According to “Jazz Times,� “[Tierney] Sutton's brilliance is her ability to blend seamlessly with her three superlative bandmates.� Sutton and her trio will share their brilliance at a master class featuring undergraduate singers and players, open to the public, co-sponsored by the Celebrity Series of Boston and Learning From Performers.

Thursday Killian Hall Jazz Series. Two of a Kind: Ran Blake, piano, and Dominique Eade, vocalist. 8pm, Killian Hall. Free.

This rare duo appearance of the incomparable Ran Blake and the stellar Dominique Eade, is a preview of their new duo CD, soon to be released. Incredibly sensitive to one another’s musical personalities, Blake and Eade create magic each time they collaborate.

Award-winning hard bop pianist Cedar Walton, known for his compositions (Bolivia, Clockwise, and Firm Roots), which have become jazz standards, brings his quartet to Tufts. In the 1950s and 1960s, Walton performed with and composed for such jazz giants as John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Abbey Lincoln, and Lee Morgan, and in the years since he has toured and recorded with his own combos around the world. This concert has been made possible by the Granoff Music Fund.

On Friday, February 25 at 8:00 p.m., Ken Schaphorst will direct the NEC Jazz Orchestra in the performance of his original music for big band in NEC’s Jordan Hall. The concert is free and open to the public. Since coming to NEC as Chair of the Jazz Studies and Improvisation Department in 2001, Schaphorst has directed the Jazz Orchestra in its performance of new music and traditional big band repertoire. In recent years, the ensemble has performed under the direction of guest artists Django Bates, Jimmy Heath, Jim McNeely and Maria Schneider. On April 21, the NEC Jazz Orchestra will perform the music of guest artist Carla Bley. Named Best College Big Band in the 2004 Downbeat Student Music Awards, the ensemble has won critical acclaim for its recordings and for its performances throughout the country.

The February 25 program will feature “Blues for Herb,” a tribute to the Herb Pomeroy. It will also include “After Blue,” the title track from Schaphorst’s 1991 Accurate Recordings release as well as “Jobim,” Schaphorst’s tribute to the great Brazilian composer, featured on 1998’s “Purple” on Naxos Jazz. Among the newer pieces are “Float,” “Global Sweat,” “Indigenous Technology” and “Mbira,” In addition to Schaphorst’s original compositions, the program will include his arrangement of Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are” as well as an arrangement of Cole Porter’s “I Get a Kick Out of You” featuring the NEC Jazz Vocal Ensemble.

Schaphorst's composing and arranging is featured on four recordings on Accurate Records: “Making Lunch” (1989), “After Blue” (1991), “When the Moon Jumps” (1994) and “Over the Rainbow” (1997). “Ken Schaphorst Big Band: Purple” was released by Naxos Jazz in January, 1999. Schaphorst's latest recording for Accurate, “Indigenous Technology” (2003), features Schaphorst's playing on trumpet and piano in a trio setting with cellist Matt Turner and percussionist Dane Richeson. Schaphorst was appointed Chair of Jazz Studies and Improvisation at the New England Conservatory in 2001. Schaphorst is also a founding member of the Jazz Composers Alliance, a Boston-based non-profit corporation promoting new music in the jazz idiom since 1985.

Hiroaki Honshuku and the A-NO-NE Trio
Esther Ning Yau, piano and Rafael Popper-Keizer, cello

"Hiro Honshuku is a man of many parts virtuoso flutist, imaginative composer, capable visual artist and gifted teacher. A composer is always heartened to learn he has been an influence in a musician's life; Hiro has taken what he learned from the Lydian Concept and used it as I had intended it to be used to fashion his own unique voice. Drawing from his experience of growing up in Japan, studying European traditional music, and coming to the jazz idiom as a young man, his music is pan-cultural and compelling." - George Russell

Festival Jazz Ensemble, Frederick Harris, Jr., Music Director. Special Guests Everett Longstreth and MIT Institute Professor John Harbison. Music arranged and directed by Everett Longstreth and the world premiere of Harbison’s arrangement for jazz ensemble of In Praise of MIT. 8pm, Kresge Auditorium. $5 at the door.

A night to commemorate the great educator and performer Charlie Banacos featuring the playing and stories of Longy alumni.

Including:
Sean Farias, Chuck Gabriel, Peter Cassino, David Maxwell, Miki Masuki, Sara Bielanski, Gabriel Solomon, Chi Lee, David Paterson,
David Mitton, Andrew Frankhouse, and Tsuyoshi Honjo.

