Presented by University of Missouri - St. Louis
“The Big Phat Band provides potent testimony to the sheer exhilaration of big band jazz…a combination of crisp accuracy and fiery soloing.” – L.A. Times “Hellzapoppin’ swing…jaw-dropping, to say the least…the music literally dances in front of your eyes.” – Jazz Times “There are countless ways to measure excellence in an orchestra. But by building a band from a cherry-picked pool of players in one of the most competitive music centers, Goodwin has objectified those measurements in terms of virtuosity, something manifest in virtually every chart the band plays.” – Downbeat Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band
“Be on the lookout for a new giant.” – Clark Terry “In my opinion, the best trombonist on the planet.” – Eddie Palmieri “Herwig speaks freely with unadulterated reverence for Miles and Trane…” - NPR Conrad Herwig’s Latin-Side All-Star Band
“One of the most successful and outspoken proponents of the jazz camp culture is Jim Widner.” “I was very thrilled to witness the work…by my ol’ buddy Jim Widner whose expertise in the field of jazz education proved invaluable in putting this masterful CD (Yesterdays & Today) together.” – Clark Terry “You…gave all your children a chance to shine while you supplied them with a great swingin’ foundation.” – Louie Bellson Jim Widner Bassist, Educator, Artistic Director, Yamaha Performing Artist, Producer Jamey Aebersold was born July 21, 1939, in New Albany, Indiana. He attended college at Indiana University and graduated in 1962 with a Masters Degree in Saxophone. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by Indiana University in 1992. He also plays piano, bass and banjo. In 1989, the International Association of Jazz Educators inducted Jamey into their Hall of Fame at the San Diego convention. With this award, Jamey joins other jazz luminaries such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Louis Jamey is a internationally-known saxophonist and authority on jazz education and improvisation, and has developed a series of Play-A-Longs (book and cd sets (now numbering over 120 volumes) as well as various other supplemental aids for the development of improvisational skills. The Aebersold book and recording sets allow a musician the opportunity to practice and improvise with well-known jazz personalities at home as well as in the classroom. The recordings employ some of the best jazz musicians in the world. This concept has been responsible for changing the practice habits of thousands of musicians around the world. Jamey was one of the first to encourage small group classes which concentrate on jazz improvisation, and he is the director of the Summer Jazz Workshops which now have a 37-year record. Jamey feels that improvisation is something all people can do—and his clinics and lectures concentrate on demonstrating how the creative and spontaneous nature of each person can be brought to light. These week-long Summer Jazz Workshops are having a profound effect on musical communities around the world. The Workshops have traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Germany, England, Scotland, Denmark and Canada. Every summer there are at least two week-long Workshops in the U.S. These camps employ many of the finest player/teachers in jazz and are open to any serious jazz student regardless of ability or age. In 2007, Jamey was awarded the Indiana Governor's Arts Award by Mitch Daniels, the Governor of Indiana. On October 4, 1987, CBS' "Sunday Morning" with Charles Kuralt and Billie Taylor featured Jamey with the Summer Jazz Workshops in an exciting jazz educational segment. Jamey has taught at three colleges and universities in the Louisville, Kentucky area and has made guest appearances in dozens of cities around the world. While conducting a jazz clinic in Brazil he produced a 110-minute DVD/video appropriately titled "Anyone Can Improvise" which has become a best-seller. Jamey's hobby is listening to jazz, especially new young players. He also enjoys playing basketball (he has hit 50 free throws in a row!) and is very much interested in Metaphysics and spiritual pursuits as they apply to the growth of the individual. In December 2004, the Jazz Midwest Clinic bestowed upon Jamey the "Medal of Honor" in Jazz Education. Jamey has been a driving force in America's native art form, Jazz, and continues to kindle the fires of musical imagination in those with whom he comes in contact. Lou Fischer As a Yamaha performing artist, playing the Silent Bass exclusively, Lou has been an extremely active performer in the entertainment industry for forty-five years, having performed on over 2,000+ commercials, 50+ Broadway shows, including touring worldwide with The Crusaders, Airto, Charlie Byrd, Bill Watrous, Red Rodney, Rich Matteson, Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, Emmy Lou Harris, plus