Double bassist Ben Allison has emerged as one of the rising stars of jazz in the last decade. He has performed all over the world with musicians ranging from saxophonist Lee Konitz to legendary performance artist Joey Arias. He has appeared on over 25 albums by various artists and has written music for film, national television and radio, including the theme for the National Public Radio (NPR) show "On the Media" and the score for Two Days, a play written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Donald Margulies. Allison’s most recent album, Little Things Run the World, reached #1 on the CMJ National Jazz radio charts and remained in the top 20 for over four months. Allison, along with his group, Medicine Wheel, will be playing here at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts as part of the Duke Jazz Series on Friday, May 1, at 7:30. They will be performing selections from their Chamber Music America-commissioned album, Peace Pipe. The Duke Jazz Series is part of the two-year Library for the Performing Arts’ project funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to present, document, and preserve jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances and related oral histories. One of the goals of the NYPL’s Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Project is to draw attention to talented performing artists who may still be somewhat under the radar in terms their holdings at the Library. Right now, Ben Allison’s clipping file, a limited number of sound recordings and tap dance performance tapes for which he was a contributor, and one CD of his compositions may be found in our collections. We want to change that! As part of our Duke Jazz Series endeavors, we will soon be able to present not only Ben Allison in person, free of charge, to our May 1 audience (which we hope will include you!), but also Ben’s commercial recording of Peace Pipe, DVD and CD versions of the Ben Allison/Medicine Wheel live performance, and an audiorecorded oral history with Ben Allison, in which he will discuss his career with jazz journalist David Adler. The Ben Allison/Medicine Wheel concert is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. It will be held at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 111 Amsterdam Avenue @ 65th Street. For more information, please call 212.870.1793 or visit nypl.org/lpaprograms. And finally, for a taste of Ben’s work: Ben's group, Man Size Safe, performing "Respiration"