DANIEL AZOULAY, PHOTOGRAPHER
Daniel Azoulay was raised in Israel and began playing rhythm guitar in a rock band at the age of 14. He continued playing music in Denmark, where he began his pursuit of photography. He started working as a fashion photographer throughout Europe, and, in the 1970s, as a young professional, he moved to the United States and worked in New York City in fashion and commercial photography, contributing to magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and others. In conjunction with his busy advertising and editorial campaigns, he has traveled extensively for the past 23 years to photograph and build his Americana series, capturing life in the American heartland. He moved to Miami in the early 1980s and continued to work in the fashion and editorial worlds until 1998. From then on his focus shifted from his commercial to his personal work.
Jazz Roots Backstage, Daniel's most recent body of work, is based on a series of jazz concerts produced by his friend, the renowned musician, producer, and music industry entrepreneur Larry Rosen. With his profound understanding of jazz and unique conceptual approach to music production, Mr. Rosen needed a keen photographer who would help capture the making of the most ephemeral and conceptual of all art forms: jazz.
Having a background in music prior to making the camera his main instrument of artistic expression has enabled Daniel to possess a deeper understanding of Larry’s concepts. He decided to capture imagery that would reveal the process of concert-making by photographing everything chronologically: from backstage details and artists rehearsing during the sound checks to the peak of the performance. Choosing a cinematic approach as his method, Daniel energetically and obsessively recorded multiple frames close in action, revealing in his photographs amazing details of the stage, audience, and the artists in the process of sound-making.
While capturing the musicians' emotions, body movement, and synchronization with their instruments and the surrounding acoustic environment, he successfully reveals the invigorating process of sound being transformed by the artist into a powerful tool of communication that deeply affects the audience members, leaving them with an unforgettable experience.
Daniel continued work on the Jazz Roots Backstage project 2008-2011 in Miami, Dallas and Indianapolis.
LARRY ROSEN, PRODUCER
Larry Rosen is a musician, producer, executive producer, and music industry entrepreneur. He is the creator and producer of JAZZ ROOTS: A Larry Rosen Jazz Series, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.
Mr. Rosen, along with Miami arts patron Carl Randolph, worked for seven years to bring a major world-class jazz and educational program to Miami. It was in the fall of 2007 that the Adrienne Arsht Center asked Mr. Rosen to present this vision as a series at the center. Mr. Rosen created a committee of Miami musicians, business and community leaders, educators, and arts patrons to plan a unique jazz series to address the Miami community. The JAZZ ROOTS series is based on the concept of the drums that came from West Africa at the time of slavery, which became the musical DNA for all the music of the Americas. Thus, the music we celebrate from South America, the Caribbean, and the U.S. all came from the same musical root. The JAZZ ROOTS series launched in the fall of 2008 and has created a groundbreaking, sold-out concert series with a unique educational program that has brought more than 900 Miami-Dade students to the Arsht Center to meet the artists, learn about the music, and see the concerts. The 2009-2010 season was launched on November 4, 2009. Mr. Rosen hosts a radio series on WLRN-FM and radio segments on WDNA-FM, where he interviews jazz artists who appear in the JAZZ ROOTS series.
“Larry Rosen’s JAZZ ROOTS is the most important new concert and educational jazz series in America. It is so important that Americans learn about their culture, and this series is simply imperative!” Quincy Jones
Mr. Rosen is the producer/executive producer of over 350 albums, 80 of which have been nominated for Grammy Awards, as well as numerous award-winning film/video productions and television specials. Mr. Rosen and multi-Grammy-and-Academy-Award-winning pianist/composer Dave Grusin co-founded GRP Records, the award-winning contemporary jazz label featuring major artists Chick Corea, Diana Krall, Patti Austin, B.B. King, Dave Grusin, Ramsey Lewis, Arturo Sandoval, Diane Schuur, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Kevin Eubanks, Spyro Gyra, Lee Ritenour, Gary Burton, Dave Valentin, Larry Carlton, David Benoit, Tom Scott, Gerry Mulligan, Yellow Jackets, and the Rippingtons, among others.
Mr. Rosen is currently the chairman of Larry Rosen Productions, and co-chairman of LRS media. He is the creator and producer of the PBS HD television series Legends Of Jazz, and is currently producing a seven-part television series titled Recording: The History of Recorded Music, with hosts Quincy Jones and Phil Ramone, scheduled to air in 2010.
Mr. Rosen co-founded N2K Inc. (NASDAQ), one of the Internet’s premier e-commerce and content companies, launching the web sites for The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Miles Davis, Leonard Bernstein, and the music superstore Music Boulevard. N2K was also the first company to offer music downloads to consumers. For these efforts, he was featured in the Forbes magazine cover story "Masters of the Universe" as an Internet Icon in 1998.
Mr. Rosen began his musical career as a drummer with the Newport Youth Band and met future partner Dave Grusin while working as the drummer for singing star Andy Williams and attending the Manhattan School of Music. In 1972, the duo produced vocalist Jon Lucien for RCA Records and went on to form Grusin/Rosen productions, which discovered and produced new recording artists including Earl Klugh, Noel Pointer, Patti Austin, Lee Ritenour, and more. In 1978, Grusin/Rosen Productions signed a long-term contract with Arista Records’ president Clive Davis to develop new talent for the Arista/GRP label, including Dave Valentin, Angela Bofill, Bernard Wright, and Tom Browne. In 1979, Rosen engineered and co-produced the Dave Grusin album Mountain Dance, the first digitally recorded non-classical album.
Mr. Rosen has received the Ernst & Young prestigious “Entrepreneur of the Year” award in New Media & Entertainment. He serves on the boards of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA), Music For Youth Foundation (MFY), Music Education National Council (MENC), the Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific, and the Manhattan School of Music Presidents Board, as well as on the Dean’s committee at the University of Miami Frost School of Music.