the orchestras of Woody Herman, Louis Bellson, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Les Hopper, Tex Beneke, and Jimmy Dorsey, among many others. Lou has four album releases under his own name as a bandleader. Having performed on over 200+ recordings, he is also featured as a founding member of the groups: “Three As One” Decisions with Steve Houghton, drums and Stefan Karlsson, piano (soon to be released) and “Beaux J Poo Boo” on All Things Are New. Additionally, Lou has been featured on The Manne We Love: Gershwin Revisited (Steve Houghton); A Time For Love and Bone-I-fied (Bill Watrous); The Joy (Shelly Berg); A Miracle (The Frank Mantooth Big Band); and High Wire (Sunny Wilkinson). Dr. Fischer has appeared as a performer, clinician and/or director at jazz festivals in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, England, Holland, Canada, Japan, Korea, Great Britain, Scandinavia, Mexico, and at over three hundred high schools/universities in the United States, and is scheduled to travel to South Africa in March 2010. He recently conducted the all-state jazz ensembles of Texas, North Dakota, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Colorado and Louisiana, and the Intercollegiate Jazz Ensemble in Ohio. Having acted as faculty at various camps and at several IAJE Teacher Training Institutes over the years, “Dr. Lou” is currently jazz division head for the Music For All/Bands of America Summer Symposium. A music publisher for thirteen years, Fischer now publishes his compositions with Walrus Music. He is author of Jazz Bass Solos Vol. II (Kendor); and has co-authored Rhythm Section Workshop for Jazz Band Directors (Alfred); and Stylistic Etudes in the Jazz Idiom (Hal Leonard). Additionally Lou has contributed various articles to JAZZed magazine, the Jazz Educators Journal and The Instrumentalist regarding jazz and jazz pedagogy. As a composer, Fischer has penned commissions for the jazz ensembles of Louisiana Tech, Illinois Wesleyan, and Ball State Universities, and has completed a four-movement symphonic work titled Shades of Winter, premiered by the Capital-Bexley Community Orchestra in 2003. Lou is co-founder of and currently President-Elect of the newly formed Jazz Education Network (JEN). A member of the International Association for Jazz Education since 1976, Dr. Fischer had served two terms as U.S. Representative on the Executive Board, was past-president of the Ohio chapter, and had served jazz education in many capacities throughout his thirty-seven years of service to the organization. A member of the University of North Texas One O’Clock Lab Band (1971-1974), Dr. Fischer earned a bachelor of music in jazz performance (’91), magna cum laude, and a master of arts in composition with honors from the University of Denver (’92). He holds a doctor of arts in bass performance, with a secondary in theory and composition from Ball State University in Indiana (’99). Lou is professor of music, jazz activities coordinator, and jazz ensemble director at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio where he teaches American Pop/Jazz Theory, Jazz Arranging and directs the Fusion Band and Award winning Big Band. Rick Condit has been an active saxophonist and jazz educator for more than 25 years. He has taught and performed in 26 countries on 5 continents. In 2002, he spent six months as a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the "George Enescu University of the Arts" in Romania while on leave from his post as Director of Jazz Studies and Associate Professor of Saxophone at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La. Since then he has returned to Romania four times for concerts, clinics and other Fulbright related projects. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Condit spent more than 10 years there as a freelance professional, performing with such noted artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Louie Bellson, Ray Brown, Oliver Nelson, Bob Hope, and the San Francisco Symphony Pops Orchestra. During this period he also toured for over a year as tenor sax soloist with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, presenting concerts and clinics in 46 states, Canada, and Japan. Condit received his Master of Music degree in jazz studies from the University of North Texas, where he was a graduate teaching fellow and member of the One O'Clock Lab Band. His own group, the Louisiana Jazz 5, has toured France and Central America and performed at the IAJE Conference. Condit and guitarist Tom Wolfe toured 5 countries in West Africa as Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassadors, and he has been the recipient of a Louisiana Artist's Fellowship. Under Condit's direction, the McNeese Jazz Ensemble has performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), Festival Internationale (Nice, France), the IAJE Conference, and