SUE AUCLAIRPromotions617-522-1394

September 6, 2005

For Immediate Release:

An Evening With TRIO!

Stanley Clarke - Jean-Luc Ponty - Bela Fleck

In Concert At

Symphony Hall Tuesday, October 11, 8 pm

Julian Lage & Taylor Eigsti Duo To Open

Tickets On Sale: September 7

HT Productions will present An Evening with TRIO! Stanley Clarke - Jean Luc Ponty - Bela Fleck at Boston

Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, on Tuesday, October 11 at 8 pm. Opening for TRIO! will be a

dazzling young DUO: guitarist Julian Lage and pianist Taylor Eigsti. Tickets at $46, $41, and $31 go on sale on

September 7 at 10 am at Symphony Hall Box Office, via Symphony Charge at 888-266-1200 or 617-266-1200, on

line at http://www.bostonsymphonyhall/.com For more information, call: 617-266-1492.

Bassist Stanley Clarke, banjo player Bela Fleck and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, three of music’s most influential

innovators have been breaking new ground on their first tour together, debuting in the aptly named TRIO! In a

nationwide summer and fall tour TRIO! has created some of the most exciting musical events in years, and genuinely

worthy of the group’s exclamation point. One of their stunning significant performances was at this year's JVC Jazz

Festival-Newport.

“Miles Davis told me once that it takes a lot of courage to be different,” says Clarke, who plays double bass in the

acoustic group. “Heads will turn but our fans are so sophisticated and flexible given all we’ve done as individuals

that I’m sure they’ll love it. We’re gonna kick butt.”

Adds Ponty, “The stimulation of performing with such top musicians is fantastic. Within a couple of minutes of

playing together, the music just took off.”

Fleck calls the unusual instrumental lineup “an unholy alliance. I’ve never seen it except in combination with a

guitar or mandolin. This is cool stuff.”

Featuring songs written specifically for the triumvirate by each of the members plus rearrangements of past material,

with room to improvise and for each to solo, Trio! brings together three bold and adventurous musical heroes.

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. Undoubtedly one of the most influential bassists in history, Clarke recorded what is now considered the

must-know bass anthem, “School Days,” and accomplished and aspiring bassists continue to imitate his percussive

slap funk technique. Rolling Stone’s first Jazzman of the Year, he won Playboy’s Music Award for Best Bassist 10

straight years.

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 Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and its “blu-bop” (a mix

of jazz and bluegrass). His most recent pair of Grammys® (of a total of nine) was in classical music for Perpetual

Motion, a collaboration that evolved into a banjo/bass duo. With more than 20 nominations, Fleck holds the record

for most nominations in more genres than anyone in Grammy® history.

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. Since then, he has recorded and toured with Frank Zappa and the

Mothers of Invention as well as John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra and collaborated with Chick Corea,

George Benson and George Duke among others. A dozen consecutive solo albums reached the Billboard Jazz Top

5, establishing him as a leader in the jazz-rock movement.

In 1995, Ponty joined Clarke and guitarist DiMeola to record the acoustic album The Rite Of Strings. The all-stars

then undertook a much-praised world tour (an opening act was Bela Fleck and the Flecktones). But following a

2004 Clarke-Ponty-DiMeola reunion that toured the U.S. 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.”

That day arrived in March 2005 when Clarke and Ponty gathered at Fleck’s Nashville home for two weeks of

rehearsal. “It was like being asked to join a club you always wanted to be in,” says Fleck, noting that he owns every

Ponty album and the New Grass Revival used to cover his “New Country.”

As for Clarke, Fleck says watching Return To Forever from the front row of New York’s Beacon Theater in the mid-

‘70s changed his life. “It was a revelation. I discovered what I needed to do to be the musician I wanted to be. I’m

pretty jaded after doing so many things but I still can’t believe I’m playing with Stanley and Jean-Luc.”

Among the tour dates for Trio! are bluegrass festivals as well as jazz-oriented venues. Fans of one genre who are

unfamiliar with the other, fans old and new, will truly hear a brand new groove with Trio!

_____________________

Opening for TRIO! is a stunning DUO: guitarist Julian Lage and pianist Taylor Eigsti.

Classically trained at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, guitarist Julian Lage has also studied at Sonoma State

University, Ali Akbar College of Music, and Berklee College of Music in Boston. It was at Berklee that he was

"discovered" by vibraphonist Gary Burton who was particularly impressed by Lage’s skills as improviser. "We had to

do various takes on different tunes, and it struck me how none of his solos were alike. He was constantly inventive

but without a need to show off," said Burton. "His way of proving himself is not by being flashy, but by discovering

the meaning in the music."

This is the root of Lage’s genius. While Julian’s Conservatory background steeped him in technique, he finds his

inspiration elsewhere, which deeply informs his playing. "I’m looking for more of a personality thing. The people

who inspire me aren’t based on how fast or good they play. Musicians like Gary Burton, Jim Hall, Bill Evans, Ravi

Shankar even, just seem so innovative and creative. That really attracts me—people who have such a pure thing

going. It’s the energy, instead of technique, which knocks me out every time."

Julian’s first recorded effort is as a featured performer on Burton’s latest album Generations, released in April, 2004

on Concord Records. Lage also toured as an integral part of the Gary’s Generations Band, a quintet, which included

Makoto Ozone on piano, James Genus on bass and Gary Spencer on drums. Three of Julian’s original compositions

appear on the album, alongside tunes by Pat Metheny, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, and Oscar Peterson. Generations

opens with the Lage-penned original "First Impression" and also includes his classical/tango hybrid "Early" and the

soulful "The Title Will Follow." Lage appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival last year with Gary Burton on the JVC

Stage and appeared again this year on the Pavilion Stage; this year he also showed his stuff on Newport's Guitar

Stage alongside pianist Taylor Eigsti.

Twenty-year old Taylor Eigsti began playing the piano at the age of four and made his professional debut at the age

of eight when he was invited to be the opening act for jazz pianist David Benoit. Since then, he has received much

acclaim for both his technical proficiency and mature, intuitive style of playing.

He has appeared on stage with such well-known and respected artists as Dave Brubeck, James Moody, Bobby

Hutcherson, Ernestine Anderson, Kevin Mahogany, Bill Watrous, Diane Schuur, David Benoit, Lewis Nash, Rufus

Reid, Johnny Frigo, Keter Betts, Alan Broadbent, Red Holloway, Jeff Chambers, Ira Sullivan, Ed Shaughnessy, Shelly

Berg, among many others. Taylor has also performed in other genres as well, playing with Sylvia McNair, Frederica

von Stade, and numerous major symphonies. He has also given performances for many important political figures,

including former President Bill Clinton, Senator Bill Bradley, and former Colorado Governor Roy Romer.

Jean-Luc Ponty Bela Fleck Stanley Clarke