On Common Ground II

THE DUKE ELLINGTON JAZZ SERIES 路 WILLIE RUFF, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

On Common Ground 2

Robert Blocker, Dean

ON COMMON GROUND 2 November 12, 2010 · Sprague Memorial Hall

Andy Akiho

Mia and eviE

PAN JAM & LIME STEEL BAND Debby Teason, director Deborah Fischer Teason

Essakane*

Paul Kerekes

bert’s life flashes before his eyes*

Sam Adams

Jill Scott in the Triangle*

Andy Akiho

Common Ground*

COMMON GROUND ENSEMBLE Andy Akiho, tenor pan Brandon Ferguson, tenor pan Kenneth Joseph, tenor and double seconds Paul Kerekes, piano Sam Adams, bass Kenneth Salters, drums Luke Rodney, djembe *World premiere The composers for the Common Ground Steel Sextet dedicate these new works to Willie Ruff.

Tito Puente arr. D.F. Teason

Oye Como Va

Edwin Hawkins arr. A. GrisĂŠ

Oh Happy Day

Denyse Plummer arr. N. Chase, D.F. Teason

Trini Carnival (Carnival Killer)

ST. LUKE’S STEEL BAND Debby Teason, director Donna Johnson, assistant director Andy Akiho, guest steel pan Brief pause

Selections will be announced from the stage.

THE BEN ALLISON BAND Jenny Scheinman, violin Michael Blake, saxophones Steve Cardenas, guitar Ben Allison, bass Michael Sarin, drums

As a courtesy to others, please silence all phones and devices.

Photography of any kind is strictly prohibited. Please do not leave the hall during musical selections. Thank you.

ANDY AKIHO tenor pan

Andy Akiho is an award-winning composer and performer whose broad interests stretch from steel pan to western classical music.

Recently featured on PBS’s News Hour with Jim Lehrer, his compositions have been recognized by such organizations as Meet the Composer, Bang On a Can, the World Steelband Music Festival, and the 2009 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Awards. Akiho currently studies composition at the Yale School of Music and is an active member of the Claremont Ensemble, TACTUS, and the Andees Trio. As a percussionist, Akiho has performed with numerous ensembles, including the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra, Djoliba Don West African Drum and Dance Ensemble, Gamelan Lila Muni (Eastman School of Music), and many chamber ensembles throughout New York City. Akiho won second prize in the 2002 World Steelband Music Festival solo competition and has participated in the world’s premier steel pan event, Panorama. » www.andyakiho.com

BEN ALLISON bass

Ben Allison is a “visionary composer, adventurous improviser, and strong organizational force on the New York City jazz scene, [and] has emerged as a rising star over the past decade” (JazzTimes). With his groups The Ben Allison Band, Man Size Safe, Peace Pipe, and Medicine Wheel, Ben has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Brazil.

Called “one of today’s best young jazz musicians” by the Boston Globe, Ben has released nine CDs of original music – eight on Palmetto Records, and his 1996 debut on the Koch Jazz label — all of which showcase his forwardthinking vision and his hands-on approach to his craft. Since 2003 Ben has been routinely listed in the Downbeat Critics Poll in a wide variety of categories including Bassist, Composer, Rising Star Bassist (ranking No. 1 in 2005-2007), Rising Star Album, Rising Star Acoustic Group, Rising Star Arranger, and Rising Star Jazz Artist. In 2005, Ben received the Bird Award, The Netherland’s most prestigious jazz-related award. “I see the the whole process — from assembling a band, writing and workshopping the music, recording and mastering the album, doing the artwork and writing the notes, and then touring the project — to be all part of the process of musical expression,” says Ben. Ben’s most recent album, Think Free, reached No. 1 on the CMJ National Jazz radio charts and remained in the top 20 for over three months. His previous five albums achieved similar radio success, garnered six SESAC National Performance Awards, and have been named among the best of the year by Billboard,

the New York Times, Boston Globe, Village Voice, Jazz Times, Jazz Journalists Association, Downbeat, All About Jazz, Coda (Canada), and Jazz Review (UK), among many others.

