JAZZ ON THE MOVE AT TSU - THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF BILLY STRAYHORN at Tennessee State University

On Sunday, September 20 at 3pm, the Nashville Jazz Workshop and the Tennessee State University Music Department celebrate the 100th anniversity of Billy Strayhorn's birth with the next installment in the popular Jazz on the Move series. The program is a lecture/performance on The Life and Music of Billy Strayhorn, presented by vocalist Kevin Whalum and the NJW All-Stars, featuring George Tidwell(trumpet), Denis Solee (sax), Roland Barber (trombone), Lori Mechem (piano), Roger Spencer (bass), and Chester Thompson (drums), and an original script on the life of Strayhorn, written by Don O. Henry....

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On Sunday, September 20 at 3pm, the Nashville Jazz Workshop and the Tennessee State University Music Department celebrate the 100th anniversity of Billy Strayhorn's birth with the next installment in the popular Jazz on the Move series. The program is a lecture/performance on The Life and Music of Billy Strayhorn, presented by vocalist Kevin Whalum and the NJW All-Stars, featuring George Tidwell(trumpet), Denis Solee (sax), Roland Barber (trombone), Lori Mechem (piano), Roger Spencer (bass), and Chester Thompson (drums), and an original script on the life of Strayhorn, written by Don O. Henry.

Each installment of Jazz on the Move features a lecture and performance highlighting a major figure or period in jazz history. Presented by Nashville’s top jazz artist/educators, the series offers audiences world class music as well as an opportunity to learn more about jazz.

On Billy Strayhorn:

"....Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brainwaves in his head, and his in mine." - Duke Ellington

"That's all I did - that's all I ever did - try to do what Billy Strayhorn did." - Gil Evans

Few artists have influenced generations of those to come like composer, arranger, lyricist, and pianist Billy Strayhorn. Born 100 years ago this year, in 1915, William Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn indeed remains one of the most influential figures in American music. The composer of "Take the A Train," the theme song of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Strayhorn joined Ellington's band in 1939, at the age of twenty four.

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