Pacific Jazz Ensemble
Joe Mazzaferro, director
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
7:30 pm
Faye Spanos Concert Hall
Circus (1949)
Pacific Jazz Arranger’s Ensemble
Roy Allan (1995)
Ms. B.C. (1981)
Bob Russell (1914-1970)
arr. Alex Maldonado
Roy Hangrove (1969-2018)
arr. Aimee MacDonald
Pamela Baskin-Watson (b. 1953)
arr. Jenna Kalik
Back Bone (1965)
Pacific Jazz Ensemble
Thad Jones (1923-1986)
Lately (1988) Maria Schneider (b. 1960)
Passion Flower (1961)
Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967)
I Left My Heart In San Fransisco (1953) George Cory (1920-1978) Dougles Cross (1920-1975) arr. Quincy Jones
Late (2025)
Bergen FInley (b. 2003)
PROGRAM NOTES
Russell: Circus
Bob Russell’s early music career was spent writing special material for vaudeville acts and later for film studios. He wrote complete scores for the films Jack and the Beanstalk and Reach for Glory, the latter of which received the Locarno Film Festival prize in 1962. Other films that include Russell compositions include That Midnight Kiss, Ticket to Tomahawk, SoundOff, Affair in Trinidad, Meet Captain Kidd, and The Girl Can’t Help It. His compositions The Girl Most Likely, Blue Gardenia and Matter of Who were the title songs for their respective films. Russell collaborated with several lyricists and composers including Duke Ellington, Harry Warren, Lester Lee, Carl Sigman, Lou Alter, Harold Spina, Peter De Rose and Bronislaw Kaper.
—Songwriters Hall of Fame
Hargrove: Roy Allan
Roy Hargrove was a pioneer in modern hard-bop jazz and is widely regarded as one of the best trumpeters to emerge from the 1990s. Hargrove was not limited to just hard-bop, or even bop and Latin; his music is infused with a kaleidoscope of influences and his successes have reached far beyond jazz. Roy Allan is the second movement of a three-movement suite dedicated to Hargrove's family. From his liner notes for the Family album: "The second section, Roy Allan, is for my father (he and I have different middle names, thus making me not a "junior"). The piece has a funky backbeat and a melodic bass line that illustrates my father's earthiness. He was a sousaphone player in high school and sang bass in the choir, so the bass line is definitely about him."
—jazzleadsheets.com
Baskin-Watson: Ms. B.C.
After studying piano on full scholarship at Kansas City Community College, Pam continued her studies at the University of Miami in piano, theory and composition. Pam is also an excellent lyricist and vocal arranger. Her gift for composition was quickly recognized by the Jazz Messenger, Art Blakey, who first recorded Pam's Ms. B.C. The piece is dedicated to vocalist Betty Carter, whose combos have also been a fertile training ground for future jazz greats.
—Second Floor Music
Jones: Back Bone
Thad Jones wrote his first arrangement at the age of thirteen, when he was a trumpet player in his uncle’s band in his native Pontiac, Michigan. He put in his Army time in the forties, had a band of his own, and played with various other bands before joining the Count Basie Band in 1954. In 1963 he left
PROGRAM NOTES
Basie and began arranging for singers, small groups, and the big Harry James Band. Thad Jones and Mel Lewis formed their orchestra in 1965.
—Kendor Music
Schneider: Lately
Recorded on Days of Wine and Roses—Live at the Jazz Standard, Lately is a medium tempo straight-ahead swing piece featuring piano and trombone. It has a sax soli, which is notable, because it's one of the very few I've written. When I first moved to New York in 1985, I'd go down to the Village Vanguard at least half the Monday nights each year and I'd listen to the great Mel Lewis Orchestra play. There was just nothing on this earth like hearing Mel play a medium tempo in that room. Those were some of the greatest nights of my life. Mel's playing inspired me to write Lately, when I was studying with Bob Brookmeyer.
