MURFREESBORO — Canadian jazz pianist and
composer Gil Evans’ music will launch
the 2016-17 MTSU Jazz Artist Series Thursday, Oct. 20, with performances featuring
MTSU School of Music students, faculty and guest artists.
“The Music
of Gil Evans” will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Hinton Hall inside MTSU’s Wright Music
Building. A searchable, printable campus parking map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap.
Tickets
for the Oct. 20 concert, which is the first of three planned for the 2016-17
season, are $10 for the public. Admission is free for MTSU students, faculty
and staff with a valid ID, and discounts for area music students and educators
also are available.
“The
concert will showcase historic arrangements and compositions alongside guest
musicians as well as our student and faculty artists,” said Jamey Simmons, jazz trumpeter and
coordinator of jazz studies in MTSU’s School of Music.
“Evans,
known for his colorful scores for trumpeter Miles Davis, was one of the most influential jazz arrangers and
composers of the 20th century. His legacy as a composer will be on display with
the Tennessee Jazz Collective, a big band made up of students, faculty and
guest performers.”
Conductor
and composer Ryan Truesdell will
lead the Oct. 20 program at MTSU with the Tennessee
Jazz Collective. Truesdell is the producer and conductor of the Gil Evans Project, a group established
to bring Evans’ music to the stage.
Truesdell
also plans to conduct a free public master class on music beginning at 11:30
a.m. Oct. 20 in Room 303 of the Saunders Fine Arts Building.
Tickets
may be reserved in advance by calling 615-898-2724 or emailing Simmons at james.simmons@mtsu.edu. Tickets also can
be purchased at the door.
Evans fell
in love with music as a child and formed a dance band while he was still in
high school. He toured with a nine-piece orchestra, eventually providing
accompaniment for comedian Bob Hope’s nationally syndicated radio show, and
after serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, moved to New York City to
work for his friend, composer and bandleader Claude Thornhill. His New York home
soon became a haven for musicians interested in expanding their styles,
including Davis, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan and John
Carisi.
By 1948,
these artists had begun popularizing nine-member ensembles to fill the gap
between smaller three- to five-piece “combos” and fully orchestrated and more expensive
“big bands.” One of their signatures was incorporating French horns and tubas
into the nonets to expand their sound.
Evans
quickly became one of Davis’ friends and favorite arrangers, setting the stage
for the acclaimed albums “Miles Ahead” “Porgy and Bess,” “Sketches of Spain” and
“Quiet Nights.” Beginning in 1957, Evans also recorded his own albums with
soloists that included Lee Konitz, Jimmy Cleveland, Steve Lacy, Johnny Coles
and Cannonball Adderley. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition in
1968, was a founding artist of the Kennedy Center in 1972, and continued
performing, producing and arranging until his death in 1988 at age 75.
“The
exciting thing for us as performers will be the amazing timbres used in this
music: woodwinds, French horns, tuba, all sounds that are not as common in most
big bands,” said Simmons. “In this music, the stage is set for improvising
soloists in very special ways.”
Now in
its 18th season, the MTSU Jazz Artist Series brings internationally renowned
jazz artists to campus for performances and educational workshops. Past guest
artists have included some of the most important musicians and educators in
jazz history.
The 2016-17
Jazz Artist Series continues Thursday, Feb. 2, with a collaboration between the
MTSU Jazz Studies Program and the MTSU Dance Theatre. The third concert in the
series is set for Saturday, March 25, to celebrate the MTSU Illinois Jacquet
Jazz Festival.
You can
learn more about Evans at his website, http://www.gilevans.com,
and watch his live 1983 performance with his orchestra in Lugano, Switzerland,
of "Stone Free" at http://youtu.be/IB8tMU0PP-M
and the 1959 CBS film featuring the Miles Davis Sextet performing a
portion of "Miles Ahead," with Evans conducting, at http://youtu.be/NG9wHUXcih4.
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