|
January 23, 2008
WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY’S SPRING JAZZ ROOM CONCERT SERIES BEGINS ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10
 |
|
Bucky Pizzarelli will open the spring 2008 slate of concerts in the 30th annual Jazz Room Series at William Paterson University in Wayne on February 10. The series continues with a live recording session featuring the Hal Galper Trio with Reggie Workman and Rashied Ali; Vincent Herring and his Quartet; Jacque Johnson with the William Paterson Latin Jazz Ensemble, directed by Chico Mendoza; and Rich Perry with the William Paterson Jazz Orchestra, directed by David Demsey. The Sunday afternoon fall series, one of the most prestigious university-sponsored jazz events in the country, will run from February 10 through March 9.
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.
On February 10, Bucky Pizzarelli performs with fellow guitarists Howard Alden and Frank Vignola. The venerable Pizzarelli began his professional career in 1943 at age 17 playing with the Vaughn Monroe dance band. He was a staff musician with NBC and, for many years, played in the Doc Severinson Band on the “Tonight Show.” He played and recorded with Benny Goodman into the 1980s and continues to perform and record as a soloist and a sideman. During the last six decades, he has distinguished himself as a guitar virtuoso expanding the tradition and technique of the instrument while preserving the heritage of old guitar music and early styles of playing, and was one of the original William Paterson jazz faculty members in the 1970s. Alden is a seven-string guitar virtuoso. He has played with George Van Eps, Frank Wess and Jimmy Bruno. He can be heard on the soundtrack to the 1999 Woody Allen movie “Sweet and Lowdown,” starring Sean Penn. Guitarist Vignola rounds out the trio. Vignola is a multi-dimensional player who transcends genre, playing everything from jazz to bluegrass. A performer, composer and improviser, Vignola has recorded with Donald Fagen, jammed with David Grisman and performed with Les Paul, in addition to fronting his own groups.
The Hal Galper Special Project with Reggie Workman and Rashied Ali will perform on February 17 in a concert that will be recorded for an upcoming CD release. Galper, a pianist, composer, publisher, educator, author and touring artist, is best known for his work with Chet Baker, Cannonball Adderley, John Scofield and the Phil Woods Quintet. Workman and Ali, both influential in their own right as well as known for their legendary work with John Coltrane, join the Grammy Award-winning pianist who has nearly 90 recordings to his credit, including 27 as a leader. These veteran jazz musicians are the foremost proponents of the “Rubato” style of jazz improvising.
Virtuoso alto and tenor saxophonist, and newest William Paterson jazz faculty member Vincent Herring and his Quintet bring a hard swinging sound to the Jazz Room stage on February 24. Herring first toured Europe and the United States with Lionel Hampton’s big band in the early 1980s. His career links him with Nat Adderley, Cedar Walton, Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Hayes, Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, Horace Silver Quintet, Jack DeJohnette’s Special Edition, Larry Coryell, Steve Turre, The Mingus Big Band, Kenny Barron, Nancy Wilson, Dr. Billy Taylor, Carla Bley, and John Hicks. Other special concerts and projects have included guest soloist engagements with Wynton Marsalis at Lincoln Center. Herring also appeared as a guest soloist at Carnegie Hall with John Faddis and The Carnegie Hall Big Band.
Latin jazz takes the stage on March 2 when Jacque Johnson appears with the William Paterson Latin Jazz Ensemble, directed by Chico Mendoza. Johnson, a Jersey native who hails from Newark, has an impressive repertoire that spans the jazz and blues spectrum. She has performed the role of Coretta Scott King in the Off-Broadway production of “The Life and Times of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” and was featured as vocalist with the Shadd Royful Renaissance Orchestra, the Ellington Society, a Mayor David Dinkins Benefit, the Apollo Theater, the Alberta Hunter Revue and opened for Bobby Blue Bland, Ray Charles, and Joan Rivers, among others. Mendoza’s leadership of the Latin Jazz Ensemble extends over more than three decades at William Paterson.
The season hits a high note when saxophonist and William Paterson jazz faculty member Rich Perry performs with the William Paterson Jazz Orchestra, directed by David Demsey, on March 9. A fixture on the New York City jazz scene since the 1970s, Perry has performed in big bands and small combos alike with such names as Chet Baker and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. He joined Thad Jones and has remained with the band as one of the current featured soloists of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. Perry has recorded for the SteepleChase label since 1993 and released two albums in 2006: Rhapsody, a duo project with pianist Harold Danko, and At the Kitano 1, a live album with his own quartet. David Demsey is a William Paterson University’s coordinator of jazz studies, and conducts the Jazz Orchestra, which was founded in 1965.
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.
# # #
www.wpunj.edu
|
|
