With toast-worthy events happening year-round, there’s always something to celebrate in Downtown Napa! Take a peek at what’s coming up and start planning your next adventure.
The Napa Valley Jazz Society presents Tamir Hendelman on piano and Ralph Moore on tenor saxophone at the Blue Note on Sunday, Sept. 24, at 2 p.m. Hendelman began his keyboard studies at age 6 in Tel Aviv. He moved to the U.S. at 12 in 1984 and won Yamaha’s national competition two years later. Concerts in Japan and the Kennedy Center followed. Hendelman studied at the Tanglewood Institute in 1988 and received a Bachelor of Music Composition degree from Eastman School of Music in 1993. He then became the youngest musical director for Lovewell Institute, a national arts education nonprofit organization. He began his long association with the Jeff Hamilton Trio in 2000 and became a member of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra in 2001. In 2002 he began a collaboration with Tierney Sutton, with whom he continues to tour. Hendelman directed music for Julia Migenes’s Alter Ego and played and arranged for Roberta Gambarini’s Easy To Love. With the CHJO, he has recorded with John Pizzarelli, Gladys Knight and Diana Krall. He is the pianist and arranger on Jackie Ryan’s You and the Night and the Music and Janis Mann’s A Perfect Time. He is also featured on Natalie Cole’s Still Unforgettable and Barbara Streisand’s most recent tour. Tenor saxophonist Moore has been described by The New York Times as a rhythm fanatic under a soft, woody tone with a bit of a rasp to it; as others have observed, this would suggest a cross between John Coltrane and Dexter Gordon. After earning a degree from Boston’s Berklee College of Music, he moved in New York in 1981. His collaborators include Oscar Peterson, Kenny Barron, Gene Harris, Ray Brown, Horace Silver, J.J. Johnson, Bobby Hutcherson, Billy Hart, Cedar Walton and Freddie Hubbard. Many know his sax sound from The Tonight Show until Jay Leno’s retirement. Tickets are available only from the Napa Valley Jazz Society for $55 at www.NVJS.org or 707-224-JAZZ (5299). Blue Note at the Napa Valley Opera House, 1030 Main St., Napa
