UMaine Chamber Jazz Ensemble Concert April 3
Contact: Karel Lidral, 581-1256; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO – The University of Maine’s Chamber Jazz Ensemble will present its annual spring concert — a program of rich jazz standards — on April 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Leonard and Renee Minsky Recital Hall, Class of 1944 Hall.
The program includes great jazz classics from Duke Pearson (“Big Bertha”), Juan Tizol (“Caravan and Perdido”), Jerome Richardson (“Groove Merchant”), Duke Ellington (“In a Mellow Tone and Just Squeeze Me”), Nat Adderley (“Jive Samba”), Cedar Walton (“Midnight Waltz” and “Short Stuff”), John Coltrane (“Mr. P.C.”), Wes Montgomery (“Road Song”) and Charlie Parker (“Yardbird Suite”).
The Chamber Jazz Ensemble, created in the fall of 2006 as a major component of the School of Performing Arts’ new minor in jazz studies, is a group of soloists or small ensembles with piano accompaniment. This semester’s group consists of 17 musicians, representing a variety of instruments: not only trumpet, trombone, saxophone, piano and guitar — which are normally associated with a jazz big band — but also flute, clarinet and vibraphone, which all have a rich history in jazz, says music professor Karel Lidral, Chamber Jazz Ensemble director and advisor for the jazz studies and music minors at UMaine.
The piano in the Chamber Jazz Ensemble replaces the standard jazz rhythm section — often piano along with bass and drums — in the same spirit that orchestral reductions are used by recitalists in the classical realm, Lidral says. Orchestral reductions are re-arrangements of orchestral scores when the piano is used in place of an orchestra.
Ensemble membership includes major emphases on the development of skills in the art of jazz improvisation, as well as in the development of a jazz swing feeling, Lidral says. The group is not auditioned, so instrumentalists at all ability levels are able to participate. This semester’s organization ranges from first-year students to those in graduate school, and represents a wide variety of majors.
Tickets are $6, although students are admitted free with a MaineCard. For more information, call the Maine Center for the Arts box office at 581-1755 or visit the School of Performing Arts Website (www.umaine.edu/spa).
The chamber jazz ensemble also will perform for the University of Maine Open House on April 16, in the Maine Center for the Arts, 8:30-9:15 a.m., and April 25, in the Bear’s Den in the Memorial Union, 11 a.m. to noon. Both events are free and open to the public. Another performance is scheduled to take place at the Bradford Elementary School in late April.
Members of the ensemble include: Rebecca Bosworth-Clemens of Shoreham, Vt., clarinet; Gary Craig of Oakland, alto saxophone; Ray Delear of East Corinth, alto saxophone; Richard Dort of Plymouth, clarinet; Zachary Duren of Blue Hill, trombone; Charity Harmon of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, flute; Scott Horey of West Bath, vibraphone; Anna-Marlies Hunter of Eastport, clarinet; Kevin Judkins of Mt. Vernon, guitar; Steve Kane of Merrimack, N.H., alto saxophone; Zachary Keenan of Bangor, trumpet; Jason Knowles of Bass Harbor, guitar; Chris Malm of Caribou, trumpet; Michael Nokes of Dexter, trumpet; Michael Puleo of Belmont, N.H., piano; Danielle Sullivan of Saco, alto saxophone; and Karl Varian of Brandon, Vt., trumpet.