Event will honor Dave Brubeck, George Duke, Green Day and the San Francisco Blues Festival
GRAMMY.com
Music luminary Dave Brubeck, GRAMMY winner George Duke, three-time GRAMMY winners Green Day and the San Francisco Blues Festival have been named as recipients of the San Francisco Chapter's 2006 Recording Academy Honors. The Recording Academy Honors was established to celebrate outstanding individuals whose work embodies excellence and integrity and who have improved the environment for the creative community.
The gala event, which will attract recording artists, key entertainment executives and community leaders, will be held March 19, at 6 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom of the historic Westin St. Francis in San Francisco's Union Square. Formerly known as the Governors Awards, this annual San Francisco gala supports the Chapter's ongoing advocacy, education and professional development programs.
The evening will begin with a cocktail hour and silent auction followed by dinner and the tribute presentations with celebrity presenters and performers. Tickets for The Recording Academy Honors gala are $95 for Academy members and $125 for non-members and are available by calling the San Francisco Chapter office at 415.749.0779. Sponsorship packages and table sales also are available.
For six decades, Dave Brubeck's compositions and quartets have achieved major chart success and critical accolades. Born in Concord, Calif., Brubeck received his B.A. from the College of the Pacific and his M.A. in classical composition from Mills College where he studied with famed classical composer Darius Milhaud. He founded the experimental Jazz Workshop Ensemble with fellow students, which recorded in 1949 as the Dave Brubeck Octet, and included Paul Desmond, Cal Tjader and Bill Smith. From these beginnings, Brubeck composed and performed in a variety of configurations, achieving outstanding popular success with such works as "Blue Rondo A La Turk" and "Take Five" and his first million-selling instrumental album, Time Out, in 1959. His work has graced the stages of the Cincinnati and London Symphony Orchestras and the Dave Brubeck Quartet has performed around the world, including at the Reagan-Gorbachev Summit and the White House on many occasions. Brubeck, now chairman of The Brubeck Institute, has received the National Medal of the Arts presented by President Clinton, a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy and the Smithsonian Medal. In 2000, the National Endowment for the Arts declared him a Jazz Master and the Library of Congress has named him a "Living Legend."
George Duke is one of the most versatile and enduring jazz pianists and keyboardists. From his early gigs playing with Al Jarreau in a San Francisco house jazz band in the early '60s to touring with Frank Zappa, Duke is a creative and talented player and a pioneer of jazz fusion. As a GRAMMY-winning producer, Duke has worked with such artists as Julian "Cannonball" Adderly, Stanley Clarke, Nancy Wilson and others to create original works in the jazz fusion genre. He has produced artists including Dianne Reeves, Smokey Robinson, Sister Sledge, Taste Of Honey, Jeffrey Osborne and Deniece Williams, as well as his own No.1 jazz track "Sweet Baby" with Stanley Clarke. He also has worked as a studio musician on albums for Anita Baker, George Benson, Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson and Al Jarreau, to name a few. In addition to his work as a recording artist, producer and musician, Duke has scored several film and TV soundtracks and served as musical director for awards shows and other music events. Duke has earned GRAMMY nominations for his work on several albums, including releases from the Clarke/Duke project, Dianne Reeves, Deniece Williams and Miles Davis. Now into his fourth decade as a recording artist, Duke released a solo CD, Duke, in 2005, produced new work for Anita Baker and Regina Belle, and received the Edison Lifetime Achievement Award.
Three-time GRAMMY winners Green Day have made a still-evolving mark on American music, becoming one of the most influential punk rock groups of the post-Sex Pistols/Ramones era and arguably the biggest selling. Childhood friends, guitarist/vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool got their start in Berkeley in the late 1980s and continue to reside in Oakland, Calif. With seven studio albums released, their most recent — 2004's groundbreaking American Idiot — debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top 200 chart as well as in Australia, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. Green Day became the first band to reach No. 1 on six radio charts simultaneously with their single "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams." Their most critically lauded album to date, American Idiot received six GRAMMY nominations at the 47th GRAMMY Awards, taking home a GRAMMY for Best Rock Album. The album continued its successful run at the 48th GRAMMY Awards earning the band a Record Of The Year GRAMMY for "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams."
Now approaching its 34th year, the San Francisco Blues Festival is the longest continuously running blues festival in the United States. Founder and producer Tom Mazzolini founded the festival in 1973 as a way to educate the public on the San Francisco, Oakland and Richmond blues scenes of the '40s and '50s. Through the years, the festival has featured a who's who of blues acts and regional favorites. While continuing to support the local blues community, the festival also has drawn such notables as Albert Collins, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Buddy Guy, Etta James, Dr. John, B.B. King, Los Lobos, Taj Majal, Keb' Mo', Delbert McClinton, Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana and many more. Mazzolini's dedication to fostering the blues tradition in San Francisco has led the festival to international acclaim, and he has paralleled his contribution by hosting one of the longest-running blues radio shows in the Bay Area, "Blues By The Bay" (airing on KPFA-FM in Berkeley), which highlights the musical art form's rural country roots as well as its urban and regional flavors. Mazzolini's dedication to the blues has helped make San Francisco a part of the American blues tradition.
