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Blue Engine Records Announces the Release of Handful of Keys

New York, NY – Friday, August 18, 2017 – Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Blue Engine Records today announced the release of Handful of Keys on September 15, 2017, a live recording of performances that captured 100 years of jazz piano in one night in Frederick P. Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Today, the first single from Handful of Keys, “The Strawberry,” is available for streaming and download on all mass-market digital platforms. The album is also available to preorder on Jazz at Lincoln Center’s newly relaunched webstore, both as a standalone CD and as a deluxe bundle featuring limited-edition Jazz at Lincoln Center gear and a ticket discount for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 30th Anniversary Season-opening concerts. The preorder bundle can be accessed via www.jazz.org/handful.

From rising stars to living legends, pianists Joey Alexander, Dick Hyman, Myra Melford, Helen Sung, Isaiah J. Thompson, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s own Dan Nimmer grab hold of all 88 keys and reveal the full breadth of the piano’s evolution over the 20th century. With guests ranging in age from 13-year-old prodigy Alexander to 89-year-old American treasure Hyman, Wynton Marsalis and the JLCO survey jazz piano’s past and give the stage to several prodigies who are taking the instrument in bold new directions.

Handful of Keys captures the sold-out 2016-17 season opening concerts featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and six virtuoso pianists representing the many styles of jazz and both the music’s past and its future. The title, Handful of Keys, references an efflorescent 1929 Fats Waller composition that is a signpost of early jazz piano. This release showcases a band in full “stride,” burning through electric arrangements of beloved compositions from James P. Johnson, Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner, and more.

“This concert demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the continuum and the belief in the non-segregation of generations,” says Wynton Marsalis, artistic and managing director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Handful of Keys Track Listing:

1. Jingles (3:46)
Composed by James P. Johnson
Arranged by Dick Hyman
Soloist: Dick Hyman – piano

2. Lulu’s Back in Town (12:04)
Composed by Al Dubin & Harry Warren
Arranged by Vincent Gardner
Soloists: Isaiah J. Thompson – piano, Sherman Irby – alto saxophone

3. Four by Five (8:41)
Composed by McCoy Tyner
Arranged by Helen Sung
Soloists: Victor Goines – tenor saxophone, Helen Sung – piano, Ali Jackson – drums

4. Very Early (8:06)
Composed by Bill Evans
Arranged by Walter Blanding
Soloists: Joey Alexander – piano, Walter Blanding – tenor saxophone

5. The Strawberry (9:17)
Composed by Myra Melford
Arranged by Ted Nash
Soloists: Myra Melford – piano, Wynton Marsalis – trumpet

6. Hymn to Freedom (5:50)
Composed by Oscar Peterson
Soloists: Isaiah J. Thompson – piano

7. All of Me (7:23)
Composed by Gerald Marks & Seymour Simons
Arranged by Benny Carter
Soloists: Dick Hyman – Piano, Chris Crenshaw – trombone

8. Temperance (5:50)
Composed by Wynton Kelly
Arranged by Marcus Printup
Soloist: Dan Nimmer – piano

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