PREVIEWS AND LINK: Rachael Worby and Arturo Sandoval one of two interesting programs on Tuesday

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News

When Rachael Worby announced her new project, Muse-ique, last summer she promised a much different style of programming than the standard orchestra, Pops or otherwise. Tuesday night at 7 p.m., that difference shows up in a major way as Worby hosts Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Arturo Sandoval in a program entitled “An Intimate Conversation.” Moreover, as Worby promised, the venue is an attraction in itself.

Since Worby’s skill as a raconteur sets her apart from most conductors working today, this pairing of the ebullient maestra and the iconic Sandoval talking about Latin jazz seems tailor-made, at least on paper (or, in this case, computer screen). The event is at the Pasadena Rose Palace (the Los Angeles Rock Ballroom) and the evening includes a pre-event reception and a behind-the-scenes look at the construction of floats being created by Phoenix Decorating for the upcoming Tournament of Roses Parade.

Sandoval, who turns 62 next month, was born in and grew up in Cuba. Nonetheless, his early influences were jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown but he studied classical trumpet at Cuba’s National School of the Arts and has performed with the BBC Symphony and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Philharmonic. He was granted political asylum in the United States in 1990 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1999.

However, it is for Latin jazz that Sandoval is best known. Among other things, he has won four Grammy Awards, six Billboard Awards and an Emmy Award — the latter for his composing work on HBO movie based on his life, For Love or Country, starring Andy Garcia. Information: www.muse-ique.com

• If the $45 ticket price is too rich for your blood or you just want something different, check out Alex Benestelli’s Master of Music choral recital on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. It’s free and at Pasadena Presbyterian Church (double disclaimer: Alex is a friend and colleague and PPC is my church home). Benestelli, who is also an organist, will conduct a choral ensemble of colleagues from the USC Flora L. Thornton School of Music in music by J.S. Bach, Edgar Bainton, Bobby McFerrin, Ralph Vaughan Williams and others. Timothy Howard will accompany on the church’s splendid Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.