French in the City! Picasso, Calder & Jazz at the High

1280 Peachtree Street Northeast,Atlanta GA 30309

20 August, 2021

Description

Picasso, Calder & Jazz at the High ***Advance tickets strongly encouraged. To reserve your tickets please go to this external link- https://high.org/event/august-friday-jazz-3/ Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso are two of the foremost figures in the history of twentieth-century art. This touring exhibition, which debuted in 2019 at the Musée national Picasso-Paris and now at the High this summer, presents more than one hundred paintings, sculptures, and works on paper spanning Calder’s and Picasso’s careers that reveal the radical innovation and enduring influence of their art. Conceived by the artists’ grandsons, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso and Alexander S. C. Rower, and organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the exhibition focuses on the artists’ exploration of the void, or absence of space, which both defined from the figure through to abstraction. Calder’s wire figures, paintings, drawings, and revolutionary nonobjective mobiles, stabiles, and standing mobiles are integrated throughout the exhibition with profoundly inventive works by Picasso in every media. The juxtapositions are insightful, surprising, and challenging, demonstrating the striking innovations these great artists introduced through their ceaseless reexamination of form, line, and space. ABOUT THE JAZZ... This is not your typical Friday Jazz. Curated by Joe Gransden, the event will feature two musical areas where musicians will play throughout the evening, layering notes, improvising melodies, and drawing on inspiration from jazz history. Band leader Joe Gransden has performed worldwide and released sixteen albums. Renowned first for the hard bop approach of his trumpet, Joe’s singing voice has been compared to that of Chet Baker and Frank Sinatra. “When I first heard Joe nine years ago, I immediately thought of Chet,” says Jazziz magazine critic James Rozzi, “but lately his voice has taken on its own style with a deeper resonance. His trumpet has always alternated lyricism with an aggressive, angular approach. He has the ability to cover the gamut of emotions.” Joe is from just north of Manhattan. Coming from a family of musicians, Joe was introduced to music early through his father, a gifted singer and pianist. His grandfather was a trumpeter of merit, playing professionally his whole life throughout New York, and on his mother’s side of the family was the piano virtuoso Carmen Cavallero. Not long after high school, Joe went on the road as a sideman with the big bands of Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller. After eventually moving back to New York City, he performed with numerous groups, including Toshiko Akiyoshi and Chico O’Farrill at the famous Birdland Jazz Club. Meanwhile, he formed his own group, which performed in Brooklyn each week and included the venerable guitarist Joe Cohn and former Betty Carter bassist, Matt Hughes. Like many developing jazz musicians, Joe’s early influences, which include Kenny Dorham and Miles Davis, were easily recognizable in his playing throughout his formative years, and his legion of fans have obviously taken note. Joe currently plays all over Atlanta and the country and recently released a big-band album titled Go Getta, featuring saxophone great Kenny G on the title track. The album can be found on Joe’s website or through anywhere music is sold. ***Advance tickets strongly encouraged. To reserve your tickets please go to this external link- https://high.org/event/august-friday-jazz-3/ ***Please be sure to click on the link posted above (not the general admission shown on the art exhibits page) because the general admission tickets only give you access to the galleries, and not the jazz event. In order to attend both the exhibit and the jazz, go to the link posted here. Friends of Alliance Française d'Atlanta welcomes everyone with a love for the French language and Francophone culture. So whether you speak French fluently, just a little, or not at all, come join us! It's all about having fun and meeting great people!