—Maria Schneider
Strayhorn: Passion Flower
Billy Strayhorn is known as a composer of many classical pieces first played by Duke Ellington. The song Passion Flower was written in 1941 and first recorded by Johnny Hodges with a small group (arrangement by Strayhorn). On the radio in 1945 the Ellington Orchestra performed a completely different Strayhorn arrangement of this tune. This arrangement was written in 1956 by Strayhorn and is an all-out alto saxophone feature. This same arrangement was later recorded by Ella Fitzgerald with the Duke Ellington Orchestra for the Ella at Duke’s Place album, recorded in 1965.
—Jeff Sultanof, Doug DuBoff, and Rob DuBoff
Cory/Cross/Jones: I Left My Heart In San Francisco
Quincy Jones wrote some incredible arrangements on very popular tunes for the Count Basie Orchestra. As recorded on Hits of the 50's & 60's—This Time By Basie, Quincy's arrangement of I Left My Heart In San Francisco features great interplay between the ensemble and the piano.
—Sierra Music Publications
Finley: Late
Late is a tune I wrote this semester while exploring new voicings on the piano. It started out as a composition for small group, but arranging it for big band gave me the chance to rethink some concepts and explore a new context. The harmony provides a floating, unresolved feeling, and writing for a larger ensemble has allowed me to experiment with texture, contrast, and dynamic range.
—Bergen Finley
Joe Mazzaferro is the associate director of jazz studies and associate professor of practice in jazz at University of the Pacific. As a trumpeter, educator, and composer, Mazzaferro is active in the Northern California jazz scene and in demand as a guest artist and clinician across the United States. Mazzaferro’s debut release In Terms of . . . (2017)—which features saxophonist Jeff Clayton along with special guests, drummer Carl Allen and pianist Donald Brown—received high praise from critics and was described as “vintage hard bop with maturity” (George Harris, Jazz Weekly).
Mazzaferro has gained critical acclaim as a composer and arranger and has arranged works for pianist Edward Simon, drummer Carl Allen, trumpeter Terell Stafford, and vocalist Jazzmeia Horn. In 2019 he contributed arrangements to Smoke Session Record’s release Bird at 100, commemorating the centennial of Charlie Parker’s birth, which featured alto saxophonists Vincent Herring, Bobby Watson, and Gary Bartz. Mazzaferro’s July 2020 big-band release Talk About It! Live @ The CLARA features exclusively his arrangements and compositions.
Mazzaferro is a graduate of University of the Pacific (BM, music education) and the University of Tennessee (MM, jazz and studio music).
Pacific Jazz Arranger’s Ensemble
The ensemble is a collection of members from Pacific Jazz Ensemble who perform student works. The arrangements for this concert come from the spring 2025 Jazz Arranging and Composition for the Large Ensemble class and focus on use of nonet and dectet arrangements.
Pacific Jazz Ensemble
An award-winning big band in the tradition of Duke Ellington and Count
Basie, the ensemble performs classic big band literature and embraces the music of contemporary composers and arrangers. They have an impressive list of credentials and have been invited to perform at jazz festivals around the West Coast.
Saxophones
Aimee MacDonald, alto*
Ves Turk, alto
Leo Milano, tenor
Warren Wigfall, tenor
Tristan McMichael, baritone
Trumpets
Alex Maldonado*
Kai Hatton
Kamron Qasimi
Alejandro Villalobos
Trombones
Miguel Palma*
Bronson Burfield
Victor Camacho
Jayden Laumeister
Rhythm Section
Michael Belasco, guitar
Marwan Ghonima, piano
Kyle Saelee, bass
Joe Evans, drums
*lead player
Jazz ensemble coaches
Patrick Langham, program director, saxophone
Joseph Mazzaferro, associate director, trumpet
Jamie Dubberly, trombone
Sean Britt, guitar
Aaron Garner, piano
Brian Kendrick, percussion
Andrew Mell, double bass
Jonathan Latta, ensembles program director
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