UVA Jazz Ensemble presents New Beginnings
On Saturday, November 9th, the UVA Music Department will present the UVA Jazz Ensemble at 8pm in the Old Cabell Hall. This event is supported by UVA Arts & the Office of the Provost & the Vice Provost for the Arts.
The Jazz Ensemble concert, New Beginnings, on Saturday, November 9th, is John D’earth’s final UVA Jazz Ensemble concert after over forty years of leading the band. D’earth began his work at UVA in the early 1980’s when he moved to Charlottesville from New York and was hired by the students in what was then a student-run organization. Twenty years later, he became UVA’s first Director of Jazz Performance. The UVA Jazz Ensemble still includes undergraduates, graduate students, and community members.
The Jazz Ensemble concert will feature return-guest alto-saxophonist, Pureum Jin, and four UVA alumni who have gone on to develop strong careers in jazz: bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, 1996, baritone saxophonist, Kathy Olson, 2002, pianist Kait Dunton, 2005, and tenor saxophonist, John Petrucelli, 2010.
Pureum Jin, born in South Korea and a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, is a rising international jazz star and has appeared with the Jazz Ensemble as both a guest artist and a community member since she and D’earth met in 2017. Each of the four alumni guests has forged an individualistic career path in creative modern music, following the two “rules of jazz,” which they may have first discovered working with the jazz faculty at UVA: master the musical language you need to “speak” improvisationally, and be yourself, tell your own story—everyone else is taken!
Four of the five guests are women. Each of them have appeared as a guest artist with the Jazz Ensemble over the years, and each has been on the front lines of creating an honored place for women instrumentalists in a largely male-dominated art form.
The Jazz Ensemble concert will feature classics such as Woody Herman’s arrangement of John Coltrane’s Lazy Bird, and two classic ballads, My One and Only Love, and Peace by Horace Silver. Several compositions by D’earth have made their way into his final concert, including a big band reimagining of the Christmas carol, Joy to the World! and his Count Basie-inspired song for vocal choir, Sensitive Like Ladies, which is a reference to saxophone great Lester Young’s famous comment. Lester Young bestowed the nickname Lady Day on Billie Holliday and called any male musician he admired, “Lady.”
John D'earth is the University of Virginia's Director of Jazz Performance. D’earth plays trumpet with a striking, original sound and a technique that he mobilizes for spitfire improvisation and gripping melodies. A consummate jazz artist, composer, and gifted educator, he draws inspiration from collaborators on the bandstand, from students, and nature. Internationally known for his contributions in straight-ahead jazz (D’earth served as foil to guitarist Emily Remler, added brawn to the George Gruntz Big Band, and played on Bob Moses’ early recordings) he exhibits omnivorous musical tastes including free improvisation, mainstream rock, and modern classical music. Since he joined the musicians union at age fourteen this wildly eclectic musician has performed across the globe. He appears on over 100 recordings on vinyl, CDs, film, and video in a career that spans the analogue and digital eras. Despite a commanding musical presence he possesses an uncanny ability to bring out the best in musicians with whom he shares the bandstand. All of this is evident on his newly released album, Coin Of The Realm, (Cosmology Records 2023). This song cycle of originals, recorded with his long-standing quintet, reveals a musician who, in his seventies, is still evolving and very much in his creative prime. Find out more about John D'earth here.
To find out more about Jazz events at UVA, visit https://music.virginia.edu/jazz-events.
Tickets are $10 General Admission / $9 UVA Faculty & Staff / $5 students / Free for UVA Students who reserve in advance. Tickets can be purchased at the UVA Arts Box Office, on-line at https://artsboxoffice.virginia.edu/, by phone (434) 924-3376 or in person at the Arts Box Office or at the door on the night of the concert. The UVA Arts Box Office is located on the John and Betsy Casteen Arts Grounds, inside the lobby of the UVA Drama Building at 109 Culbreth Road. For directions, please visit UVA Visitors Map or view directions via Google Maps.
Old Cabell Hall is located on the south end of UVA's historic lawn, directly opposite the Rotunda (map). At UVA, parking is available in the C1 lot off McCormick Rd, and the Central Grounds Parking Garage on Emmet St. is walking distance to the hall. Handicap parking is available in the small parking lot adjacent to Bryan Hall.
For those who can not make it to Old Cabell Hall, we will have a live feed on our UVA Music YouTube channel.
All events are subject to change.
For more information, please call 434.924.3052 or email music@virginia.edu.
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This event is supported by UVA Arts & the Office of the Provost & the Vice Provost for the Arts
