Department of Music

The University of Virginia McIntire Department of Music presents the Free Bridge Quintet in concert on Saturday, March 31st at 8pm in Old Cabell Hall. This concert is the final part of the Soundscapes of Jefferson's America conference running from Friday, March 30 to Saturday, March 31, and is entitled "Jazz Meets Jefferson."

The Free Bridge Quintet is the official faculty jazz quintet of the University of Virginia McIntire Department of Music. It features Jeff Decker on saxophones, Robert Jospe on the drums, Wells Hanley on piano, Peter Spaar on bass, and John D'earth on trumpet and flugelhorn.

Special guest faculty members Bonnie Gordon on viola and Richard Will on violin and vocals will also be performing with the Free Bridge Quintet for this exploration into "Jeffersonian Jazz."

Tunes such as "Oh! Susanna," "Billy Boy," "Shenandoah," and folk standard "Careless Love," as well as Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" will be performed to represent the roots of American folk song tradition inspired by Jefferson's America.

The second half of the concert will center around a new composition by John D'earth, entitled "Let's Go Inside." This "project," based on sounds and music from Jefferson's living environment, works from outside to inside, beginning with animal and weather sounds, to slave songs, to a graveyard lament (from Neil Gow's Lament For His Second Wife). Moving inside, we will hear fiddle tunes in the barn, parlor and ballroom music, and music for the church setting. The idea is to hear music verbatim, as it would have been performed in Jefferson's era, and then reimagined in the modern jazz vernacular.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for students, and free for UVA students who reserve in advance. Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Arts Box Office at www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu or by calling 434.924.3376