New England Jazz Ensemble at Infinity Hall Hartford

The New England Jazz Ensemble returns to the Infinity Hall Hartford stage to present their Ellington/Strayhorn adaptation of the Nutcracker Suite. In addition to this popular big band rendition of the Tchaikovsky classic, the concert will be chock full of beautiful/original compositions and Holiday favorites.

The New England Jazz Ensemble was created in 1991 to play original work and to explore new sounds for the jazz orchestra. One of the region’s top driving forces that are keeping the big band genre thriving, its library of original compositions is incomparable. Its stable of arrangers is headed by music director/pianist Walt Gwardyak, and includes band members Jeff Holmes, John Mastroianni, Phil Person and others. ...

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The New England Jazz Ensemble returns to the Infinity Hall Hartford stage to present their Ellington/Strayhorn adaptation of the Nutcracker Suite. In addition to this popular big band rendition of the Tchaikovsky classic, the concert will be chock full of beautiful/original compositions and Holiday favorites.

The New England Jazz Ensemble was created in 1991 to play original work and to explore new sounds for the jazz orchestra. One of the region’s top driving forces that are keeping the big band genre thriving, its library of original compositions is incomparable. Its stable of arrangers is headed by music director/pianist Walt Gwardyak, and includes band members Jeff Holmes, John Mastroianni, Phil Person and others.

The band has recorded five CDs, including a live recording at the inaugural Pittsfield CityJazz Festival in 2005, and a Christmas CD featuring Ellington’s Nutcracker and other holiday jazz.

Guitarist John Abercrombie, flutist Ali Ryerson and vocalist Giacomo Gates appears as guest artists on the band’s most recent CD, recorded ‘live’ in concert at the Polish National Home in Hartford. Also in the making is their big-band reworking of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf,” with a CD anticipated for early 2016.

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