Tom Everett, Director, Harvard Bands (Office for the Arts), and Ingrid Monson, Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music supported by the Time Warner Endowment (Department of Music), will discuss the history of jazz performance and scholarship at Harvard University. This event is part of “40 Years of Jazz at Harvard: A Celebration,” which also features an exhibition, an anniversary concert featuring the Harvard Jazz Bands with special guest stars, and more. Co-sponsored by Learning From Performers and Department of Music.

16 Saturday

MIT Faculty Concert by Mark Harvey & the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra. Perforning new works including world premiere of “Sumner” commemorating the bicentennial of famed Massachusetts Senator and statesman Charles Sumner, 8 pm, Kresge Auditorium. Free.

For further information visit: http://www.aardvarkjazz.com/

On Thursday, April 21 at 8:00 p.m., Carla Bley will direct the NEC Jazz Orchestra in the performance of her music for big band in NEC’s Jordan Hall. The concert is free and open to the public. Joining Bley will be bassist and frequent collaborator Steve Swallow.

On Wednesday, April 20, Bley and Swallow will participate in a Question and Answer Session in NEC’s Pierce Hall at 2:00 p.m. On Thursday, April 21, Steve Swallow will lead a masterclass at noon, also in Pierce Hall. Both sessions are free and open to the public.

The April 21 program will include Bley’s “On the Stage in Cages,” “Setting Calvin’s Waltz,” “Greasy Gravy,” “Awful Coffee,” and “Someone to Watch.” In addition to Bley’s original compositions, the program will include her arrangement of Ray Noble’s “I Hadn’t Anyone ‘Til You.”

The Modern American Music Series at the Longy School of Music announces our final event of the school year.

Garrison Felwell, guitar
Steve Swell, trombone
John Voigt, bass

Fourth Annual Herb Pomeroy Memorial Concert/ MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, Frederick Harris, Jr., Music Director. Special Guests Ray Santisi and Frank Tiberi. 8pm, Kresge Auditorium. $5 at the door.

The FJE’s annual concert honoring Herb Pomeroy—one of the most influential jazz performers and educators of the last 50 years and MIT’s “Father of Jazz”—will feature pianist and longtime Pomeroy colleague, Ray Santisi, and reed master, arranger, and director, Frank Tiberi. Music from the Herb Pomeroy and Woody Herman Orchestras will be performed.

The NEC Youth Jazz Orchestra, comprised of high school students from throughout the greater Boston area, will present its final performance of the 2010-2011 academic year under the direction of Ken Schaphorst on Wednesday, May 25 in NEC’s Jordan Hall at 8:00 p.m. The concert is free and open to the public.

The first organization of its kind, the YJO is open by audition to all musicians high school age or younger in the greater Boston area. The ensemble strives to give young musicians opportunities to learn and perform together in an environment of high expectations and standards.

The ensemble’s performance will include works by Jimmy Heath, Steve Kuhn, Thad Jones, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Mongo Santamaria, Ken Schaphorst and Horace Silver. The group includes Eamon Shiel and Rachel Goldov on alto saxophones, Travis Bliss and Rachel Hanna on tenor saxophones, Grace-Mary Burega on baritone saxophone, Daniel Ranti, Michael McCann, Aaron Effron and Christian Conti on trumpets, James Renton, Eric Stilwell, Brian Wendel and Cale Israel on trombones, Paul Bloom on piano, Harrison Honor on vibes and percussion, Brendan Tang on guitar, Alice Terrett on bass and Cooper Wolken on drums.

Aardvark kicks off its 39th Season with music to commemorate 9/11, the Civil War, and the current political scene

In a career that has spanned over 60 years, dozens of recordings and countless gigs, Blue Note Records artist Curtis Fuller is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential and respected trombonists in the history of jazz. Fuller will participate in a public discussion and an open rehearsal with the Harvard Jazz Bands as part of “Blue Note Records, Then and Now,” a year-long celebration of the premiere jazz label.

Harvard University honors the pioneering jazz record label with a celebration featuring a concert with the Harvard Jazz Bands featuring legendary trombonist Curtis Fuller.

