Founded in 1973, The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra is a large jazz ensemble that specializes in original exploratory works by trumpeter-composer Mark Harvey, together with wide-ranging repertory including Ellingtonia; American music by such composers as Ives, Gottschalk, and Billings; and performances with film, dance and poetry.  Winner of the 2000 Independent Music Awards, the band has premiered more than 100 works for jazz orchestra and has released 8 CDs to international critical acclaim, with 2 more recordings to be released in 2007-2008.  Members of the band can be heard on the award-winning DVD series Treasures from the American Film Archives, with a new installment due for release in October 2007:  Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film, 1900-1934.

 

Mark Harvey, founder and music director, has recorded with George Russell (Blue Note) and Baird Hersey (Arista/Novus) and performed with Gil Evans, Claudio Roditi, Howard McGhee, Sam Rivers, and many others.  He is a composer with over 120 works in his catalogue, teaches at MIT, is an ordained minister, and lectures nationally on jazz and American music with a specialty in the sacred works of Duke Ellington.  He is a winner of awards from ASCAP, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Meet-the-Composer-Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program.  In September 2007, Harvey will perform in the star-studded Festival of New Trumpet Music in New York City.

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