Intercollegiate Jazz Fest Planned at Williams - April 02, 2008
WILLIAMSTOWN — The 17th annual Intercollegiate Jazz Festival will take place on Friday, April 11, from noon until 4 and on Saturday, April 12, from 9 until 6:30 p.m. on the MainStage of the '62 Center for Theatre and Dance on the Williams College campus. This free event is open to the public.
College bands participating are expected to include Community College of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College, River School, Bancroft School, Amherst College, Westfield State College, LeMoyne College, Boston University, Smith College, Worcestor Polytechnic Institute, Schenectady (N.Y.) County Community College, and Williams Jazz Ensemble directed by Andy Jaffe, the srtistic firector of the Williamstown Jazz Festival. Participants are subject to change.
This year, the judges are trumpeter and composer Charles Ellison and baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan.
Ellison has been a full-time faculty member and former chairman of the department of music of Concordia University in Montreal since 1980. He is recognized as a trumpeter and composer of distinction and accomplishment in Canada and the United States. Over his career, he has worked with an impressive roster of artists and organizations including Cannonball Adderley, David Baker, Ted Dunbar, Marvin Gaye, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mathis, the Staple Singers, Henry Threadgill, sonny Greenwich, Don Thompson, Barry Elmes, the big bands of Andrew Homzy and Vic Vogel, I Musici de Montréal and the Montreal Symphony.
Smulyan is currently on faculty at William Paterson University and is a clinician and endorser for Vandoren Woodwind Products and Keilworth Saxophones. He is critically acclaimed as one of the major voices on the baritone saxophone today. Smulyan has recorded and performed worldwide with Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Tom Harrell. Cedar Walton, George Coleman, Joe Henderson, Joe Lovano, Tommy Flanagan, Chick Corea, Diana Ross, Clark Terry, Kenny Wheeler, Charles McPherson, James Moody and Slide Hampton, among others.
The festival is sponsored by the Williams department of music, '62 Center, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Berkshire Bank, Gala, Orchards Hotel, Spice Root, St. John's Episcopal Church, the Williams Inn, Berkshire Hills Motel, Banknorth, Cafe Latino, JAM, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Williams College Museum of Art, the High Meadow Foundation, the Mohawk Trail Association and Williamstown Chamber of Commerce. |
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