masterpiece” and as most of her previous releases, her recordings hit #1 on the jazz charts worldwide. To date Eliane has won two GRAMMY Awards, one Latin GRAMMY and has been nominated 10 times in 5 different categories. On her new album, Quietude released Oct. 14, 2022 she transports us into another world with a lusciously relaxing journey into the Brazilian bossa nova. Eliane’s live performances showcase her piano, vocals, arranging and compositional skills, together with her charismatic personality, bringing a wide spectrum of musical experiences and unique presentations to the audience. Melding her immense talents in jazz, Brazilian, classical, and pop music, Eliane Elias is as Jazziz magazine has called her, “A citizen of the world” and “an artist beyond category.”
“Elias’ intoxicating vocals emote the ambient calm of a forest after a soft rain; her vibrancy is a force unto itself. With powerful artistry, her naturally prodigious talent is even stronger as the years pass—a feat capable only by the true elites of the musical world.” ***** – DownBeat
The Brazilian pianist and singer Eliane Elias commands the keyboard with a forceful two-handed muscularity that belies her image as a blond older sister of the mythical “Girl from Ipanema.” The more percussive her piano becomes, the more she opens up a song and reimagines it in what might be called a romantic carnival groove…a celebration of the vitality of a culture overflowing with life and natural beauty.”
– The New York Times
Aurora Jazz Fusion at Steel Mill Saloon
In 1979, Marty Ashby started a band called AURORA JAZZ FUSION to perform the contemporary jazz cross-over music of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Jazz was mixing with rock, funk, Latin and R&B which gave musicians the opportunity to explore unique connections and seek out new possibilities. This new iteration of AURORA, with veteran and younger musicians, allows the band to take a fresh look at the music from this important time in the evolution of jazz. AURORA focuses on playing instrumental jazz by such artists as Jeff Lorber, Chick Corea, The Brecker Brothers, The Crusaders, Weather Report as well as renditions of Freddie Hubbard’s “Super Blue” and Grover Washington Jr.’s “Winelight.”
AURORA is Marty Ashby on guitar, Mike Tomaro on saxophones, Jeff Bush on trombone, Max Leake on keyboards, Brian Stahurski on bass and Hugo Cruz on drums.
