Venerable Aardvark Jazz Orchestra Continues 42nd Season, April 11 at Mit: New Music by Mark Harvey at MIT Kresge Auditorium

The internationally acclaimed Aardvark Jazz Orchestra continues its 42nd season with New Music for Jazz Orchestra, Saturday, April 11, 2015 at 8:00 pm, at MIT Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139. Free admission. Information: 617-452-3205.

Aardvark has been praised for “music that is in turn beautiful, poignant and raucous” (Billboard.com) and has been hailed for “expansive harmony, brilliant music... discipline, openness, and freedom” (CultureJazz.Fr - France).

The show features premieres of new works by Mark Harvey, including Sisyphus of the Snow Banks, inspired by the recent record-setting snowfall in the Boston area; a free-form romp called Out and Out; and the big band premiere of FiLmprov Cha Cha Cha. Aardvark marks the Billy Strayhorn Centennial with his lovely ballad Almost Cried, from the movie Anatomy of a Murder. Aardvark audience favorites No Walls and De-Evolution Blues are also on tap. The band will honor the Boston Marathon survivors and victims, including MIT police officer Sean Collier, with Mark Harvey’s piece Commemoration (Boston 2013), given its premiere in 2014....

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The internationally acclaimed Aardvark Jazz Orchestra continues its 42nd season with New Music for Jazz Orchestra, Saturday, April 11, 2015 at 8:00 pm, at MIT Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139. Free admission. Information: 617-452-3205.

Aardvark has been praised for “music that is in turn beautiful, poignant and raucous” (Billboard.com) and has been hailed for “expansive harmony, brilliant music... discipline, openness, and freedom” (CultureJazz.Fr - France).

The show features premieres of new works by Mark Harvey, including Sisyphus of the Snow Banks, inspired by the recent record-setting snowfall in the Boston area; a free-form romp called Out and Out; and the big band premiere of FiLmprov Cha Cha Cha. Aardvark marks the Billy Strayhorn Centennial with his lovely ballad Almost Cried, from the movie Anatomy of a Murder. Aardvark audience favorites No Walls and De-Evolution Blues are also on tap. The band will honor the Boston Marathon survivors and victims, including MIT police officer Sean Collier, with Mark Harvey’s piece Commemoration (Boston 2013), given its premiere in 2014.

This concert is sponsored by MIT Music & Theater Arts as part of its Faculty Concert Series.

The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, led by founder and music director Mark Harvey, is one of the longest running large jazz ensembles in the world, now celebrating its 42nd season. The band performs widely in festivals, clubs, concert halls, colleges and universities; has premiered more than 160 works for jazz orchestra; and has released 12 CDs to international acclaim, including 7 discs on Leo Records, one of the world’s leading adventuresome music labels. Guest artists who have appeared with Aardvark include jazz luminaries Jaki Byard, Sheila Jordan, Jimmy Giuffre, Geri Allen, Lewis Porter, Vinny Golia, Dominique Eade, Jay Clayton, Paul Lovens, Rajesh Mehta, Matt Savage and Walter Thompson.

Mark Harvey has performed as trumpeter in the U.S., Mexico and Europe; has recorded with George Russell (Blue Note) and Baird Hersey (Arista/Novus); and performed with Gil Evans, Claudio Roditi, Howard McGhee, Sam Rivers, Joe Carroll, Kenny Dorham and others. He has received awards and commissions from ASCAP, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the 15th Annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert, the MIT Wind Ensemble, the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, and Meet-the-Composer-Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program, among others. Commissions have featured such notables as Joe Lovano, Steve Turre, Herb Pomeroy and Ran Blake. Dr. Harvey teaches jazz studies and composition at MIT. He is a founding board member of JazzBoston.

Aardvark personnel for the April 11 show are: Arni Cheatham, Michael Heller, Phil Scarff, Chris Rakowski, Dan Zupan/saxes and woodwinds; K.C. Dunbar, Jeanne Snodgrass/trumpets; Jeff Marsanskis, Tom Plsek, Randy Pingrey/trombones; Richard Nelson/guitar; John Funkhouser/string bass; Harry Wellott/drums; Grace Brockmeyer, Jerry Edwards/vocalists; Mark Harvey/music director. Aardvark stalwarts Peter H. Bloom, flutes/woodwinds; Bob Pilkington, Bill Lowe and Jay Keyser, trombones will not be with the band on April 11, due to unavoidable conflicts.

Aardvark is managed exclusively by Americas Musicworks, Rebecca DeLamotte, managing director. Telephone: 617 776 8778. Visit: http//www.aardvarkjazz.com

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