Aardvark Jazz Orchestra 53rd Annual Christmas Concert at Church Of The Covenant

The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra will celebrate its 53d Annual Christmas Concert with an eclectic program of joyful music in the spirit of the season. Proceeds will benefit the Greater Boston Food Bank.

Aardvark has been called “stunningly beautiful” (New York City Jazz Record), "spellbinding" (The Boston Globe), "captivating" (Jazz Improv), and “one of the best jazz ensembles in the world” (Jazz Podium, Germany). CultureJazz.France hailed the orchestra’s “expansive harmony, brilliant music... discipline, openness, and freedom…an exceptional big band.”

In honor of America’s 250th Anniversary, Aardvark will perform Shepherd’s Carol by Revolutionary War-era Boston composer William Billings, the African-American spiritual Go Tell It on the Mountain, and the lovely Cradle in Bethlehem, made famous by Nat King Cole. The band will give the premiere of The Work, a new gospel-inflected piece by Aardvark founder and music director Mark Harvey....

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The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra will celebrate its 53d Annual Christmas Concert with an eclectic program of joyful music in the spirit of the season. Proceeds will benefit the Greater Boston Food Bank.

Aardvark has been called “stunningly beautiful” (New York City Jazz Record), "spellbinding" (The Boston Globe), "captivating" (Jazz Improv), and “one of the best jazz ensembles in the world” (Jazz Podium, Germany). CultureJazz.France hailed the orchestra’s “expansive harmony, brilliant music... discipline, openness, and freedom…an exceptional big band.”

In honor of America’s 250th Anniversary, Aardvark will perform Shepherd’s Carol by Revolutionary War-era Boston composer William Billings, the African-American spiritual Go Tell It on the Mountain, and the lovely Cradle in Bethlehem, made famous by Nat King Cole. The band will give the premiere of The Work, a new gospel-inflected piece by Aardvark founder and music director Mark Harvey.

Aardvark will also remember jazz great Sheila Jordan who performed and recorded Mark Harvey’s piece The Prophet on the band’s 25th Annual Christmas Concert. The Prophet is a tonal portrait of long-time activist Kip Tiernan, founder of the Greater Boston Food Bank, beneficiary of the evening’s concert.

Rounding out the program will be an energetic arrangement of the 17th-century Advent hymn, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, performed on Aardvark’s inaugural Christmas Concert in 1973 in the Church of the Covenant.

Tickets are $20 at the door.

Aardvark gave its inaugural concert on December 23, 1973, at the Church of the Covenant in Boston as a benefit for the Chelsea Fire Fund. Every year since then, Aardvark has held a Christmas concert to support a deserving cause. Esteemed guests who have joined the Aardvark Christmas concerts include Sheila Jordan, Howard McGhee, Semenya McCord, Ron Gill, Jack Powers, and others. “The healing power of music is with us throughout the year,” says Mark Harvey, “but the Christmas concert is a special occasion for helping those in need and lifting our hearts in the spirit of peace, justice and good will toward all.”
Aardvark is: Peter H. Bloom, Phil Scarff, Chris Rakowski, Dan Zupan, Daniel Ian Smith/saxophones and woodwinds; Taylor Ho Bynum, K.C. Dunbar, Jeanne Snodgrass/trumpets; Bob Pilkington, Jay Keyser/trombones; Bill Lowe/bass trombone, tuba; Richard Nelson/guitar; Jesse Williams/string bass; Harry Wellott/drums; Grace Hughes, vocalist; and Mark Harvey, music director. The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra is managed by Americas Musicworks, Rebecca DeLamotte, director.

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