After 34 concerts in 11 years, the Center for the Arts and producer Glenn Siegel bring down the curtain on our celebrated solo piano series. A final performance features jazz master Dave Burrell who first appeared at the Center in 2005. All tickets are $15. They are available in advance at Brown Paper Tickets and at the door. Please note that door sales are cash or check only.

“Dave Burrell crams a century of jazz history into every chugging stride episode and churning dissonance,” writes Francis Davis in The Village Voice. “Encyclopedic as well as eccentric, he’s a living treasure.”

Born in Middletown, Ohio in 1940, composer-pianist Dave Burrell is a performing artist of singular stature. After majoring in music at the University of Hawaii, he enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1961. He graduated with degrees in composition and performance in 1965 and moved to New York City where he quickly established himself.

Dave Burrell's first recordings as leader, High and High Two, were produced by Alan Douglas in 1968. In 1978 he composed a jazz opera, Windward Passages, in collaboration with Swedish-born poet/lyricist Monika Larsson. An album based on the opera, was released the following year on HatArt.

In 1988 Burrell began collaborating with the celebrated tenor saxophonist David Murray. They have produced five duo recordings (Daybreak, Brother to Brother, In Concert and Windward Passages). Burrell also appears on Murray's DIW recordings Lovers, Deep River, Ballads, Spirituals, Tenor, Remembrances, and Picasso.

"Burrell's piano performances of his own recent works communicate the joy of a man totally involved in an activity he loves," wrote the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, in awarding him a fellowship in Jazz Composition in 2001.

His 2004 album Expansion (with bassist William Parker and drummer Andrew Cyrille) was widely acclaimed. In 2006, Burrell released Consequences, recorded live at the University of Pennsylvania with drummer Billy Martin, and Momentum, featuring bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Guillermo E. Brown. His latest recording, Dave Burrell Plays His Songs featuring singer Leena Conquest, was released in 2010.

“Burrell’s take on jazz tradition is intelligent and willful,” writes Ben Watson in The Wire, “refusing the categories thrust upon it by outsiders. He deserves the attention of all listeners who crave the unmistakable thump of authenticity.”