Press Release | Click here for Photos of JazzArt at the Concert

E.J. Gold JazzArt® on stage with the Delfeayo Marsalis Octet at the Robert & Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

October 8, 2010, Grass Valley – When the Delfeayo Marsalis Octet performs at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts November 3rd through 6th, E.J. Gold's JazzArt paintings will join them on the stage of Mondavi's intimate Vanderhoef Studio Theater.

JazzArt® participated in the UC Davis 90.9 KXJZ Studio Jazz Series last year as well, providing monumental works on the concert stage for performers Jenny Sheinman, Miguel Zenón and Lionel Loueke.

"The dynamic, colorful canvases add a visual dimension to the experience to delight performers and audience alike. Musicians have told us how they've been inspired by the paintings and the audience has the pleasure of feeling immersed in the jazz both musically and visually. It's a blast," says HEI JazzArt® Curator Beverly Korenwaser. "I'm really looking forward to hanging Gold's new JazzArt® on stage, hearing Marsalis' exciting Octet and the responsive audience. A magical fusion!"

On November 3rd, JazzArt® will be on stage with Delfeayo Marsalis, who is famous for his innovative jazz trombone, and is the brother of Wynton Marsalis who gave three concerts in Grass Valley in 2001 with JazzArt® exhibiting on stage and in the concert hall. Four Marsalis brothers: Wynton, Delfeayo, Branford, Jason and their father Ellis, Jr., are individual and group recipients of the 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award at New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Gold's portrait of Herbie Hancock is in the Smithsonian — in the permanent collection of the American Museum of Natural History. At Mondavi, he will be joined by artists Grace Kelly Rivera, Douglass-Truth, Leila Currah, S.L. Boyd, and R.C. Trice for the off-stage JazzArt® exhibit at the Vanderhoef Studio Theater. Rivera's work was exhibited to critical acclaim at San Francisco's Jazz Heritage Center's Lush Life Gallery. "Rivera's notable 'Fusing for Flight' is one of the highlights of the JazzArt® exhibit," asserts attorney Annie Hopcroft. Concert-goers will have a chance to look more closely and find out more about JazzArt® at HEI's table in the lobby.

E.J. Gold is well-known throughout the jazz community, having been chosen as the Official Artist of the International Association of Jazz Education, and his JazzArt® appearing on stage with jazz greats including Wynton Marsalis, Dave Brubeck, Herbie Hancock, Nancy Wilson, Nneena Freelon, Marian McPartland, Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane, Toots Thielemans, Roberta Gambarini and many others; and at the Hollywood Bowl, B.B. King's in New York City, the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles, Jazz at Lincoln Center and many other performance venues.

This colorful, iconic, monumental art brought the magic of JazzArt® to the Grand Opening of the San Francisco Jazz Heritage Center in the historical Fillmore District in 2007 and 2008, a jazz cultural center, which includes Yoshi's San Francisco Jazz Club, a theatrical screening room, the Lush Life Jazz Art Gallery, and a jazz educational foundation. After the Jazz Heritage Center premiere, Gold's JazzArt® went on to headline the much-acclaimed Cool City . . . Hot Jazz show at the JHC Lush Life Gallery.

E.J. Gold's JazzArt® has been described in many different ways by many great talents in the jazz world:

Wynton Marsalis said, "This gig is extremely hip. I've never been in a place like this before — where the music is with things like . . . [art]. This was beautiful. It made the space a whole lot more alive! Jazz themes, different styles of everybody's art . . . a feeling of community where everybody is coming together in a meaningful way. This is something that surely should happen more."

Howard Mandel (President, Jazz Journalists Assoc., NYC) writes about E.J. Gold's rich history and renegade aesthetic, ending with "Gold's work strikes this reporter as sometimes having a slapdash yet vivid, iconic effect, quite like a fast and memorable phrase of jazz."

Edythe Bronston (President, California Jazz Foundation) "In Gold's JazzArt® you see the playfulness, the improvisation and the mystery of jazz. The visual adventure of spontaneous color and mood takes us right into the essence of the music. Then the magic happens. Separation disappears and the art, music and audience become one."

Bill McFarlin (Executive Past Director, IAJE) ". . . their exhibit served to enhance and reinforce the important connection between art and jazz music."

For more information on JazzArt®, call 530-271-2239. For more information on concerts at the Robert & Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis, visit their website or call 530-754-2787.