The HSU Symphony under the direction of Kenneth Ayoob performs Leonard Bernstein’s “Overture to West Side Story,” which melds classical and popular music elements. “Our part of the concert features pieces with a jazz feel and background,” Ayoob noted. The Symphony gets more specifically jazzy with Calvin Custer’s Salute to the Big Bands, which incorporates melodies made famous by Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie, Glenn Miller and other 1940s bands, including “Pennsylvania 6-5000” and “Sing Sing Sing.”
“When Ken Ayoob told me that the Symphony was going to encroach on the Jazz Orchestra’s territory with this piece,” said Jazz Orchestra conductor Dan Aldag, “I decided to return the favor by programming a piece of classical music arranged for big band.”
So the Jazz Orchestra will perform a jazz band version of a song by 19th century French composer Leo Delibes, “The Maids of Cadiz.” This 1950 arrangement by Gil Evans was only recently rediscovered. The merge continues with “I Am” by Omar Thomas, which is “much more like typical symphonic writing than jazz’s customary repeating forms,” Aldag said.
The orchestras combine for the evening’s centerpiece, Duke Ellington’s “Harlem,” conducted by Aldag. “This is generally acknowledged as one of Ellington’s finest extended works,” he said.
The Humboldt Symphony and HSU Jazz Orchestra concert is on Saturday March 8 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $8/$5 and free to HSU students with and ID from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. For more information, visit hsumusic.blogspot.com. An HSU Music Department production.