Stanley Clarke, Béla Fleck and Jean-Luc Ponty perform Oct. 20 at the Phillips Center
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Three of music’s most influential groundbreakers – bassist Stanley Clarke, banjo player Béla Fleck and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty – will play in the aptly named Trio! in a performance that promises to be genuinely worthy of the group’s exclamation point. Trio! performs at the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, October 20, 2005 at 7:30 p.m.
Featuring songs written specifically for the triumvirate by each of the members and rearrangements of past material, with room to improvise and for each to solo, Trio! brings together three bold and adventurous musical heroes.
Stanley Clarke gained mainstream fame in the pioneering jazz fusion group Return to Forever with Chick Corea, Lenny White and Al DiMeola. As a solo artist, he became the first bassist to headline major tours, selling out shows worldwide.
Béla Fleck reinvented the image and sound of the banjo in a remarkable career that has taken him all over the musical map, from progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival to
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones and its “blu-bop” sound (a mix of jazz and bluegrass).
Jean-Luc Ponty is widely regarded as the father of modern jazz violin. With be-bop era phrasings and a punchy style influenced more by horn players than by anything previously heard on violin, his debut American appearance at the Monterey Jazz Festival signaled a revolution.
The roots of Trio!’s collaboration go back to 1995, when Ponty joined Clarke and guitarist Al DiMeola to record the acoustic album The Rite Of Strings. The all-stars then undertook a much-praised world tour (an opening act was Béla Fleck and the Flecktones). But following a 2004 Clarke-Ponty-DiMeola reunion that toured the United States and Canada, the bassist and violinist found themselves guitar-less. Clarke remembered playing with Fleck at a 2002 Los Angeles concert for Clarke’s scholarship fund, after which he had said, “We have to do something together someday.”
Tickets are $40, front orchestra and mezzanine; $35, mid-orchestra; $30, rear orchestra; $25, balcony. Rush tickets for $10 may be available in the balcony day of show.
Tickets to University of Florida Performing Arts events are available by calling the Phillips Center Box Office at (352) 392-ARTS (2787) or (800) 905-ARTS (2787) or by faxing orders to (352) 846-1562. Tickets are also available at the University Box Office, all Ticketmaster outlets, www.ticketmaster.com or by calling Ticketmaster at (904) 353-3309. Cash, Visa and MasterCard are accepted. Group ticket sales are available.
The Phillips Center Box Office is open noon to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday.
Performance dates, times and programs are subject to change.