As the artistic director and a composer-inresidence of the Jazz Composers Collective, which he founded at age 25, Ben has produced or co-produced over 100 concerts and special events, including the Collective’s concert series (which ran for eleven seasons), national and international tours by Collective artists, an ongoing Collective residency at the Museum of Modern Art, and an annual festival at the Jazz Standard — which has drawn international attention as a mainstay of New York City’s musical life. As a member of the Collective, Ben has received commissioning, performing, and recording grants from Chamber Music America, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, National Endowment for the Arts, Aaron Copland Foundation, Meet the Composer, and American Composers Forum.

Born in 1966 in New Haven, Ben has performed the world over with musicians from oudist Ara Dinkjian to saxophonist Lee Konitz to legendary performance artist Joey Arias. He has appeared on over forty albums by various artists and has written music for film, television, and radio, including the theme for the National Public Radio show On the Media and the score for Donald Margulies’s play Two Days. He was a featured artist with the Jazz Sinfonica Orchestra of Sao Paulo in 2005 and 2008. » www.benallison.com

PAN JAM and LIME STEEL BAND

tenor pans Anne Lise Almira, Brandon Ferguson, Isis Jimenez, Crew Smith double seconds Deborah Garcia, Debby Teason, Alex Teixeira

The Pan, Jam, and Lime Steel Band is a cultural, music group dedicated to performing in the musical style and art form of the pan, also known as the steel drum. It is open to all interested Yalies.

double guitars Catherine Chen, Dennis Jones

We intend to not only represent and educate about the artform (PAN); but also to inspire and entertain (JAM); and to work as a team and have fun (LIME) all at the same time.

six bass Keisha Baptiste

Âť www.yale.edu/jamandlime Âť PanJamLime@gmail.com

drums Kenneth Salters (guest)

ST. LUKE’S STEEL BAND

tenor pans Andy Akiho (guest), Kyra Bellamy, Danisha Daniel, Brandon Ferguson, Kenneth Joseph, Ryan Rattley, Alexis Grant, Amaris Topper double tenor Kathleen Garrigan double seconds Paul Berglund, Marcus Brantley, Vickie Daniel, Paula Ferguson, Alan Pensak, Joy Scott double guitars Lloyd Daniel, Joffie Foreman, Donna Johnson, Debby Teason cello Lloyd Daniel tenor bass Edward Mapp six bass Pat Daniel, George Joshua, Lisa Yarbor engine room James Collins, Laurence Downes, Luke Rodney, Kareem Victory, Wes Yarbor music director Debby Teason assistant director Donna Johnson business manager Edward Mapp

St. Luke’s Steel Band began in the fall of 1999 when Father Victor Rogers and a group of supporters from New Haven’s historic St. Luke’s Episcopal Church purchased a set of used steel drums from a band in Brooklyn. Since then, the group has attracted a dedicated membership of 25 players of all ages. Many of the members or their families come from the West Indies: the islands of Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago are all represented in the ensemble.

The band performs regularly during services at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. It also plays for concerts, festivals, and other events throughout the region. Its repertoire includes soca and calypso, reggae, classical, sacred, jazz, popular music, and island folk music.

Under the direction of coach/arranger Debby Teason and assistant director Donna Johnson, St. Luke’s Steel Band has gained a reputation as one of the area’s most unique and exciting performing ensembles. The band’s achievements were recognized in 2003 by an Artist’s Award from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, and they have won two gold medals at the Panorama Caribbean Music Fests in Virginia Beach. In 2008 they performed with tenor pan virtuoso Liam Teague for a standingroom-only crowd in New Haven, and April 2009 featured a joint concert with the renowned Positive Vibrations Youth Steel Orchestra from Washington, DC. » www.slsteelband.com

DEBORAH TEASON director, Pan Jam & Lime Steel Band and St. Luke’s Steel Band

Deborah Fischer Teason is a composer, steel band director, arranger and educator based in Connecticut. She holds a degree in theory and composition from Arizona State University.

