Todd Marcus Jazz Orchestra at St. Mark Presbyterian Church

2014 Baker Artist Award winner Todd Marcus will celebrate his new CD, Blues for Tahrir, in two sets on November 3nd at a concert by the Institute for Musical Traditions just outside Washington, DC.

The Baltimore bass clarinetist and composer has presented his jazz for over 10 years and along the way received accolades including the $25,000 Baker prize, selections as a rising star by national jazz magazine Downbeat in its 2014 and 2013 annual critics poll, and an NPR pick for one of the top 10 albums of 2012.

But his newest album Blues for Tahrir is poised to make his biggest statement to date by setting Egypt’s Arab Spring movement to music in a fusion of jazz with Middle Eastern influences....

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2014 Baker Artist Award winner Todd Marcus will celebrate his new CD, Blues for Tahrir, in two sets on November 3nd at a concert by the Institute for Musical Traditions just outside Washington, DC.

The Baltimore bass clarinetist and composer has presented his jazz for over 10 years and along the way received accolades including the $25,000 Baker prize, selections as a rising star by national jazz magazine Downbeat in its 2014 and 2013 annual critics poll, and an NPR pick for one of the top 10 albums of 2012.

But his newest album Blues for Tahrir is poised to make his biggest statement to date by setting Egypt’s Arab Spring movement to music in a fusion of jazz with Middle Eastern influences.

“The album revolves around my Blues for Tahrir Suite,” Marcus explains. “It began as just one piece of music when the Arab Spring movement started in Tahrir Square in Cairo in 2011 but as the demonstrations continued over the following years, I kept writing more music in response to the ongoing developments.”

The sections of the suite bear out these diverse moods with titles including Protest, Reflections, Tears on the Square, and Adhan, the Arabic word for the call to prayer that sounds five times a day across loudspeakers at mosques in Islamic countries.

For Marcus, the son of an Egyptian immigrant father, the project stemmed from efforts to connect more deeply with his own heritage. “There wasn’t an Egyptian community around where I was raised,” Marcus shares of his New Jersey childhood, “but as I’ve gotten older, exploring Middle Eastern music has been a way for me to connect with my culture in my work.”

Marcus’s nine-piece jazz orchestra will celebrate the album’s release with performances starting in Baltimore on October 31 in Baltimore followed by shows over the next three days by concerts in New Jersey, New York, and Washington, DC.

Check out a 2013 video of the band at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qb7N_CyrcM

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