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Event
Peter Sprague and Danny Green Co op Duo
The Green House Concert series continues on Saturday March 21, 2020 with a duo performance featuring guitarist Peter Sprague and pianist Danny Green. They will play a mix of Beatles hits, original compositions, Brazilian music, and more.
The address for the house concert will be sent to you upon purchase.
Peter Sprague's Bio:
Peter is amazing. I have known him for years and have always thought of him as one of the best. A great musician who also happens to be a great guitar player. With Peter I always hear the music first. His amazing touch on the instrument is always present whether on electric or acoustic. The level of precision and discipline he brings to his music is something that he makes seem easy, but is in fact one of the most difficult things a guitarist can be asked to do. He is absolutely masterful at it.
-Pat Metheny, San Diego Troubadour, 2019
Peter Sprague was born in Cleveland, Ohio on October 11, 1955. He was raised in Colorado until 1963, when his family moved to Del Mar, California. Inspired by his father's love of jazz, he took up the guitar when he was twelve. By the age of fifteen he was devoting all his time and energy to learning music. He took private lessons, played in his high school stage band, and formed his first group The Minor Jazz Quartet.
Following a year's study at the Interlochen Arts Academy, Sprague studied privately and performed around the San Diego area until 1976. That year found him moving to Boston to study with many notable musicians including Pat Metheny, Madame Chaloff and Albin Czak (who taught Peter classical guitar). Peter returned to San Diego in 1978 and formed his ground breaking jazz group The Dance of the Universe Orchestra.
At the age of 20 Peter started recording his own albums on the Concord Jazz and Xanadu record labels. He has been a guest artist on many other records and performed and toured with Chick Corea, Hubert Laws, Dianne Reeves, David Benoit, Sergio Mendes and many others. On his debut with the Chick Corea band for a series of concerts at Disneyland noted Los Angeles Times jazz critic wrote in a review the following day "Peter Sprague is one of the emergent great guitarists." Peter also worked with Chick on the film score to the movie The Cat Chasers, starring actress Kelly McGillis.
From 1990 to 1993 Sprague taught music at both California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles and the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. He continues to teach every summer at the annual UCSD Jazz Camp in La Jolla, CA.
Peter was involved with the legendary record label GRP Records on a number of projects. He arranged Chick Corea's song "Spain" for the GRP All-Star Big Band record and video. This performance featured Randy Brecker, Lee Ritenour, Dave Weckl, Ernie Watts among many other jazz legends. Peter was featured on David Benoit's GRP releases Letter To Evan and Shaken, Not Stirred. Also on GRP Records, Sprague played on Eric Marienthals recording One Touch featuring Russell Ferrante, Jimmy Haslip, Alex Acuna, and Ivan Lins.
Peter has been the recipient of many awards:
His CD Blurring the Edges won the Best Contemporary Jazz Recording of 1994 from the San Diego Music Awards (SDMA).
Best Jazz Musician of the Year in 2000 by the SDMA.
The San Diego Reader voted Peter the Best Jazz Group for the 2002 Best Of issue.
2004 Best Jazz Artist of the year by the SDMA.
In 2006 Peter was the Honored Musician at the Museum of Making Musics Evening of Note.
2007 Best Jazz Artist of the year by the SDMA.
In 2000 his CD Nikki's Rose was nominated for the Best Jazz CD by the SDMA.
In 2003 his CD Pass The Drum was nominated for CD of the Year by the SDMA.
2015 Peter is Awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Diego Music Awards Event
2018 San Diego Music Awards for Best Jazz Album (Planet Cole Porter)
Peter has been the recipient of these grants and commissions:
In 2000 Peter was commissioned to write an orchestral composition for guitar and orchestra with him as the featured. His twenty-minute piece, Concerto for Two Guitars and Orchestra was enthusiastically received when he performed it live with the San Diego Symphony at Orchestra Hall. The program was called Local Living Legends which also featured Grammy award winning violinist, Mark OConnor.
2009 Encinitas and Mizel Family Foundation Community Grant to organize, promote, and perform 2 concerts at the Encinitas Library and Community Center.
