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 Praised for "exuberance, imagination and sheer brio" (Jazz Review, UK), the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra returns to Scullers with Blues, Ballads and Beyond: music by jazz legends Count Basie, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Kenny Dorham and Duke Ellington, plus originals by music director Mark Harvey.
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 Aardvark enjoyed a very full year of diverse performances in clubs, concert halls, colleges, and churches throughout the Northeast, all to full houses and standing ovations.
Last February, the band presented a program of Jazz Portraits at Scullers, featuring music inspired by Brother Blue, Don Cherry, Jaki Byard and Mary Lou Williams, and featuring a scat tour-de-force by vocalist Jerry Edwards. In March, St. John's Church in Beverly Farms hosted a Mardi Gras-themed concert with rousing treatments of St. James Infirmary Blues and Mark Harvey's NOLA among the selections. And a week later, the orchestra gave a special Celebration of Mary Lou Williams, First Lady of Jazz, at Eastern Connecticut State University joined by the spirited Eastern Chorale and Eastern Jazz Ensemble, all in observance of both Black History and Women's History months. |
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Click the image below to watch the video in a new window on YouTube.
Or click this link: http://youtu.be/86-sVi3vZAA
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 Please visit Aardvark Jazz Orchestra's Facebook page and click Like to stay in touch with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra.
Click here to visit the Facebook page. |
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 American Agonistes: Music in Time of War (Leo Records)
"Beautiful, poignant and raucous. . . This album drips with honesty,
intelligence, sound design, and art." Francois Couture, Billboard.com
"Truly impressive. . . a hit recording." Altrisuoni [Italy]
To read more reviews, find out about the cd tracks, listen to sample MP3 clips, and to order, click the Read more... link below. |
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 Aardvark has received a highly complimentary mention in a brand-new book by composer/educator Graham Collier entitled the jazz composer: moving music off the paper (London: Northway Publications, 2009), p. 124.
Discussing a quartet of international ensembles, including Aardvark, and comparing these with some of the recognized names in today's big band music, Collier writes... |
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Contents include the powerful Afro-jazz grooves of title track “The Seeker” (written for the Fifteenth Annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert), the evocative winds and piano of “Heartsong” (dedicated to Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Burmese democracy activist Daw Aung San Suu Kyi) and the multifaceted forty minute opus “Passages/Psalms IV” as given this past April in its premiere performance at MIT. This is imaginative, high energy music for the open ear, mind and heart.
