MEDIA ADVISORY

Mayor William J. Holtzinger

CONTACT: Susan Harding, Acting Public Information Officer, 301-600-1385

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, January 26, 2007

WEINBERG CENTER PAYS TRIBUTE TO
 

LEGENDARY SAXOPHONIST JUNIOR WALKER

Frederick, Md. ---

Clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and social critic Don Byron brings

his astounding range of musical contexts, to the Weinberg Center on Friday, February 16,

2007 at 8:00 pm. This engagement of Don Byron is funded through the Mid 
 
Atlantic Arts Foundation's MidAtlantic Tours program in partnership with the National 
 
Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program. The evening pays tribute to 
 
legendary saxophonist Junior Walker, who attained worldwide fame both 
 
as a musician and as the leader of one of the bigger Motown acts of the
 
late 60s and early 70s, Junior Walker and the AllStars. Walkers’

impassioned, raw sax work -- which bore more resemblance to the gritty sound of

Memphis than of Motown -- became the foundation for a string of party hits that

influenced a generation of funk musicians and which are still revered today as some of

the greatest music Motown ever released.

Exploring widely divergent traditions while continually striving for what he calls

"a sound above genre," Byron redefines every genre of music he plays, be it classical,

salsa, hip-hop, funk, rhythm & blues, klezmer, or any jazz style from swing and bop to

cutting-edge downtown improvisation. Born and raised in the Bronx, Byron was exposed

to a wide variety of music by his father, who played bass in calypso bands, and his

mother, a pianist. His taste was further refined by trips to the symphony and ballet and by

many hours spent listening to Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Machito recordings. He

formalized his music education by studying classical clarinet with Joe Allard while

playing and arranging salsa numbers for high school bands on the side. He later studied

with George Russell in the Third Stream Department of the New England Conservatory

of Music and, while in Boston, also performed with Latin and jazz ensembles.

He has been consistently voted best clarinetist by critics and readers alike in leading

international music journals since being named "Jazz Artist of the Year" by Down Beat in

1992.

Acclaimed as much for his restless creativity as for his unsurpassed virtuosity as a

player, Byron has presented a multitude of projects at major music festivals around the

world, including recent performances in Vienna, San Francisco, Hong Kong, London,

Monterey, New Zealand, and on New York's Broadway. His artistic collaborations

include performances and recordings with Mario Bauza, the Duke Ellington Orchestra,

John Hicks, Ralph Peterson, Uri Caine, Mandy Patinkin, Steve Lacy, the Kansas City

All-Stars, Medeski Martin & Wood, Angelique Kidjo, Carole King, Daniel Barenboim,

Salif Keita, the Atlanta Symphony, and many others.

From 1996-99, he served as Artistic Director of Jazz at the Brooklyn Academy of Music

where he curated a concert series for the Next Wave Festival and premiered his children's

show, Bug Music for Juniors. From 2000-05, he was Artist-in-Residence at New York's

Symphony Space, where he established is Adventurers Orchestra through another concert

series titled Contrasting Brilliance, featuring his takes on music as diverse as Henry

Mancini, Sly Stone, the pioneering hip-hop label Sugar Hill Records, Igor Stravinsky,

Raymond Scott, Herb Alpert and Earth, Wind and Fire.

Seats are still available for an evening to “get down” with this extraordinary

musician. To purchase tickets, call the Weinberg Center for the Arts at 301-600-2828,

301-600-2838 TTY or stop by the Box Office Tuesday thru Friday 10:00am to 4:00pm

and Saturday 10:00am to 2:00pm. Tickets are available online at

www.weinbergcenter.org.

The Weinberg Center for the Arts, a municipal facility of the City of Frederick, is

located at 20 West Patrick Street in downtown Frederick, Maryland. The historic theatre

opened in 1926 as the Tivoli, and it and was donated to the City of Frederick in 1978.

Today as one of the region’s premier presenting facilities, the 1,100 seat Weinberg

Center offers professional LIVE! Series, including dance, music, theatre, family

performances and films, weekday performances for students, and classic movies.

Performance space and professional services are available to a variety of community arts

groups, civic and business organizations, and other arts promoters. Programming at the

Weinberg Center for the Arts is made possible with support from the City of Frederick,

Frederick County Government, Maryland State Arts Council, Frederick Arts Council,

Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, The Frederick News-Post, State Farm Insurance, The

Tivoli Society, other corporate and individual donors.. For more information about

upcoming events at the Weinberg Center, please call the Box Office at 301-600-2828 or

visit www.weinbergcenter.org.

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www.cityoffrederick.com