twice in residency at Disney World. He is a Past President of the Louisiana Unit of IAJE, served 10 years as Section Coordinator for Latin America, and as Region Coordinator for the South Central U.S. Recent guest artists have included Bobby Sanabria and Quartetto Ache, The Yosvanny Terry Quartet, The Rosanna Eckert Quartet, the Arturo O’Farrill Quintet, Nneena Freelon, and The Marcus Roberts Trio. Rick plays Selmer Paris MK VI saxophones and JodyJazz Mouthpieces. Ron Modell’s first major professional engagement was as first trumpet for Cornelia Otis Skinner in her one-woman production of “Paris 90”. Returning from an eight-month tour of this show he was engaged in 1953 to become the principal trumpet with the Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra under H. Arthur Brown. After four seasons with the TPO, he returned to New York to join the “Machito” Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra at the Palladium. In May 1960, maestro Paul Kletzki engaged Mr. Modell as principal trumpet with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, for the 1960-61 season. Nine seasons with Dallas and six seasons in Tulsa gave him the opportunity to play under such great conductors as Solti, Munch, Ehrling, Monteux, Dorati, Previn and Mancini. Mr. Modell has a long and wide experience in the field of jazz and has appeared in nightclubs as lead trumpet for Vic Daxnone, Tony Bennett, Della Reese and Buddy Greco, Julius LaRosa and Bill Eckstine. His teaching experience dates from 1958 as instructor at Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg and the University of Tulsa. In 1964 he joined the faculty of SMU before being appointed to his current position as Professor of Trumpet at Northern Illinois University. Mr. Modell founded the Jazz Ensemble at NIU which, during his 28 years of tenure, has released thirteen recordings, and performed over 600 concerts for more than 600,000 people at high schools, colleges, correctional institutions and public concerts. David Seiler, a native of LaCrosse, WI, received his B.M. in music education and M.M. in clarinet performance from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has taught at Millikin University, Lamar State College, and the University of Idaho. Currently, Mr. Seiler is director of jazz studies and professor of clarinet at the University of New Hampshire. Mr. Seiler is a founding member of both the University of Idaho and the University of New Hampshire Faculty Woodwind Quintets. He has had an extensive career as a guest soloist at high schools, universities, and at jazz clubs and in concerts in the Boston area. Dr. Peter Madsen is Coordinator of Jazz Studies / Assistant Professor of Trombone/Euphonium Allen Beeson grew up outside the small southwestern Missouri town of Cassville and studied piano from age 6 to 12 and began playing trumpet in the high school band at age 14. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia where he performed in any ensemble that used trumpets. In 1984 he met and became a student of Bobby Shew. As with most of Bobby’s students, a longtime friendship is enjoyed today. Allen has performed with jazz artists such as Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillispie, Louis Bellson, Conte Condoli, Gary Foster, Pete Christlieb, Bobby Shew, John Faddis, Marvin Stamm, Conrad Herwig and John Fedchock to name a few. He has also performed with entertainers, Ray Charles, Tom Jones, Mel Torme, Jack Jones, John Davidson, Olivia Newton-John, Bob Hope, Bob Newhart, Frank Gorshin, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Jan & Dean, The Beach Boys and The Manhattan Transfer. Allen performs regularly with the Jim Widner Big Band, Lenny Klinger’s Galaxy, several small jazz groups and is available for clinics and concerts in conjunction with the Yamaha Corporation. Allen is a Yamaha Performing Artist. First Time Out is just that-Allen’s first recording as leader and this appears on the Chase Music Group Label. The recording took place in February of ‘04 in Columbia, Mo. Personnel included Ken Kehner, piano, Kevin Hennessy, bass, Todd Strait, drums and percussion, Tim Aubuchon, tenor sax and Tony Lotven, flute. Making this recording was a lot of fun and very easy. All these musicians really made music of the notes on the page. Seven of the twelve selections were recorded on the first take. Some of those first takes were original tunes never played before; yet another testimony to these guys musicianship! We were particularly fortunate to catch Todd as I believe he did 5 recordings within a 7 day timeframe and this was one of them! |
| The University of Missouri - St. Louis presents the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival. Additional support comes from Bank of America, Contemporary Productions, Emerson, Maritz, THF Realty, Ken and Nancy Kranzberg, and Mozingo Music. |
Armstrong and others.