PURCHASE JAZZ ORCHESTRA FEATURING GARY SMULYAN APR 7, 8:00PM & 10:30PM
PURCHASE JAZZ ORCHESTRA The Purchase Jazz Orchestra is a 17-piece big band that performs jazz from every era. From staples like Ellington and Basie, to more modern works by today’s leading composers and arrangers like Jim McNeely, John Clayton, Michael Abene, and Maria Schneider, the PJO swings and is always a pleasure to listen to. GRAMMY® Award-winning jazz bassist Todd Coolman, and legendary trumpeter Jon Faddis co-direct the group. GARY SMULYAN Baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan is critically acclaimed as one of the major voices on the baritone saxophone today. As a teenager growing up on Long Island, Gary had the opportunity to perform with Lee Konitz, Chet Baker, and Jimmy Knepper. In 1978, he was asked to join Woody Herman’s Young Thundering Herd, which at that time included Joe Lovano, Marc Johnson and John Riley. He left Herman in 1980 and moved back to New York to join the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, led by Bob Brookmeyer. Mr. Smulyan has recorded and performed worldwide with Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Tom Harrell. Cedar Walton, George Coleman, Joe Henderson, Joe Lovano, Tommy Flanagan, Chick Corea,
Diana Ross, Clark Terry, Kenny Wheeler, Charles McPherson, James Moody and Slide Hampton, among others. He has recorded five CDs for the CrissCross label: The Lure of Beauty; Saxophone Mosaic (voted one of the best 25 CDs of 1995 by WBGO); Homage (featuring Tommy Flanagan); Gary Smulyan with Strings (selected as one of the 10 best jazz CDs of 1997 by the Boston Globe); and Blue Suite with Brass. Gary’s new release, The Real Deal, on Reservoir Records is currently available. Smulyan currently performs with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Joe Lovano Nonet, the Dave Holland Octet and Big Band, the Three Baritone Saxophone Band, the George Coleman Octet, the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band and the Tom Harrell Octet, as well as his own projects. Over a span of 20-plus years, Gary has won the DownBeat and JazzTimes Critics and Readers Polls multiple times for Baritone Saxophonist of the Year in addition to winning the 2009, 2010 and 2012 Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Award for Baritone Saxophonist of the Year. Smulyan is currently on faculty at William Paterson University and is a clinician and endorser for Vandoren Woodwind Products and Keilworth Saxophones. n