Dizzy Gillespie All Stars at Troy Music Hall

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John Lee
Troy, NY — If Dizzy Gillespie were alive today, he’d be 82 years old. Dizzy may be gone, but his style of big band music is alive and well, thanks to the talented musicians of the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Band who will perform at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on Friday, March 10 at 8 p.m. The Dizzy Gillespie All Star Band features Slide Hampton, Roy Hargrove, Mulgrew Miller, Justin Robinson, John Lee and Dennis Mackrel. Trombone player Slide Hampton began his professional career at age 12 and by the age of 20 was performing at Carnegie Hall with the Lionel Hampton Band. From there he began to contribute both original compositions and arrangements to bands led by Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Barry Harris, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis and Max Roach. In 1962, he formed the Slide Hampton Octet, which toured the U.S. and Europe and recorded on several labels. From 1964 to 1967, he was music director for various orchestras and artists and following a 1968 tour with Woody Herman, opted to stay in Europe until 1977, when he began a series of master classes at Harvard, UMass at Amherst, DePaul University and Indiana University. In 1989, along with Paquito D’Rivera, he directed Dizzy’s Diamond Jubilee, a year-long series of celebrations honoring Dizzy’s 75th birthday. In 1998, Slide Hampton received a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Arrangement with a Vocalist. 2001 saw the start of a new project “Slide plays Jobim”, inspired by the compositions of the legendary Brazilian composer, the late Antonio Carlos Jobim, in which Slide arranged twelve of Jobim’s great compositions. In 2005, Slide Hampton received a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement and was named a NEA Jazz Master. Slide Hampton has been musical director of the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Band since 2004. Grammy Award winning Trumpeter/composer Roy Hargrove is one of the most versatile and hardworking trumpeters in jazz today. He produced eleven albums as a leader/co-leader in straight-ahead bop/hard bop and has appeared with such jazz greats as Wynton Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock and Frank Morgan. While at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, Hargrove had gigs with Bobby Watson, Ricky Ford, John Hicks, Jimmy Cobb, Cliford Jordan and Superblue. During a 1996 trip to Cuba, Hargrove recruited piano legend Chucho Valdes and recorded the Afro-Cuban jazz landmark and Grammy winning Habana. In 2003, he won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Jazz Album for Directions in Music, a tribute to John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Pianist Mulgrew Miller plays in a style influenced by McCoy Tyner. He was with Mercer Ellington's big band in the late '70s and had important stints with Betty Carter (1980), Woody Shaw (1981-1983), and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers (1983-1986). For a long period, he was a member of the Tony Williams Quintet (1986-1994). In addition, Mulgrew Miller has led his own sessions for Landmark (starting in 1985) and Novus. Justin Robinson began playing the saxophone at age 13 and has studied with Frank Foster, George Colemen, Arnie Lawrence and Bobby Watson. In 1988, he recorded with the Harper Brothers on their debut album The Harper Brothers and later recorded Live at the Village Vanguard and You can Hide Inside the Music with them. In 1991, Robinson recorded on pianist Stephen Scott’s debut album, Something to Consider and then recorded his own debut album, Justin Time. He has appeared twice on The Tonight Show, on the Johnny Carson Show with the Harper Brothers, and the Jay Leno Show as a guest soloist in Branford Marsalis’ band. In 1992, Justin joined The Carnegie Hall Big Band, which performed both at Carnegie Hall and abroad. He has also traveled throughout Australia and Japan as a solo artist. Since 1995, he has worked and recorded with Rodney Kendrick and on several all-star records and performances as well as touring with legendary singer Jimmy Scott and trumpet star Roy Hargrove. John Lee, bassist, composer, educator and producer, was hired as bassist for the Max Roach Quarter in 1972. Later that year, he moved to Europe to work and record with Gary Bartz, Philip Catherine, Joe Henderson, Chris Hinze, Jasper Van’T Hof, Joachim Kuhn, Charlie Mariano and Toots Thielemans. He also recorded his first solo effort with drummer Gerry Brown titled Infinite Jones. In 1982, John joined the McCoy Tyner Quintet, where he worked until joining the Dizzy Gillespie Group in 1984. John stayed with the group until Dizzy Gillespie became ill in 1992. At present, John produces and directs the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, while also working with Sonny Rollins, Slide Hampton Quartet, Slide plays Jobim, Claudio Roditi, Roy Hargrove, and the Fantasy Band. He also leads his own bands, the John Lee Quartet and Quintet. Drummer Dennis Mackrel became a professional musician at age ten. In 1981 at age 19, Dennis moved to NYC and landed a gif as the drummer in a New York Broadway orchestra, with credits including “The First” and “A Chorus Line.” In 1983, Dennis joined The Count Basie Orchestra and worked with Basie until his death in 1984. Today, Dennis travels extensively and performs with such ensembles as The Carla Bley Very Large Band, Slide Hampton and the Jazz Masters, The Carnegie Hall Classic Jazz Orchestra, The Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band, The Grover Mitchell Orchestra, The Smithsonian Jazz masterworks Orchestra, and the American Jazz Orchestra. Reserved seats for the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Band are $31 and $28 and may be purchased by calling the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Box Office at (518) 273-0038 or online at www.troymusichall.org. The Music Hall Box Office opens 90 minutes prior to the performance. Otherwise, Box Office operations are handled at its business office at 30 Second Street, Monday through Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall’s full season schedule can be viewed at www.troymusichall.org. The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, named a National Historic Landmark in 1989, is in use over one hundred and fifty days a year. Since it opened its doors in 1875, the Hall has hosted performances by numerous world-renowned artists including Marion Anderson, Dizzy Gillespie, Peter Seeger, Ella Fitzgerald, Isaac Stern, Yo-Yo Ma, Henri Vieuxtemps, Ignace Jan Paderewski, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Jose Iturbi, Vladimir Horowitz, Yehudi Menuhin, and Artur Rubenstein, among many others.
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Lanesborough Fifth-Graders Win Snowplow Name Contest

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — One of the snowplows for Highway District 1 has a new name: "The Blizzard Boss."
 
The name comes from teacher Gina Wagner's fifth-grade class at Lanesborough Elementary School. 
 
The state Department of Transportation announced the winners of the fourth annual "Name A Snowplow" contest on Monday. 
 
The department received entries from public elementary and middle school classrooms across the commonwealth to name the 12 MassDOT snowplows that will be in service during the 2025/2026 winter season. 
 
The purpose of the contest is to celebrate the snow and ice season and to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by public works employees and contractors during winter operations. 
 
"Thank you to all of the students who participated. Your creativity allows us to highlight to all, the importance of the work performed by our workforce," said  interim MassDOT Secretary Phil Eng.  
 
"Our workforce takes pride as they clear snow and ice, keeping our roads safe during adverse weather events for all that need to travel. ?To our contest winners and participants, know that you have added some fun to the serious take of operating plows. ?I'm proud of the skill and dedication from our crews and thank the public of the shared responsibility to slow down, give plows space and put safety first every time there is a winter weather event."
 
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