2010 Encinitas and Mizel Family Foundation Community Grant to organize, promote, and perform 2 concerts at the Encinitas Library and Community Center.
2010 Chamber Music of Americas New Jazz Works Grant. For this grant Peter composed for his group The Peter Sprague String Consort. They developed the music through rehearsals and performances and the grant culminated in the 2013 cd release of Dr. Einsteins Spin. The ensemble combines a classical string quartet with a jazz trio and has played numerous concerts in the Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Diego areas. They also have a 2009 cd release called The Wild Blue.
2018 Chamber Music America's New Jazz Works Grant Rendezvous In Realtime
Music Publishing:
Peter is active in the music book world having self-published eleven of his own books:
The Sprague Technique
SpragueSongs
The Jazz Solos of Chick Corea
Jazz Solos of Charlie Parker
Jazz Solos of Sonny Rollins
Jazz Solos of McCoy Tyner
Assorted Jazz Solos
Soliloquy Songbook
Blurring the Edges Songbook
BrazilJazz Songbook
Soliloquy Songbook
Peter is also the chief organizer and transcriber for Chick Corea's music books published with Hal Leonard Publishing and has worked on these books:
Light Years
The Eye Of The Beholder
Inside Out
Chick Corea Collections
Beneath The Mask
Paint the World
SpragueLand
A variety of artists come to Peters recording facility Spragueland to take advantage of Peters excellent producing, playing, and engineering talents. The studio has a reputation for delivering distinctively crisp and well-balanced recordings, always impeccably tailored to the music. All of Peter Spragues recordings have been produced there since 1994 and to this date he has worked on over 300 other CD projects at SpragueLand.
What the Press Has Said
As a jazz lover, I have sat front row to see greats such as Joe Pass, Joe Diorio, Anthony Wilson, and Pat Metheny. For those of you who dont realize this already, Peter Sprague has a place right up there with great jazz guitarists of our time. More than just his instrumental and improvisational prowess, Sprague is a writer-composer of positively world-class abilities. Taking It All In, his latest release, is a wonderful and inspiring snapshot of the essence of Peter Sprague, the composer, musician, and human being.
Craig Yerkes
San Diego Troubadour
November, 2005
One of the emergent great guitarists.
Leonard Feather, Los Angeles Times
The jazz guitarist Peter Sprague calls his home recording studio SpragueLand, but sometimes it seems that the moniker better captures the way he has turned the entire southland into his own musical playground. Sprague is a highly versatile musician who draws on the wellsprings of jazz and Brazilian music as primary influences.
Andrew Gilbert
San Diego Union Tribune
March, 2005
(Nikkis Rose) is a beautiful, sun-drenched celebration of life. Sprague's music has always had an innate optimism to it. Not only did he compose some of his most inspired songs for this project, but Sprague also gathered an all-star congregation of jazz musicians to give it voice.
Jim Trageser
American Reporter
November, 2001
Peter Sprague Pass the Drum
CD review rating: 4 Stars on a scale of 1-4 stars
Peter Sprague boldly borrows Brazilian rhythms to revitalize a diverse collection of songs on his best album yet.
Beth Wood
San Diego Union Tribune
2003
Peter Sprague can just about do it all; his protean talents extend to exemplary jazz-guitar work that once had eminent critic Leonard Feather agog; composing and arranging for groups ranging from duos to combos to consorts to full symphony orchestras; producing a variety of artists in his Del Mar, California art-roost, SpragueLand Studios; and holding audiences of all sizes spellbound with live performances that stretch genres and always reveal something shiny and new and soulful, even in familiar material.
John DAgostino
Wood and Steel
Winter, 2002
Danny Green's Bio:
Over the past decade, jazz pianist and Origin Records recording artist Danny Green has earned recognition as a bandleader and as a composer with a gift for spinning supple, absorbing narratives. Greens growing portfolio of vibrant sounds an enchanting mix of jazz, classical, and Brazilian rhythms has captured the attention of critics around the world, including DownBeat Magazine, Jazziz, San Diego Union Tribune, the Boston Globe, and Public Radio International. Its no small wonder that Green has earned two San Diego Music awards for Best Jazz Album and an additional award for Best Jazz Artist. His long-time trio includes bassist Justin Grinnell and drummer Julien Cantelm, noteworthy musicians in their own right, and together they have developed a nearly psychic connection as they perform Greens original compositions and jazz standards. Green takes listeners on a journey that is equal parts introspective and exuberant, and always compelling.
