Arts in Brief: Jazz icons to play Tel Aviv

Veteran jazz pianist Chick Corea will be back on these shores on September 4 for a one-gig foray.

By BARRY DAVIS, MAXIM REIDER, JERUSALEM POST S
Jazz icons to play Tel Aviv
Veteran jazz pianist Chick Corea will be back on these shores on September 4 for a one-gig foray at Tel Aviv’s Mann Auditorium as part of a world tour.
Just in case Corea’s name wasn’t enough to set local jazz fans’ pulses racing, this time he will be taking the bandstand alongside fellow sexagenarian bassist Miroslav Vitous and legendary octogenarian drummer Roy Haynes.
The forthcoming tour marks a reunion of the trio which recorded the landmark jazz album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs in March 1968. Besides a brief berth at New York’s Blue Note jazz club in 2001 as part of Corea’s 60th birthday celebrations, they have not performed together since. The record includes the standard “My One and Only Love” and iconic pianist Thelonious Monk’s “Pannonica,” while all the other tracks are self-written or based on free improvisation.
Corea has performed in Israel many times over the years, and Haynes has been here a couple of times in fairly resent times, but Vitous’s last working visit here was at the 2003 Red Sea Jazz Festival in Eilat, so the forthcoming trio concert offers a rare opportunity to see the 62-year-old Czech-born bass player on stage.
For ticket information: www.tkts.co.il, or call *8965 or 03-6045000    
Driven to Kusturica
Agite Drive, a neo-klezmer/Balkan/Gypsy quartet comprised of accordion player Vitaly Podolsky, Roman Alexeyev (guitar, violin), Gershon Waiserfirer (barion) and percussionist Ido Mymon, presents its new program this Saturday at Rosin Auditorium in Tel Aviv as part of a series titled The Music of the World. Podolski, who is the the artistic director of the ensemble, sees the program mostly as a tribute to Emir Kusturica and Gypsy music.
A virtuoso musician, Podolski was born in Kiev, Ukraine, into a family of musicians and has been playing accordion since the age of five. He received classical music training in his hometown and later graduated from the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music. He has participated in various concert programs with such singers as Glikeria and Rita and has taken part in international klezmer and world music festivals. He has also put out two albums.
Agite Drive plays Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at the Rosin Auditorium, Rehov Drezner 2A in Tel Aviv’s Ramat Aviv Gimel neighborhood. For reservations: 03-6418262     
Israeli Opera stages ‘Barber’
Starting March 12 the Israeli Opera will be staging a production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville starring Israeli soprano Chen Reiss, who has mostly been busy making a name for herself overseas in recent years, as Rosina.
The production features an all-star cast and is directed by Miriam Klements, who has injected the classic opera with youth and jest, opting, for instance, to make Dr. Bartolo a dentist.
Several of the performances will be followed by “talkback” sessions in which the audience gets to interact with members of the production.
The first 12 scheduled performances have already been sold out, but tickets to a 13th performance, set for March 25, are still available at (03) 692-7777.