Department of Music

The McIntire Department of Music presents "Free Bridge Goes Broadway!” on Saturday April 2 at 8:00 p.m. in Old Cabell Hall. The Free Bridge Quintet is the jazz quintet-in-residence at the University of Virginia.

Broadway shows have long been a rich source of material for jazz musicians and the Free Bridge Quintet will honor that tradition by performing some of their favorite show tunes.

The concert will focus primarily on tunes from some classic shows of the 50s and 60s such as "My Fair Lady", "Fiddler on the Roof” and "The King and I". While most of the selections will be original arrangements written specifically for this concert, the quintet will also play some classic arrangements of show tunes by such jazz greats as Clifford Brown and Joe Henderson.

According to the quintet’s bassist Peter Spaar “The Broadway theme was a natural choice for us. Jazz musicians have been borrowing repertoire from Broadway since the very beginning. Show tunes lend themselves beautifully to jazz: catchy melodies, interesting harmonies, relatively short, cyclical forms. They're the perfect vehicle for improvising jazz solos."

Since there is so much great music from that era, the biggest challenge for the Quintet was deciding which tunes would make the cut. "From the beginning of this project," said Spaar, " it became apparent that the "Broadway" concept was too big to do justice to in a single concert. We're already in the planning stages for "Free Bridge Goes Broadway: Part II!"

The Free Bridge Quintet features Jeff Decker on saxophones, Robert Jospe on the drums, Wells Hanley on piano, Peter Spaar on bass and John D’earth ontrumpet and flugelhorn.

Media support for this concert is provided by NBC29 and The Hook.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for students and free for UVA students who reserve their tickets in advance. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Arts Box Office at 434-924-3376 or visiting www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu

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