WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES THE 32th SEASON OF THE JAZZ ROOM CONCERT SERIES BEGINNING ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4
Mulgrew Miller, director of William Paterson University’s Jazz Studies Program, and Gary Bartz will open the fall 2009 season of The Jazz Room at William Paterson University in Wayne on October 4. The series continues with Ben Allison; Carl Allen and Rodney Whitaker; Paul Meyers and the World on a String Quintet; Carrie Jackson; and Frank Wess. The Sunday afternoon fall series, one of the most prestigious university-sponsored jazz events in the country, will run from October 4 through November 8.
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 October 4 by inaugurating a new mini-series, “Mulgrew Miller & Friends,” with pianist Mulgrew Miller with saxophonist Gary Bartz in an intimate duo performance. Bartz brings decades of experience, including tours with Miles Davis, Max Roach, McCoy Tyner, and Woody Shaw, among others. Miller’s tenure on the William Paterson faculty is the latest step in a long career that has included recordings and tours with his Trio and his larger group, Wingspan, as well as associations with such legends as the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Tony Williams, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Woody Shaw.
Composer and bassist Ben Allison will perform on October 11. Allison has gained a broad reputation for his work in a number of areas, including his groups Peace Pipe, the Ben Allison Quartet, Medicine Wheel, the Kush Trio, Man Size Safe, and the Herbie Nichols Project (which he co-leads with pianist Frank Kimbrough). He also is well known to National Public Radio audiences as the composer of the widely heard program “On the Media.”
The Carl Allen-Rodney Whitaker Project takes the Shea stage on October 18. Drummer Allen and bassist Whitaker are co-leaders of an ensemble that also features Antonio Hart, saxophone; Aaron Goldberg, piano; and Rodney Jones, guitar. Carl Allen is the artistic director of the jazz program at Juilliard and a jazz alumnus of William Paterson. The duo’s most recent CD, “Work to Do” on Mack Avenue Records, has garnered outstanding critical acclaim. Both artists also have extensive credits as prominent sidemen and continue to maintain an international profile through touring and recording.
Paul Meyers and his World on a String Quartet will feature an exciting Brazilian program on October 25. Meyers, a virtuoso guitarist, improviser and William Paterson University faculty member, has performed with an ever-growing list of jazz greats and has toured for years with the best-known jazz singers including the legendary Jon Hendricks. For his latest recording, “World on a String,” Meyers has managed to assemble an all-star cast including Donny McCaslin, Helio Alves, Leo Traversa and Vanderlei Pereira.
On November 1, vocalist Carrie Jackson will will bring her exciting, blues-based style to the Jazz Room stage. A Newark native, Jackson has been featured with such notables as Barry Harris, Norman Simmons, Earl May, Stanley Jordan, Lisle Atkinson and the Ellington Legacy Band. Jackson was a featured vocalist at such venues as Caveau De La Huchette and Espaces in Paris, Iridium Jazz Club, Minton’s Playhouse and the St. Peter’s Jazz Vespers in New York City, and the Trump Taj Mahal Resort in Atlantic City.
Saxophonist and flutist Frank Wess is joined by the William Paterson University Jazz Orchestra on November 8. Wess will bring his well-known arrangements when he combines forces with the student ensemble. Wess was a longtime featured soloist and arranger with the Count Basie Orchestra for more than a decade, playing both alto and tenor saxophones and becoming known as one of the first prominent jazz flutists through his landmark solos on such Basie staples as “Cute.” In 2007, he was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.
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 or order online at www.wplive.org. 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.
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September 11 , 2009
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