The Jazz Room at the Stage Door Theater

Overview

After much-acclaim and sold-out performances, Charlotte’s Jazz Arts Initiative’s (JAI) monthly series—The Jazz Room @ The Stage Door Theater – is swinging through the summer on Friday/Saturday, July 13 & 14 with guitarist extraordinaire Amos Hoffman playing the music of jazz icon KENNY BURRELL. The Stage Door Theater is part of Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, at the corner of 5th and College in Uptown Charlotte.

Guitarist and composer Kenny Burrell grew up in Detroit and is one of the most respected jazz artists in the world. As a producer and recording artist, his extensive discography includes the critically acclaimed Guitar Forms; Ellington is Forever; and Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane. He has recorded 97 albums under his own name and several hundred with other artists. He has performed and recorded with many of the most influential musicians in jazz history including Duke Ellington, Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, Tony Bennett, Billy Holiday, Quincy Jones, Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins, Jimmy Smith, Art Blakey, Nat King Cole, Ray Charles, and Louis Armstrong. Burrell, recipient of many awards, was named a 2005 Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts and a 2004 Jazz Educator of the Year award from DownBeat magazine. He is a recognized authority on the music of Duke Ellington. Since 1996 he has served on the jazz faculty at the UCLA Herb Albert School of Music.

Amos Hoffman is an Israeli Jazz Guitarist and Oudist known worldwide as a pioneer in fusing the rhythms and melodic themes of the Middle East with Modern Jazz. Hoffman started playing guitar at the age of six, and the oud a few years later. Following his studies at the prestigious Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem, his search for new musical experiences led him first to Amsterdam, and then to New York City. To date, Hoffman has recorded five solo albums: The Dreamer (1999), Na’ama (2006), Evolution (2008), Carving (2010), and his most recent release, Back to the City (2015).  He has also contributed on dozens more for artists in Israel and worldwide including Avishai Cohen, Kiko Berenguer (Spain), and Jan Mlynarski (Poland). In 2013, Hoffman was awarded one of Israel’s most prestigious prizes – The Landau Prize for Arts and Sciences for Outstanding Achievement in the field of Jazz.