Join the uncategorizable, incomparable Dick Hyman, longtime jazz advisor of The Shedd Institute’s Oregon Festival of American Music, for an evening of jazz improvisation on the extraordinary songs of Irving Berlin. Originally planning an evening of improv on the American songbook more generally, Dick thought he’d turn the evening into a grand kick-off of this coming August’s 15th annual Oregon Festival of American Music, Irving Berlin’s America (Aug 3-12). Shirley Andress, who will appear this summer as Annie Oakley in OFAM 2006’s production of Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun, adds a vocal touch to a virtuosic evening of improvisational jazz piano.
About Dick, the noted author William Zinsser writes, "Computerized in Hyman's brain, instantly transferable to his fingers, is every popular piano and organ style that has ever been played in America, historically correct to the year when it was in vogue. He can also replicate note for note, the style of all the American giants of jazz piano in this century, from the intricate rags of Eubie and the galloping stride of James P. Johnson to the urgent bebop of Bud Powell and the introspective lyricism of Bill Evans."
Join us as we kick off The Shedd Institute’s 15th anniversary party!