Ravinia 2019, Issue 1, Week 1

PHILIP BAILEY From his childhood in Denver—not known at the time as a hotbed of R&B—through decades creating, recording, and performing a wide range of music with Earth, Wind & Fire and as a solo artist, Philip Bailey has sought to inhabit his art by understanding the origin of the mu- sic and all the people who make it. He grew up listening to country and folk music and Top 40 radio, ultimately discovering jazz through Miles Davis and John Coltrane records in the col- lection of a family friend. Bailey joined Earth, Wind & Fire in 1972 and settled in as co–lead vocalist alongside founder Maurice White, over the next decade contributing to the band’s swift rise to cultural-icon status as the lead on the hits “Devotion,” “Keep Your Head to the Sky,” “Rea- sons,” and “Fantasy.” Such EWF classics as the number-one hit “Shining Star,” “Sing a Song,” “Getaway,” “Saturday Nite,” “Serpentine Fire,” “September,” and “Boogie Wonderland” fea- tured Bailey and White splitting the spotlight. Always looking to expand his musical horizons, Bailey began a solo career in 1983 with Continu- ation and collaborated with Phil Collins on the 1984 follow-up Chinese Wall , which featured a duet with Collins on “Easy Lover,” a Billboard number-two hit. That same year, he released the first of four gospel albums what would spear- head a movement of “contemporary Christian music”—the second of those discs, Triumph (1986), earned him his first solo Grammy while Chinese Wall and “Easy Lover” both received nominations. Through the ’90s, in addition to his work with EWF, Bailey created an epony- mous album in collaboration with Brian McK- night and members of the hip-hop groups PM Dawn and Arrested Development. For his 1999 release, Dreams , he connected with the Heads Up label, which also issued 2002’s Soul on Jazz and sees him exploring new interests in elec- tronica. Philip Bailey has performed at Ravinia four times with Earth, Wind & Fire and tonight makes his first solo appearance. JOHN PIZZARELLI Growing up around jazz greats has its perks— John Pizzarelli began playing guitar at age 6, and with his father, Bucky, performed alongside such icons as Benny Goodman, Les Paul, Zoot Sims, Clark Terry, and Slam Stewart during his teenage years. Out on his own after record- ing My Blue Heaven in 1990, Pizzarelli toured clubs and concert halls opening for contempo- rary greats Dave Brubeck, Ramsey Lewis, and Rosemary Clooney, and in 1993 he opened for Frank Sinatra’s international tour, joining in the 80th-birthday celebration at Carnegie Hall sing- ing “I Don’t Know Why I Love You Like I Do.” Pizzarelli attributes his greatest influence to Nat “King” Cole’s ensemble, envisioning his own as “a 21st-century version of what that group was,” and devoting three of his albums, Dear Mr. Cole (1994), P.S. Mr. Cole (1999) and For Centennial Reasons (2019), to tunes made famous by the beloved song stylist. He’s paid homage to other great performers with his albums, such as Meets the Beatles (1998) and Midnight McCartney (2015); Dear Mr. Sinatra (2006); With a Song in My Heart (2008), his Grammy-nominated trib- ute to the music of Richard Rodgers; and Rockin’ in Rhythm , his 2010 collection of Duke Elling- ton standards, emulating the great bandlead- er in showing off the strengths of his quartet. Knowing You (2005) featured material from the many pop and Broadway songwriters he’s met in his career: Jimmy McHugh, Sammy Cahn, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Johnny Mandel, and Brian Wilson, among others, and 2017’s Sina- tra & Jobim @ 50 revisited that unique pairing alongside pianist Daniel Jobim, the son of the famed bossa nova master. Pizzarelli received the 2009 Ella Fitzgerald Award from the Mon- treal International Jazz Festival, joining a select group that includes Harry Connick Jr., Aretha Franklin, and Tony Bennett. John Pizzarelli first performed at Ravinia in 1991, and tonight he re- turns for his sixth season at the festival. ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY Ann Hampton Callaway is a multifaceted cham- pion of the Great American Songbook—recog- nized as a leading singer, pianist, composer and arranger, lyricist, actress, and producer—who was recently voted a Performer of the Year by Broadway World . She earned a Tony nomination in 2000 for her Broadway debut in Swing! , and she wrote and sang the theme music for the CBS TV series The Nanny . Callaway’s songs have been featured on seven of Barbra Streisand’s recent al- bums, including “At the Same Time” and “I’ve Dreamed of You,” which was sung at Streisand’s wedding, and she has written songs with Carole King, Rolf Lovland, and Barbara Carroll, among others. She is the only composer to be recog- nized as a Cole Porter collaborator. Callaway has been a featured guest with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the Bos- ton Pops at Tanglewood, and numerous tributes at Carnegie Hall. She recently premiered her show The Streisand Songbook with the Boston Pops and has presented it with numerous oth- er orchestras around the US, including the San Francisco Symphony. Her performance cred- its include more than 30 top orchestras from around the world, as well as special concerts for President Clinton in Washington, DC, and for Russian President Gorbachev’s Youth Peace Summit in Moscow. Callaway has produced two PBS specials entitled Singer’s Spotlight with Ann Hampton Callaway , featuring guests Liza Min- nelli and Christine Ebersole, and the radio series This is Cabaret . Alongside her sister Liz, she has performed in their original musical Sibling Rev- elry at London’s Donmar Warehouse as well as Boom! , a celebration of Baby Boomer–era songs that was later recorded at Birdland and became a hit album. Callaway has been a guest on more than 40 CDs, including Kenny Barron’s recent The Traveler , and has earned acclaim for her recent discs The Sarah Vaughan Project: Live at Dizzy’s (2014) and The Hope of Christmas (2015). Ann Hampton Callaway has previously taken Ravinia’s stage in 2002 and 2012. MAY 31 – JUNE 9, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 91