Juilliard Ensemble performs Mingus
Free Concert Opens the 2014-15 Juilliard Jazz Season with New Director, Wynton Marsalis
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
The Juilliard Jazz Artist Diploma Ensemble performed with Juilliard Jazz Director Wynton Marsalis at Juilliard's Convocation Ceremony on September 3, 2014 in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater (Photo by Nan Melville)
NEW YORK –– Juilliard Jazz presents Meditations on Integration: Two Masters of Time and of Times, Charles Mingus and Dave Brubeck featuring the Juilliard Jazz Artist Diploma Ensemble, the most advanced Juilliard Jazz musicians, on Tuesday, September 30, 2014 at 8 PM in Paul Hall at Juilliard (155 West 65th Street).
Free tickets will be available beginning September 22 online at events.juilliard.edu.
The concert opens the 2014-15 season of Juilliard Jazz with new director, Wynton Marsalis, at the helm.
Members of the Juilliard Jazz Artist Diploma Ensemble are:
Lukas Gabric, saxophone;
Gregg Duncan, guitar;
Reuben Allen, piano;
Paolo Benedettini, bass; and
Jordan Young, drums. Saxophonist
Charles McPherson is guest coach working with the ensemble.The Artist Diploma Ensemble will perform Charles Mingus compositions (Meditation on Integration, Portrait in Three Colors, Fables of Faubus, Ecclusiastics, and Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk) and Dave Brubeck compositions (Unsquare Dance, Fast Life, Strange Meadowlark,We Will All Remember Paul,Blue Rondo à la Turk,Maori Blues, and The Duke).
Bassist Charles Mingus was among one of pianist Dave Brubeck’s champions. Mingus and Brubeck had known each other since the late 1940s in San Francisco when Mingus, a native of Los Angeles, happened to be performing in the Bay Area. The two began a long friendship. Aaron Flagg, Acting Chair and Associate Director of Juilliard Jazz, remarked: “As close friends, these two creative artists often discussed and wrote music about the unrealized promise of democracy in the United States. As we Americans celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this program brings these friends together again so our students can explore their music and message from a contemporary standpoint.”Guest coach, Saxophonist
Charles McPherson, has toured the United States, Europe, Japan, Africa, and South America with his own group, as well as with jazz greats Billy Eckstine, Lionel Hampton,Nat Adderly, Jay McShann, and others. Mr. McPherson has recorded as guest artist with Charles Mingus, Barry Harris, Art Farmer, Kenny Drew, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.The next concert in the Juilliard Jazz season takes place on Tuesday, October 14, 2014 at 8 PM in Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater and features the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra in Blues, Ballads, and Train Whistles.
Bill Dobbins, professor of jazz studies and contemporary media at the Eastman School of Music and conductor of the Eastman Jazz Ensemble and Eastman Studio Orchestra, is guest conductor.