ADA —  Ada native and jazz legend Lee Shaw will bring her talents back to her hometown Thursday, October 23, 2003 for a 7:30 p.m. concert at the Ada Arts and Heritage Center, 14th and Rennie. Tickets will be available at the door for $10 general admission and $5 for children and students with valid ID. Members of the Ada Arts and Humanities Council have been sent two tickets as a benefit of membership.

  Shaw will be performing with Rich Syracuse, bassist, as the Lee Shaw/Rich Syracuse Duo. Both have extensive backgrounds in jazz and have performed with jazz greats throughout the world. Shaw’s recording, “A Place for Jazz”, will be for sale at the concert. It was recorded in Schenectady, NY just two weeks after her husband, Stan Shaw, died so it is especially meaningful to her. Stan, a drummer, performed with Lee in a concert she presented in Ada in 1983. Also performing with the Lee Shaw/Rich Syracuse Duo will be Ada attorney Bob Bennett, an accomplished musician in his own right and a long-time friend.

  Lee Shaw was born in Ada and began studying piano at the age of five. After graduating from high school she attended the Oklahoma College for Women, where she earned her bachelor of music in piano. She taught school for one year, then went to the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, where she earned her master’s degree in piano. Shaw also studied privately with concert pianist Jesus Maria Sanroma in Puerto Rico. When she began playing piano in nightclubs in Chicago, she was sharing bills with the likes of Anita O’Day, Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan. It was the 1950s and, fresh out of the conservatory, she drew mostly on her classical background, her encyclopedic knowledge of popular songs and her uncanny ability to play in any key. On the job training and study with Oscar Peterson turned Shaw into the first-rate jazz pianist she later became. She has had her own trio for more than 40 years, during which time she has performed in clubs, concerts and festivals in the United States, Canada and Europe. She has lived in the Albany, NY region for the past three decades.

  The jazz pianist has been a guest on Marian McPartland’s NPR program, “Piano Jazz” and appears frequently on WAMC’s Roundtable. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1993 and is also an inductee of the Alumni Hall of Fame at the Oklahoma College for Women in Chickasha. She has been adjunct faculty at the College of Saint Rose in Albany since 1983 and also teaches privately.

  Rich Syracuse plays string and electric bass and is also an adjunct professor at College of Saint Rose. He is also a music therapy consultant for Ulster County, NY BOCES/Special Alternative Education Program. Syracuse holds a bachelor of music degree from the Manhattan School of Music and has studied double bass with Lew Norton, Orin O’Briend, Homer Mensch, Dave Walter, Red Mitchell and Rufus Reid. He has performed with Darius Brubeck, Eddie Henderson, Joey Calderazzo, Lou Soloff, Dan Brubeck and Anita O’Day among others. He has been principal bassist for the New Jersey Lyric Opera Co. and was performer and guest lecturer for the U.S. Information Service, Education/Concert Tour through universities in Durbin, Westville, Cape Town and Pretoria, South Africa. Syracuse has a host of recordings to his credit as bassist with Nick Brignola, David Torn, Darius Brubeck, Artie Traum, Betty McDonald, Mark Dziuba and others.

  The Lee Shaw/Rich Syracuse Duo concert is part of the arts and humanities council’s October celebration of National Arts and Humanities Month. The month is scheduled each year to remind all Americans of the value of the arts and arts education and the need for everyone to enjoy lifelong learning in the arts and the humanities.