On Thursday, December 1 at 8:00 p.m., Ken Schaphorst will direct the NEC Jazz Orchestra in the performance of his arrangements and compositions for big band in NEC’s Jordan Hall. The concert is free and open to the public. Since coming to NEC as Chair of the Jazz Studies and Improvisation Department in 2001, Schaphorst has directed the Jazz Orchestra in its performance of new music and traditional big band repertoire. In recent years, the ensemble has performed under the direction of guest artists Django Bates, Jimmy Heath, Dave Holland, Jim McNeely and Maria Schneider. The NEC Jazz Orchestra has also recently worked under the direction of NEC faculty members Bob Brookmeyer, Herb Pomeroy and George Russell. Named Best College Big Band in the 2004 Downbeat Student Music Awards, the ensemble has won critical acclaim for its recordings and for its performances throughout the country.

The December 1 program will include “Uprising” and “With You, Then Without,” two compositions from Schaphorst’s 1998 Naxos Jazz release “Purple.” It will also include new arrangements of “Chant,” “The Lashing of Tongues” and “Prayer,” three pieces from “Making Lunch,” Schaphorst’s 1989 debut recording on Accurate Records. In addition, the ensemble will play Schaphorst’s arrangement of R.B. Lynch’s “Love Lament” featuring vocalist Kim Mayo, as heard on the Film Noir concert on Halloween. The concert will conclude with Schaphorst’s new arrangements of four songs by Gustav Mahler, “Where Trumpets Blow,” “Reveille,” “The Drummer Boy” and “Eternal Light” featuring vocalists Tomas Cruz and Nedelka Prescod.

The Dudley House Jazz Band is proud to present the music of HORACE TAPSCOTT and the PAN AFRIKAN PEOPLES ARKESTRA. The concert will take place on Saturday, December 10 at 8pm in Dudley House (Lehman Hall) on the Harvard campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Born in 1934, pianist and composer Horace Tapscott grew up in the African American community of Los Angeles. He exhibited exceptional talent from an early age, performing throughout L.A. and touring the country with Lionel Hampton in the late 50s. While Tapscott’s prospects for a national career were bright, he returned to L.A. in the early ‘60s with the goal of fostering African American music in his hometown. He would continue this mission until his death in 1999, becoming an important anchor in the local jazz community.

In 1961, Tapscott founded the Pan African People’s Arkestra, a group designed to preserve, develop and promote the work of local musicians. Spurred by Tapscott’s powerful compositions, the group pushed the boundaries of the avant garde while retaining close ties with the local neighborhood. It soon became the center of Los Angeles’ creative music scene, boasting alumni including Arthur Blythe, David Murray, Butch and Wilbur Morris and many others. 2011 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the group, which continues to perform to this day.

Despite Tapscott’s important role in African American music history, his music remains under-recognized outside of Los Angeles. The Dudley House Jazz Band is proud to present a concert of music by Tapscott and members of the Arkestra. This will include music by saxophonists Jesse Sharps and Fuasi Abdul-Khaliq, two Arkestra alums who have gone on to prominent careers in the U.S. and abroad. The concert will conclude with a new arrangement (by the composer) of Abdul-Khaliq’s Eternal Egypt Suite, an extended composition that has not been performed anywhere since 1976.

On Thursday, March 8 at 8:00 p.m., the NEC Jazz Orchestra will perform a concert of Jaki Byard’s music under the direction of Ken Schaphorst. The concert will be held in NEC’s Jordan Hall and is free and open to the public. The program will include many of Jaki Byard’s original compositions, including “Aluminum Baby,” “Spanish Tinge #1,” “Two Five One,” “Up Jumps One” and “X-Stream,” as well as his arrangements of “I May Be Wrong (But I Think You’re Wonderful),” “God Bless the Child,” “Satin Doll,” “St. Thomas” and “Tricotism.” The performance will also feature pianists and NEC faculty members Anthony Coleman and Fred Hersch, both of whom studied with Jaki Byard at NEC.

With Dr. Emmett G. Price III.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Black Church stood as the stronghold of the Black Community, fighting for equality and economic self-sufficiency and challenging its body to be self-determined and self-aware. Hip Hop Culture grew from disenfranchised urban youth who felt that they had no support system or resources. Impassioned with the same urgent desires for survival and hope that their parents and grandparents had carried, these youth forged their way from the bottom of America’s belly one rhyme at a time. For many young people, Hip Hop Culture is a supplement, or even an alternative, to the weekly dose of Sunday-morning faith.

