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June 11, 2007
WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY PRESENTS 14TH ANNUAL SUMMER JAZZ WEEK
—Notable jazz artists, including the legendary Billy Taylor Trio, in concert from July 23 to 28
The legendary Billy Taylor Trio will perform on July 27 during William Paterson University’s fourteenth annual Summer Jazz Week from July 23 to 28 in Shea Center for Performing Arts on the campus in Wayne. Also featured during the weeklong concert series are pianist James Weidman and Friends, a swing night with clarinetist Dan Block, saxophonist Lenny Pickett with the William Paterson Summer Student Band, directed by Steve Marcone, and vocalist Rebecca Parris.
The concerts are held in conjunction with the University’s Summer Jazz Improvisation Workshop for high school and college students. All students will participate in hands-on, small group sessions with guest artists as well as morning classes, afternoon performance sessions and clinics. On Saturday, July 28, 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 23 through Friday, July 27 in Shea Center for the Performing Arts on campus. The festival also includes a workshop for children with the Blackman Brothers at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 25. A $10 pass for the entire week may be purchased prior to Monday evening’s concert or single tickets may be purchased for $3.
Summer Jazz Week, which has drawn thousands of jazz fans to the University’s campus during the past 13 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 and is recognized for its internationally known Jazz Studies Program and nationally acclaimed Jazz Room Series of concerts each fall and spring.
The festival opens on Monday, July 23 with a University faculty concert featuring pianist James Weidman. Weidman spent nine years with Abbey Lincoln and has toured with Woody Herman, Max Roach, Archie Shepp, James Moody, Greg Osby, and Slide Hampton, to name a few. He performs with Steve Coleman and Five Elements and the M-Base Collective and is musical director/pianist for vocalist Kevin Mahogany. Weidman will soon release his second solo album, It's 'Bout Time.
Tuesday, July 24, is Swing Night with Dan Block. Block, a Benny Goodman clarinet expert, is an American traditional jazz clarinetist who has worked with artists such as Charles Mingus, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Maria Schneider. He is a member of Marty Groz Band. Block can be heard on his CD Around the Block and Almost Modern: Swing to Bop, set for release in mid-July, as well as The Harlem Nutcracker with David Berger and The Sultans of Swing and If Dreams Come True with George Gee and the Jump, Jivin’ Wailers. He has performed in the pit orchestras of various Broadway shows in New York City.
The Blackman Brothers offer an entertaining and interactive look at the world of jazz in their “Jazz for Kids” program on Wednesday, July 25. The workshop is designed to introduce elementary school children to the world of jazz. That evening, saxophonist Lenny Pickett will perform with the William Paterson Summer Student Band directed by Stephen Marcone, professor of music at William Paterson. Currently, Pickett is on the faculty of NYU and musical director for NBC’s Saturday Night Live, where he has worked since 1985. On the road, he toured with R & B group Tower of Power in the 1970s and was saxophonist and arranger for David Bowie, The Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, and many other recording artists. His compositions have been performed in concert by the Kronos Quartet, the New Century Saxophone Quartet, the New York Composers Orchestra, and others. His work is featured on Lenny Pickett with the Borneo Horns.
Vocalist Rebecca Parris takes the stage on Thursday, July 26. Parris began her professional career in music working with various top 40 bands in the Northeast, which was a springboard for her career in jazz. She has performed all over the world with her own groups, as well as with some of jazz's greatest legends, including Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Terry Gibbs, David "Fathead" Newman, Norman Simmons and Harold Jones. Parris’s latest release is The Secret of Christmas on SHIRA Records. Her previous releases include her all-ballads CD, My Foolish Heart; A Beautiful Friendship, with the Kenny Hadley Big Band; Double Rainbow with Eddie Higgins and Michael Monaghan; A Passionate Fling, Love Comes and Goes, and Live at Chan's.
The Billy Taylor Trio will bring Summer Jazz Week 2007 to a conclusion on Friday, July 27. 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.
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.
www.wpunj.edu
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