Jazz pianist and composer Vince Guaraldi made an immortal contribution to music to the holiday season when he composed the score for “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” First shown on TV in 1964, the show has been a holiday staple ever since. “Certainly we’ll do some older stuff, but I also wanted to think about Bobby Watson and Pat Metheny and Logan Richardson and some of those other figures from contemporary Kansas City.” “For that particular concert I’m planning on diving into music that represents the 100 or so years of Kansas City jazz,” Ashlock said. 27 to 28, the group has a program planned for the Folly that will almost certainly include more Julia Lee. In addition to their regular venue, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the group will also perform in the Folly Theater. That puts her in that icon status.”Īshlock says this is the first year the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra will be performing in two locations. “She had hits like ‘Come on Over to My House’ and ‘Snatch and Grab It.’ Her songs told a lot of the story of Kansas City. “She was the queen of risqué lyrics and double-entendres,” Ashlock said. Lee said that she specialized in “the songs my mother taught me not to sing.”
Lee, born and raised in Kansas City, was a pianist and vocalist in her brother George Lee’s band, which at one time included Charlie Parker. Eboni and I have also talked about doing some Julia Lee songs.” “We’re calling it ‘In the Key of KC,’ which is also the name of our new album,” Ashlock said. “The idea is we’re going to highlight how jazz music is a conversation, both musically and artistically, but also how it’s an ongoing dialogue that we have in Kansas City.”Ī concert featuring Fondren, a wonderful vocalist with quite a local following, will open the season on Sept. “The overarching theme of the season is conversations in jazz,” said Clint Ashlock, the orchestra’s artistic director. Vocalists Eboni Fondren, Lisa Henry and Deborah Brown, pianist John Beasley and saxophonist Bobby Watson will all make an appearance, and there’s a special treat for lovers, like myself, of “ A Charlie Brown Christmas.” The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra celebrates this aspect of jazz with its just-announced 2023-2024 season. “The Big Time,” the leadoff tune, includes no solos but is a fine introduction to Brookmeyer’s diversity as a composer.Like classical chamber music, jazz is a conversation between musicians. “XYZ,” which includes several soloists (McNeely, Perry, drummer John Riley, bassist David Wong, soprano saxophonist Billy Drewes, trumpeter Terell Stafford and trombonist John Mosca) goes through several mood and tempo changes. Tenor saxophonist Rich Perry matches wits with Brookmeyer’s cooking ensemble figures throughout “Rich.” Another saxophone workout, “At the Corner of Ralph and Gary,” features Ralph Lalama (tenor) and Gary Smulyan (baritone). Brookmeyer’s methods range from the sounds of his hometown of Kansas City to the classical composers of Europe.ĭick Oatts is featured on three performances: zipping along on alto saxophone on “Oatts,” probing the emotional depths of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Skylark” (also on alto) and playing flute throughout the very dark, Eastern-sounding “Sad Song.” “Scott,” which features Scott Wendholt on flugelhorn, is a perfect tonal match of soloist and band. At other times the ensemble builds in a stately manner behind a soloist in a kaleidoscope of harmonic colors and rhythmic intensity. As an example, we hear dense, dissonant, floating or swinging ensemble passages with soloists darting in and out of the massed sound. With Brookmeyer, “the soloist and the ensemble are integrated into one continuous fabric,” pianist Jim McNeely writes in the album’s liner notes. This album includes four pieces he wrote in the early ’80s for the then-named Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra and four he wrote for the group during the last eight or so years of his life. for extended stays now and then until his death in 2011. Brookmeyer moved to the West Coast in 1968, returned to New York a decade later and became musical director of the band until the early 1980s, after which he moved to Europe, returning to the U.S. From the beginning he not only played valve trombone but also wrote for the group. Bob Brookmeyer was a charter member of the Jazz Band, otherwise known as the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and eventually the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.
0 kommentar(er)
