Sponsored
by the Embassy of the United States of America, the jazz
band Oliver Griffith Quartet will be on stage at the AGADU
theater (Canelones 1122) next Thursday, December 2, starting
at 8:30 pm. Admission is free.
The group was formed upon the initiative
of Oliver Griffith, Political and Economic Officer for the
U.S. Embassy in Montevideo and features some of the most
notable local musicians, including Diego Goldstein on piano,
Jorge Rodriguez on drums, Gabriel Rodriguez on bass, and
Oliver Griffith himself on saxophone. The quartet will be
introducing their new musical repertoire extending from
"Cool" Jazz of the fifties to "Hard Bop"
of the sixties and seventies to Latin Jazz.
Oliver Griffith studied music at the Conservatory
of New England with some of the great masters of jazz like
Sam Rivers, George Russell and Jimmy Guiffre. He has been
a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Corps since 1985, and has
always maintained a musical interest having performed in
various countries around the world where he formed his own
jazz groups, such as in Chad, the Central African Republic,
Rwanda, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Germany, and France.
His most outstanding performances took place at the Trinidad
Pan Jazz Festival and the Chad Jazz Festival where he played
with international stars like Franco de Vitta and Mary Wilson.
This group, formed in 2002, has performed
regularly at a variety of venues in Montevideo such as Plaza
Bolero, Che Montevideo, Don Trigo Enfrente, the Alianza
Cultural Uruguay-Estados Unidos, Alliance Francaise, El
Sotano, as well as festivals and a number of jazz clubs.
