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Jazz Legends Billy Taylor and Clark
Terry Perform on July 30 During William Paterson University's Eleventh
Annual Summer Jazz Week
—Taylor and Terry serve as artists-in-residence during jazz
workshop for students
—Notable jazz artists in concert from July 26 to 30
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Legendary jazz educators and performers
Billy Taylor and Clark Terry headline William Paterson University’s
eleventh annual summer jazz week from July 26 to 31 with a performance
in Shea Center on the campus in Wayne. Pianist Taylor and his trio
will join forces with trumpeter Terry for the closing night concert
on July 30. Also featured during the week-long festival are trumpeter
Bill Mobley, tenor saxophonist Harry Allen, saxophonist Richie Cole
with the William Paterson University Summer Big Band, and guitarist
Mark Whitfield.
The festival is being held in conjunction with the University’s
Summer Jazz Improvisation Workshop for high school and college students.
As artists-in-residence, Taylor and Terry will participate in the
program that includes seven intense days of morning classes, afternoon
performance sessions and clinics with jazz artists. All students
will participate in hands-on, small group sessions with the guest
artists. On Saturday, July 31, the workshop will conclude with a
1 p.m. concert featuring the workshop’s student ensembles.
Summer Jazz Week features concerts every evening at 7:30 p.m. from
Monday, July 26 through Friday, July 30 in Shea Center on campus.
The festival also includes a workshop for children with the Blackman
Brothers at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 28. A $10 pass for the entire
week may be purchased prior to Monday evening’s concert or
single tickets may be purchased for $3.
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Clark Terry and Billy Taylor will perform
on Friday, July 30 with Taylor’s trio that includes Chip Jackson
on bass and Winard Harper on drums. Taylor will celebrate his 83rd
birthday on July 24, while Terry celebrated his 83rd birthday last
December.
Honored at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center for his musical
contributions, Taylor is a performer, composer, educator, author
and broadcast media personality. He has played and recorded with
many legendary performers, and earned a doctorate from the University
of Massachusetts in addition to his 16 honorary degrees. Taylor
is known for his work on “CBS Sunday Morning” and National
Public Radio, including hosting “Billy Taylor’s Jazz
from the Kennedy Center.”
Terry is a long-time jazz educator and performer whose years with
Count Basie and Duke Ellington in the late 1940s and 1950s established
him as a world-class jazz artist. Blending the St. Louis tone of
his youth with contemporary styles, Terry’s sound influenced
a generation, including Miles Davis. Also a pioneer of the flugelhorn
in jazz, Terry was a standout in the NBC-TV Orchestra for 12 years
before he left to form his own bands and continue recording. Terry
was inducted into the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Hall
of Fame in 1991. Terry was honored with an honorary doctorate at
William Paterson’s spring commencement.
Summer Jazz Week, which has drawn thousands of jazz fans to the
University’s campus during the past 10 summers, is designed
to make jazz more accessible to the community. William Paterson
has been a flagship of jazz education for more than 25 years through
its internationally known Jazz Studies Program, and its nationally
acclaimed Jazz Room Series of concerts each fall and spring.
The festival opens on Monday, July 26 with trumpeter Bill Mobley
performing with William Paterson’s summer jazz camp faculty,
including Jim McNeeley, a William Paterson University adjunct faculty
member and music director of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, on piano;
Richard DeRosa, head of jazz composition/arranging for William Paterson’s
Jazz Studies Program, on drums; and Marcus McLaurine, William Paterson
adjunct, on bass. Mobley has performed with the Donald Brown Sextet,
the T.S. Monk Band, the Clifford Jordan Big Band, the George Coleman
Octet, and the Toshiko Akiyoshi Orchestra. Today he leads his own
17-piece jazz orchestra and received critical acclaim for his big
band recording, “Live at Small’s,” as well as
his newest release, “Mean What You Say.”
On Tuesday, July 27, tenor saxophonist Harry Allen claims the spotlight.
A BMG recording artist, Allen has over twenty recordings to his
name. Allen's recordings have made the top ten list for favorite
new releases in Swing Journal Magazine's reader's poll and Jazz
Journal International's critic's poll. Allen has performed at jazz
festivals and clubs worldwide and has performed with Rosemary Clooney,
Ray Brown, Frank Wess, Flip Phillips, Harry 'Sweets' Edison, Kenny
Burrell, Herb Ellis, John Pizzarelli, and Bucky Pizzarelli, and
has recorded with Tony Bennett, Johnny Mandel, Tommy Flanagan, James
Taylor, Sheryl Crow, and Al Foster, among others.
The Blackman Brothers offer an entertaining and interactive look
at the world of jazz in their “Jazz for Kids” program
on Wednesday, July 28. The workshop is designed to introduce elementary
school children to the world of jazz. That evening, saxophonist
Richie Cole teams up with the William Paterson Summer Big Band directed
by Stephen Marcone, professor of music at William Paterson. Cole's
musical work includes an impressive list of recordings as well as
performances with the legendary bands of Buddy Rich, Doc Severinsen,
and Lionel Hampton. During the 1970s, along with his partner Eddie
Jefferson, he revolutionized the art of jazz vocalese. Cole has
performed at Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall, and presented
a command performance for the Queen of England. He also served as
chairman of the board for the National Endowment for the Arts in
Washington, D.C.
Guitarist Mark Whitfield takes the stage on Thursday, July 29. Lucky
enough to have parents who encouraged him to play at a young age,
Whitfield was an accomplished classical bassist well before his
10th birthday. He was offered a scholarship to Berklee College of
Music midway through high school, but it was the gift of a guitar
for his seventh birthday that enabled Whitfield to simultaneously
pursue his interest in jazz while keeping his classical studies
separate. When it came time for Whitfield to enter college, he accepted
the Berklee scholarship, but focused on jazz guitar. Having added
professional experience playing rock, blues and R&B to his resume,
Whitfield further proves his diversity on the Verve recording of
“On Forever Love,” where he fronts an orchestra to play
a 10-song collection of emotion-charged ballads.
William Paterson’s Summer Jazz Week is funded, in part, by
a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department
of State, and a newly awarded grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge
Foundation.
For more information, contact the Shea Center Box Office at 973-720-2371.
# # #
- For
Further Information, contact:
- Mary
Beth Zeman, Director, Public Relations 973-720-2966
6/23/04
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