Mike Wofford Trio and special guest Holly Hofmann (flute), with Tom Wakeling, bass, and Alan Jones, drums
Classic Pianos Recital Hall PORTLAND, OR
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Mike Wofford Trio and special guest Holly Hofmann (flute), with Tom Wakeling, bass, and Alan Jones, drums
World-renowned jazz pianist Mike Wofford and special guest flutist Holly Hofmann are joined by bassist Tom Wakeling and drummer Alan Jones for a one-time-only Portland concert appearance at the Classic Pianos Recital Hall.
"One of the outstanding pianists of our time. Mike Wofford is a pianist with a mind of his own, a fine touch, a very musical sound, and technique to spare..." DownBeat Magazine
Having appeared on over two hundred recordings as a sideman, pianist MIKE WOFFORD now continues to record and perform primarily as a leader. He has received critical acclaim for his Live at Maybeck, vol. 18 in the Concord Records solo piano series, and his 2004 CD Live at Athenaeum Jazz on Capri Records, with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Victor Lewis. In 2008, Capri released Live at Athenaeum Jazz, vol. 2, a duo CD with his wife, flutist Holly Hofmann. Mikes newest quintet CD Turn Signal, due out in January 2012, is also on Capri and is co-led with Hofmann, featuring Terell Stafford on trumpet.
A native Texan, Wofford was raised in San Diego, California where he resides currently. His mother was a professional singer, and he began studying piano at age seven. At nineteen, he moved to Los Angeles and entered the jazz scene there in the early 1960s.
By the late 1960s, Wofford also became busy as a free-lance session player in Los Angeles on recording dates and motion picture and TV soundtracks. He was the staff pianist on such live TV series as The Bill Cosby Show with Quincy Jones, and was first-call pianist for Oliver Nelson at Universal Pictures. He also became active as an arranger, working at Capitol Records as well as writing for such artists as Sergio Mendes, and the Mike Barone Big Band. During this time, Mike also performed and recorded with Roger McGuinn, John Lennon, The Jackson 5, Tom Scott, Joan Baez and Harry Nilsson, among many others from the pop world.
Wofford began his longtime association with drummer Shelly Manne in 1967, playing and recording with Mannes various groups until 1982. Mike toured Europe with the Shelly Manne Sextet and the Shelly Manne/Lee Konitz Quartet, and later South America, Europe and Japan as pianist and music director for Sarah Vaughan. He returned to Japan for several tours with Manne, Harry Sweets Edison, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Zoot Sims, and the Benny Carter Orchestra. He also traveled to Brazil with the Benny Carter Quartet.
In 1989, he became pianist and music director for Ella Fitzgerald until her retirement in 1992. He was also house pianist during this time at San Diegos two national jazz clubs, Elarios and the Horton Grand Hotel. At these venues he performed with such legendary jazz figures as Art Farmer, Charlie Haden, Barney Kessel and Ray Brown.
HOLLY HOFMANN spent evenings at age five playing a flutophone with her father, a jazz guitarist, on standards from the Great American Songbook. It was an auspicious beginning for the woman who, after years of studying classical music would find satisfying partnerships with renowned jazzmen Ray Brown, Frank Wess, Cedar Walton, Kenny Barron and many of other top names in the music.
Hofmann and the highly respected pianist/arranger Mike Wofford married in 2001 and the two began touring and recording together with Peter Washington and Victor Lewis, as well as with Flutology, an all-star sextet featuring Frank Wess, Ali Ryerson and Hofmann on flutes, with Washington and Ben Riley. Their recent recordings include 2013s Turn Signal, featuring Woffords brilliant arrangements for a flute and trumpet front line with Holly and trumpet great, Terell Stafford. Her 2015 release on Capri Records is Low Life: The Alto Flute Project which shows Hofmann in a whole new light. George Varga, of the San Diego Union Tribune writes, It strikes a seamless balance between note-perfect accuracy and in-the-moment fluidity. Hofmann also teaches jazz and flute and conducts master classes at schools and universities around the country. She is on the Board of Directors at Keynote Jazz Foundation which provides concerts and clinics in high schools and middle schools in the United States.
With twelve recordings as a leader in the duo or quartet setting, Holly Hofmann is earning respect for the flute as a jazz instrument. Audiences and promoters recognize her as one of the premiere jazz flutists in the world, and alto great Phil Woods, while describing her performance at the Telluride Jazz Festival, said Along with Hubert Laws, Holly is frankly the best jazz flute player today.
She has become the standard by which jazz flute is being judged.
Location
Classic Pianos Recital Hall (View)
3003 SE Milwaukie Ave (@ the corner of SE Powell Blvd.)
PORTLAND, OR 97202
United States