Now, in "The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture: Toward Bridging the Generational Divide," Emmett G. Price III, chair of the Department of African American Studies at Northeastern University, opens wide the space for progressive, intergenerational dialogue between the Black Church and the Hip Hop Generation. In bringing together the work of leading thinkers, preachers, scholars and practitioners from across the country, Dr. Price’s collection aims to challenge the Black Church and Hip Hop Culture to realize their shared responsibilities to each other and to the greater society. Recognizing the rich diversity of expressions within the Black Community, this volume explores the key issues in the debate between these two significant institutions within Black Culture with an eye toward honest conversation and reconciliation.

New Music for Jazz Orchestra with guest pianist Lewis Porter.
Premieres of new works by music director Mark Harvey.

On April 19, the NEC Jazz Orchestra will present a concert featuring the music of composer, drummer, and percussionist Rakalam Bob Moses in Jordan Hall starting at 8:00 p.m. Bob Moses has been on the faculty at NEC since 1983. The concert will focus on the music from three of Bob Moses' acclaimed Gramavision recordings, “When Elephants Dream of Music” (1982), “Visit With the Great Spirit” (1983), and 1994's “Time Stood Still” in addition to more recent compositions. Several of the pieces will be receiving their first performance. Selections will include the following Bob Moses compositions: “Bugs Bunny,” “Ear Ash Honal,” “The Edge of Need,” “Gong Peace,” “Lost in Your Eyes,” “Pure and Simple Being,” “Rahsaan,” “Ripped Van Twinkle,” “The River,” “El Visionario,” and “A Visit with the Great Spirit.” In addition to the NEC Jazz Orchestra, the performance will feature faculty member Jerry Leake as well as recent alum Tupac Mantilla on percussion. The concert is free and open to the public.

Dudley House and the Harvard University Office for the Arts are proud to present an evening with international saxophone icon David Liebman. The evening will feature the saxophonist in several contexts, beginning with performances of his own compositions with the Dudley House Jazz Combo and Big Band. The concert will culminate with the world premiere of Lewis Porter’s Concerto for Saxophone, performed by Liebman and the Dudley House Symphony Orchestra. The concert serves as the culmination of a two-day Harvard residency for Liebman and Porter, the first such residency organized by Dudley House.

Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University presents “Radio Silence” with Charles Laquidara [live via Skype], Billy Costa, Julie Kramer, and Henry Santoro; moderated by John Laurenti. WBCN was the original, superstar-establishing, DJ-controlled rock station that showed how excellent rock radio could be when you let the DJs curate the offerings. As independent radio station WFNX is sold to Clear Channel this year, Bostonians wonder how rock radio has become a corporation-controlled industry and whether internet and digital radio can avoid the same fate. DJs Charles Laquidara (WBCN), Billy Costa (KISS 108), Julie Kramer (WFNX, Radio BDC), and Henry Santoro (WFNX, Radio BDC) tell moderator John Laurenti, a New England radio mainstay for over 25 years, about the changes they are adapting to in the new world of music business. We’ll hear how WBCN’s rise and fall foretold industry changes, the story behind the end of WFNX, and what the rebirth of independent rock radio might look like. More info. at http://www.fordhallforum.org.

Pianist/composer and Blue Note recording artist Robert Glasper, whose musical idioms encompass jazz, hip-hop and rhythm and blues, will discuss his career and creative process with Patrick Douthit, aka 9th Wonder, a hiphop record producer, record executive, DJ, lecturer and rapper who is currently a fellow at Harvard’s Hiphop Archive at the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Following the discussion, Glasper will lead a clinic with Harvard student musicians. Presented by Learning From Performers and the Hiphop Archive at the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, with generous support from Red Bull.

They are the unsung heroes of Boston’s jazz scene—for decades, WGBH-FM radio personalities Steve Schwartz and Eric Jackson, and presenter/promoter Fred Taylor, have been tireless advocates for the music and its artists. They will discuss their careers and the current state of jazz in performance and on the air, and the future of the music during a time of upheaval in the recording industry. Schwartz, Jackson and Taylor will be honored at a concert featuring the Harvard Jazz Bands (Don Braden '85, Acting Director) on Friday, November 2 at 8 pm at Lowell Hall; click here for more information www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu.

 

The Longy School of Music of Bard College's MAM Rep (Modern American Repertory) Ensemble plays its Spring recital. Compositions of Curtis Hasselbring, Charlie Kohlhase, Bob Nieske and Matt Steckler. The group includes Charlie Kohlhase: alto saxophone, director; Hannah O'Connor: trumpet; Peter Griffin: trombone; Nick White: guitar; Robin Rhodes: bass and Christopher Bill: drums. Also appearing: the Longy Saxophone Quartet