February 13, 2013. No comments.

Mark Harvey is a MIT lecturer, but he has another identity; he is a well known jazz trumpeter as well as Aardvark Jazz Orchestra’s founding director. Recently he was honored by elected officials and fellow musicians at the annual event called JazzBoston at the Ryles Jazz Club on 29th January.

JazzBoston is an organization of well known musicians dedicated to preserving and celebrating jazz. They honored Mark for his talents as well as his contributions in the group as educator, minister, composer, band leader and trumpeter. Kenneth E. Reeves, the Cambridge Councillor, presented Mark with a the key to the city. On the other hand Cambridge and Boston officials declared 30th January, 2013 as Mark Sumner Harvey Day

Since the year 1980, Mark has taught different kinds of Jazz subjects in MIT’s Music and Theater Arts Section. He has also performer as a trumpeter in countries like Mexico, United States as well as in many European countries. Mark has performed with several jazz artists such as Kenny Dorham, Joe Carroll, Sam Rivers, Howard McGhee, Claudio Roditi, Gil Evans and many more; he has recorded with Baird Hersey (Arista/Novus Records) and George Russell (Blue Note Records).

Mark Harvey, who is an internationally well known composer, has got several commissions and awards from the MIT Wind Ensemble, the Organization of American Kodaly Educators, the Organization of American Kodaly Educators, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Society of Composers, the Meet-the-Composer/Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program and Authors and Publishers.

February 8, 2013. No comments.

Video clip Score: five / 5

January 15, 2013. No comments.

The line which separates the popular culture and high art has been blurred a long time ago, but still old habits die hard. For some, the connection between European jazz music and classical music remains an object of suspicion and fascination.

Many points of argument are as old a jazz itself – a music of performers vs a music of composers; attachment to the written notes vs improvisation; swing vs formality. A jazz roots concert targets to put all these argument on rest on Friday at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

The event includes music by Copland, Debussy and Bach, but also by US film composer Henry Mancini, trumpeter Terence Blanchard and pianist Dave Grusin. The brilliant cast of performers includes violinist Mark O’Connor, vocalist Bobby McFerrin, pianists Chick Corea, Elizabeth Roe, Shelly Berg as well as Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra of the University of Miami Frost School of Music.
The event, which is actually a collaboration among the Frost School, YoungArts Foundation and the Arsht Center, is a part of the YoungArts Week and it will be shot by PBS for a special which eill be telecasted later this year.

Larry Rosen, the producer, told that for the 5th anniversary season of the Jazz roots, he wanted to do something special – something like whats on your wish list. Rosen integrated works which shows classical music’s influence on pop and jazz music – such as Spanish Suite or excerpt from Blanchard’s Champion.

January 11, 2013. 4 comments.

Movie Ranking: four / 5

December 19, 2012. No comments.

The Veterans First Program recently announced that The Commanders Jazz Ensemble is all set to perform at a community concert that will take place at the Las Positas College campus. The Commanders will hit LPC’s Mertes Center for the Arts’ Main Stage auditorium on 10th December, Monday. Since it is a community outreach effort, there is no admission fee, but those who are willing to travel, must know that the parking fee at the college campus is $ 2. Daily parking tickets can also be availed from the vending machines.

The Commanders is based at the Travis Air Force Base; and under the direction of Sergeant Rick Thorp. The band members are highly trained and they play almost everything starting from jazz, to pop tunes, patriotic music, Latin rhythms and even Broadway favorites.

The music of well known jazz artists like Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Woody Herman and Duke Ellington will be featured in the event. Contemporary big band members and composers like Maria Schneider and Gordon Goodwin will also be at the concert.

The Commanders Jazz Ensemble has already performed in the western states like Nevada, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California both at live concerts as well as via several recordings and radio and television broadcasts. The band members use the power of music to root on other members of the Air Force as well as the people of the United States.

At present, the Las Positas College has around 8500 students and it also offers classes to those students who are in need of a career advancement or employment.

December 13, 2012. 14 comments.

Video clip Rating: 5 / 5

November 21, 2012. No comments.

On 22nd October, at the Evans Auditorium, the School of Music’s Ensemble Series will hold a Jazz Lab Band which is one of the 3 jazz ensemble classes in School of Music. The students would participate in the first 2 concerts for the class. Professor Martin McCain has directed the course for three years and he will direct it.

McCain told that they have been practicing for this show since the start of the class. The students were also working quite hard and also enjoying and having a whole lot of fun learning about the top bands of jazz. It is still part of the grade, it was more fun compared to anything.

The concert will begin with a group of students called the Jazzbones that excludes the trumpets and saxophones. McCain told that it was like a tradition which developed during the era of the Big Band. After that the whole ensemble will participate into play. The will touch different kinds of styles like funk, Latin, classical and jazz. He added that they have 7 tunes to hold the audience and take them to an emotional roller coaster. He would like to take people on a ride and left them thinking.

Sarah McGriff, one of the participants, told that most of the pieces are full of fun and energy, no matter which style they are. She added that she was quite surprised to watch a piece from music composer and that serves to connect with the audience quite easily.

November 15, 2012. 17 comments.

Movie Rating: four / five

October 18, 2012. 3 comments.

Video Rating: four / 5

October 11, 2012. No comments.

The arrangers of the Weir Farm Art Center’s Jazz will also present a scope to watch a rising star – a young singer and saxophonist who was creating waves since she was just a young girl. On 9th September, Sunday, twenty year old Grace Kelly will come with the quintet to put a gig at National Historic Site. This is going to be the seventeenth yearly performance in this series and it will happen on the Weir Farm lawns.

In a new news release, Grace Kelly told that she look ahead to Weir Farm as thinks it would inspire their music. Playing in outdoor is nice, but they rare have the opportunity to be circled by so much of natural beauty when performing.

Quintet’s other members are Evan Gregor on bass, Pete McCann on guitar, Jordan Perlson on drums and Jason Palmer on trumpet. Kelly began playing saxophone when she was only nine years old and she readily revealed her talent and proficiency which led her to her very first record named “Dreaming.” The album released when she was only 12 years old.

Since then, Kelly performed at more than five hundred concerts across the globe, says her biography in her website. Some of her performances include the Newport Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center, B. B. King’s Blues Club, the Kennedy Center and Montreal Jazz Festival.

Grace graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston at the age of nineteen. She also earned several awards including Young Jazz Composers Award in the years 2007, 2008, 2010 and in 2011 and also received the award of Jazz Artist of the Year at Boston Music Awards and also in 2010.