WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY FEATURES CARIBBEAN JAZZ IN JAZZ ROOM SERIES CONCERT ON FEBRUARY 23

William Paterson University’s spring 2003 Jazz Room Series goes Caribbean with the Oliver Lake Steel Quartet featuring Lyndon Achee, steel pan artist, on Sunday, February 23 at 4 p.m. in the Shea Center for Performing Arts on campus in Wayne.

Admission prices are $12 standard and $9 senior citizens. Tickets include admission to "Sittin’ In," an informal discussion with the afternoon’s performers at 3 p.m. in Shea 101. The Jazz Room concert opens with a half-hour set by a student jazz ensemble.

Launched in 1978, the Jazz Room Series is one of the largest and most prestigious college-sponsored jazz events in the country. Performers include renowned professionals who encompass the complete spectrum of jazz, from practitioners of traditional jazz to avant-garde to bebop to swing to Afro-Latin jazz – as well as William Paterson’s own student ensembles. The series has won numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for its innovative programming.

Oliver Lake, a Montclair-based alto saxophonist, co-founded the World Saxophone Quartet and has toured Africa, Japan, Australia and Europe. A Guggenheim Fellow, who has been commissioned by the Library of Congress, the International Association for Jazz Education and the National Endowment for the Arts, Lake has joined forces with steel pan artist Lyndon Achee to create an unusual and rhythmic blend. The program of original and tribute music mixes rowdy calypso with straight-ahead swinging. Their collaborative CD effort, "Kinda’ Up," received critical acclaim.

For information, call the Shea Center for Performing Arts Box Office at 973-720-2371.


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2/11/03
For Further Information, contact:

Mary Beth Zeman, Director, Public Relations 973-720-2966