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Herbie Hancock Celebration Part of NYC Jazz Festival. Herbie Hancock will be honored at a belated 70th birthday party at Carnegie Hall this spring that will double as the revival of a major summer jazz festival in the Big Apple. The pianist, who turns 70 on April 12, will be joined by comedian Bill Cosby, saxophonist Joe Lovano, trumpeter Terence Blanchard, and saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Hancock’s bandmate in Miles Davis’ famed 1960s quintet, with more guests to be announced. The June 24 concert, “Herbie Hancock, Seven Decades: The Birthday Celebration,” will benefit The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. “That will be a very exciting night — perhaps one of the unique nights in the history of the festival with a lot of people coming just to salute Herbie,” the festival’s producer, George Wein, told the Associated Press Friday. The concert will be followed by a festival first — an old-time midnight jam session paying tribute to Hancock — at the City Winery nightclub. The CareFusion Jazz Festival will run from June 17 to 26 with some 45 concerts at 20 venues, including concert halls, parks, museums and libraries in four boroughs. Carnegie Hall will be the site of three other high-profile concerts featuring trumpeter Chris Botti, Brazilian bossa nova maestro Joao Gilberto, and the trio of pianist Keith Jarrett, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette. There will also be several free outdoor concerts, with Latin jazz star Eddie Palmieri performing in a Bronx park and pianist McCoy Tyner’s quartet featuring saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and the Stanley Clarke Band with Japanese pianist Hiromi playing at Central Park’s SummerStage. The festival is paying the musicians and letting the clubs collect the gate, asking only that ticket prices be kept at a recession-friendly $15 for most events. “It’s helping the clubs and the musicians,” said Wein. “Its our own stimulus program.”
No charges for Naomi Campbell in Driver Incident. It wasn’t a cab driver but rather a “chauffeur” who accused the supermodel of beating him from the back seat of a luxury SUV before she hopped out and ran off. The Associated Press reports that police consulted with the Manhattan district attorney’s office and issued a harassment report against the tempermental catwalk queen, which doesn’t carry any penalty. Arrests are unlikely in the case, authorities said. Earlier Tuesday, the driver – who had been hired to drive Campbell around New York City – told police she hit him from behind and his head struck the steering wheel of the black Cadillac Escalade, causing bruising under his right eye. He pulled over in midtown Manhattan and got out to speak to a traffic agent, who alerted police. The chauffeur, who also drives Campbell’s boyfriend, decided not to pursue the matter criminally. It’s unclear if he would pursue it in civil court. Campbell was not at the scene when officers arrived, police said. She did not speak to police, but her assistant went to the station house where the driver gave his account. A spokesman for Campbell, who has previously pleaded guilty to assaulting people hired to work for her, said she would cooperate with police. “There shouldn’t be a rush to judgment,” spokesman Jeff Raymond said. “Naomi will cooperate voluntarily, and there is more to the story than meets the eye.” The 27-year-old driver, apparently hired just for the day, told police he picked Campbell up at a Manhattan hotel and was taking her to Astoria Studios, a TV and film studio complex in Queens, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.