Greens talents have taken him from the Blue Note in New York City to the Blue Whale in Los Angeles, and his work has been featured in DownBeat Magazine, Jazziz, the San Diego Union Tribune, The Boston Globe, NPR, and JazzEd. According to JazzReview.com, Danny Green is what evolution in jazz is all about, expressing the traits of those that came before him, with a style and panache that is all his ownan individual who expresses what is inside of him.
Green revealed his unique talents on his 2009 debut recording With You In Mind. The album received extensive airplay around the globe, rose to #18 on the Jazz Week Charts, and won Best Jazz Album at the 2009 San Diego Music Awards. In 2012, Green teamed up with Tapestry Records to release A Thousand Ways Home, featuring Justin Grinnell on bass, Julien Cantelm on drums, and Tripp Sprague on sax, as well as a talented cast of guest artists inducing guitarists Chico Pinheiro, Peter Sprague, and Dusty Brough, Brazilian vocalist Claudia Villela, and mandolinist Eva Scow. A Thousand Ways Home received numerous rave reviews nationwide, rose to #17 on the Jazz Week Charts, was voted into KSDS Jazz 88.3s Top Ten Jazz Releases of 2012, and was nominated Best Jazz Album at the 2013 San Diego Music Awards. In 2014, the Danny Green Trio, comprised of Green, Grinnell, and Cantelm, released the highly-acclaimed album After The Calm on Origin/OA2 Records. Featuring ten of Greens compositions, the album received much praise from the press and nationwide radio play, and won Best Jazz Album at the 2015 San Diego Music Awards and was nominated for Album of the Year.
The trio recorded their 2016 release, Altered Narratives, at New York Citys famed Sear Sound recording studio with award-winning producer Matt Pierson. Released on Origin/OA2 Records, the album consists of eleven original compositions by Green. The three tunes at the center of the album feature the trio with a string quartet led by violinist Antoine Silverman, a widely admired New York classical and studio player. All About Jazz critic Dan McClenaghan commented, Theres nothing that adds a touch of elegance to a jazz set more than an adeptly-done string arrangement, and these are superb; violins, viola and cello in a sinuous, sometimes whispering embrace with a vibrant, top-notch piano trio, delving into Danny Greens distinguished compositions. The album remained on the Jazz Week Top 50 chart for fourteen weeks and earned high praise from critics worldwide.
The Danny Green Trio Plus Strings released its first full length album, One Day It Will, in 2018. The album features San Diego Symphony violinists Kate Hatmaker and Igor Pandurski, violist Travis Maril, and cellist Erica Erenyi. One Day It Will was featured in DownBeat Magazine, Jazz Weekly (selected as Ringer of the Week), CD Hotlist (selected as Pick of the Month), The New York City Jazz Record, Mercury News, and Long Islander News, among many other press outlets. Jazz da Gama called the album, one to die for. The album remained on the Jazz Week Top 50 charts for five weeks and was featured multiple times on Public Radio Internationals nationally syndicated Jazz After Hours.
Green has brought his Trio Plus Strings to venues throughout the United States. The group debuted in 2016 at New York Citys Shapeshifter Lab, and since then has maintained a steady performance schedule, including shows at Huntington Summer Arts Festival (NY), TEDxSan Diego at Copley Symphony Hall, KSDS Jazz 88.3s Jazz Live (San Diego), Portola Vineyards Summer Jazz Series (Los Altos, CA), The Blue Whale (Los Angeles), An Die Musik Live! (Baltimore), and Rockwood Music Hall (NYC). The Danny Green Trio Plus Strings was selected to perform at the prestigious Western Arts Alliance Juried Showcase in 2017.
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LocationHome of Danny Green (View)
Address provided upon ticket purchase
La Mesa, CA 91941
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 0 |
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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