|
September 11, 2007
WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES THE 30th SEASON OF THE JAZZ ROOM CONCERT SERIES BEGINNING ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra will open the fall 2007 season of The Jazz Room at William Paterson University in Wayne on September 30. The series continues with Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band; the Winard Harper Sextet; Jimmy Heath with the William Paterson University Jazz Orchestra; the Anat Fort Trio; and the Bill Lee Quintet. The Sunday afternoon fall series, in its 30th season as the longest running campus-based jazz concert series in the country, features performances from September 30 through November 4.
Concerts begin at 4 p.m. on Sundays in the Shea Center for Performing Arts on campus. “Sittin’ In,” informal jazz talks with the afternoon’s artists, will be presented prior to the concerts. The talks begin at 3 p.m. in Shea Center 101 and are free to all Jazz Room ticketholders. Each concert begins with a performance by a William Paterson student jazz ensemble.
The series opens on September 30 with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. Originally led by drummer Mel Lewis and Thad Jones, the first director of the William Paterson Jazz Studies Program, this all-star group now holds a unique permanent residency at the University. For more than four decades the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra has been committed to engaging audiences in jazz and related American music experiences. The orchestra serves as a creative outlet for some of the nation's foremost performers, composers, and arrangers.
Multi-instrumentalist Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band will perform on October 7. Gonzalez plays trumpet, flugelhorn and percussion and his Afro-Cuban music reflects the influence of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. He formed Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band with his brother and bassist Andy and drummer Steve Berrios. The group topped the Worldbeat group category in a readers' poll conducted by Down Beat after their album, Rumba Para Monk. The album was named Jazz Album of the Year by the Academie du Jazz in France. Gonzalez has performed and or recorded with a lengthy list of jazz artists, including Tony Williams, McCoy Tyner, Kenny Dorham, Anthony Braxton, Tito Rodriguez, Ray Barretto, Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente, Paquito D'Rivera and Machito.
Drummer Winard Harper and the Winard Harper Sextet take the Shea stage on October 14. The group appears regularly all over the United States from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. to Yoshi's, the legendary West Coast jazz club. When not touring with his band, Harper continues to work as a sideman, recording with artists such as Joe Lovano, Avery Sharpe, Steve Turre, Wycliffe Gordon, Frank Wess, Ray Bryant, Billy Taylor and Jimmy Heath. His newest CD, Make It Happen, is the latest in a succession of six releases highlighting his talent as drummer, composer and bandleader.
Legendary saxophonist Jimmy Heath is joined by the William Paterson University Jazz Orchestra on October 21. Heath has performed with many of the jazz greats of the last 50 years, from Howard McGhee, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis to Wynton Marsalis. During his career, Heath has performed on more than 100 record albums including seven with The Heath Brothers and twelve as a leader. Heath has written more than 125 compositions, many of which have become jazz standards and have been recorded by other artists including Art Farmer, Cannonball Adderley, Clark Terry, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, James Moody, Milt Jackson, Ahmad Jamal, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, J.J. Johnson and Dexter Gordon. Heath maintains an extensive performance schedule and, as a jazz educator, continues to conduct workshops and clinics throughout the United States, Europe, and Canada.
On October 28, pianist, vocalist, composer and William Paterson alumna Anat Fort will perform with her trio. Fort has just released her debut CD under ECM’s record label. Born near Tel Aviv, Fort studied classical piano as a child and began improvising from an early age, remaining open to the many musical sounds of her environment. In the early 1990s, Fort came to the United States to study jazz. A self-produced debut album, Peel, and commissions to write for various ensembles, including chamber and chorus and orchestra, subsequently followed. Her most recent commission was premiered at the Tel Aviv Opera House in January 2006. Currently on the alternative jazz scene, Fort divides her time between Israel and the U.S. and performs with bassist Gary Wang and drummer Roland Schneider in her touring band, the Anat Fort Trio.
Closing the fall Jazz Room on November 4 is the Bill Lee Quintet. As a bassist, Lee played for many artists including Aretha Franklin, Odetta and Bob Dylan, and he collaborated with musicians Johnny Griffin, Clifford Jordan, Frank Strozier, Andrew Hill and Harold Mabern, as well as the Bass Violin Choir. A veteran composer for films, he is well known today for his compositions for two films created by his son, producer and director Spike Lee.
Admission prices to the Jazz Room series are $15 standard; $12 for senior citizens; and $8 for students. For information, call the Shea Center for Performing Arts Box Office at 973-720-2371. Funding for The Jazz Room at William Paterson University has been made possible, in part, by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State.
Launched in 1978, The Jazz Room 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.
|
|