Her introduction to pans came in 1992 when she joined the graduate student steel band at Wesleyan University under the direction of ethnomusicologist Gage Averill.

As a music teacher in a K-6 school in New Haven, she arranged and published steel band repertoire for Orff instruments. In 1999 she was invited to direct the steel band program at Neighborhood Music School and several months later was asked to help St. Luke’s Episcopal Church develop a steel band. St. Luke’s Steel Band is now a well-known ensemble that performs throughout New England and has collaborated with such artists as Liam Teague, the Positive Vibrations Youth Steel Orchestra of Washington, D.C., and Andy Akiho and the Yale School of Music. The Pantastic Steel Orchestra of Neighborhood Music School is also a highly successful ensemble, performing throughout the region.

In 2004 Ms. Teason began a pan program at Highville Charter School, a pre-K through 8th grade school in Hamden, CT, and since 2007 she has directed Pan Jam & Lime, the Yale-West Indian Student Organization’s steel band. She arranges extensively for all the ensembles she directs, and her compositions for pan include Trinity, a concerto for steel band and orchestra; and Cadences for solo tenor pan and string quartet, which was premiered by Liam Teague and the Vermeer Quartet in 2006.

THE DUKE ELLINGTON FELLOWSHIP AT YALE Willie Ruff, director

Dizzy Gillespie and Willie Ruff

For thirty-seven years, the Duke Ellington Fellowship has brought the giants of jazz to Yale’s concert halls and to the city’s public schools. In 1972, Yale President Kingman Brewster presented the first Ellington medals to thirty jazz greats, including the Duke himself. That year marked the beginning of a series of extraordinary jazz concerts performed by a virtual “Who’s Who” of jazz: Eubie Blake, Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson, Odetta, Joe Williams, Art Blakey, Kenny Clarke, Sonny Greer, Jo Jones, Max Roach, Ray Brown, Charlie Mingus, and Dizzy Gillespie, to name just a few.

The program continues with concerts and residencies by both the great legends of jazz and an exciting new generation of artists. Hosted by the program’s founder and director, Willie Ruff, recent concerts have featured Joshua Redman, James Moody, Elvin Jones, Dave Brubeck, the Heath Brothers, Ahmad Jamal, and Kenny Burrell.

YALE JAZZ ENSEMBLE Coming Up

Tribute to Glenn Miller & Cole Porter December 3 | 7:30 pm | Fri | Woolsey Tickets $15–$25 / Students $10 Thomas C. Duffy directs the Yale Jazz Ensemble and Yale Concert Band in two historical recreations: Glenn Miller’s 1944 radio broadcasts from Woolsey Hall, and the music of Cole Porter ’13 with New York cabaret artist Steve Ross.

Yale Jazz Ensemble February 1 | 7:30 pm | Fri | Sprague The Yale Jazz Ensemble’s winter concert. Thomas C. Duffy, director.

Yale Jazz Ensemble April 3 | 2 pm | Sun | Levinson Auditorium The Fourth Annual Stan Wheeler Memorial Jazz Concert. Thomas C. Duffy, director.

All events free unless otherwise indicated.

COMING UP

http://music.yale.edu

Yale School of Music 203 432-4158 concerts@yale.edu music.yale.edu/media

concerts & media Vincent Oneppo Dana Astmann Monica Ong Reed Danielle Heller Richard Henebry operations Tara Deming Christopher Melillo

PANEL: A VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF MUSIC November 13 | Saturday | 10 am

piano curators Brian Daley William Harold recording studio Eugene Kimball Jason Robins

ďƒŽ Sudler Hall in WL Harkness Hall Willie Ruff, artistic director of the Duke Ellington Fellowship at Yale, leads a panel discussion with Nick Lloyd, the owner of Firehouse 12, plus Ben Allison, Andy Akiho, Samuel Adams, and Deborah Teason.