The mid-sized jazz ensemble plays a little-known tune by Gerry Mulligan and Zoot Sims called The Red Door, plus new arrangements of jazz standards, including After You’ve Gone, featuring Branden Lewis on trumpet.
Then on Saturday night, Dec. 13, two ambitious jazz suites and new works by local musicians highlight the final HSU Jazz Orchestra performance of the year.
Panama Suite by Panamanian-born pianist Danilo Perez sizzles with traditional rhythms in a contemporary jazz context. AkaBella, a four-woman vocal ensemble (all HSU graduates), will be featured in this three-movement work.
The other long work on the program is What Goes Around by Dave Holland, which he wrote for his acclaimed contemporary big band.
The concert also features a new composition by Jazz Orchestra drummer Jonathan Kipp (Chased By A Wolf Down A Mountain) and a new arrangement of a Bud Powell tune (Parisian Thoroughfare) by Dan Aldag, HSU Music professor and the orchestra’s director.
The Jazz Orchestra will present a new arrangement by Alan Baylock of the classic When I Fall In Love. “Baylock’s arrangement makes use of dissonance and extended harmonies to create a moody and haunting version of that well-known standard,” Dan Aldag noted.
Among the tunes reprised for this concert are ‘Round Midnight by Thelonious Monk (featuring Sky Miller on alto saxophone), A Night In Tunisia by Dizzy Gillespie, Pedal Point Blues by Charles Mingus and V Gorakh Gruzii (In The Mountains of Georgia) by Oleg Lundstrem—the founder of the Soviet Union’s first jazz orchestra. This selection features Isaac Williams on tenor saxophone.
Both the AM Jazz Band performance on Thursday (Dec. 11) and the Jazz Orchestra concert on Saturday (Dec. 13) begin at 8 p.m in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. http://HSUMusic.blogspot.com.