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| Jon Faddis & CJE Celebrate Great American Songbook Artistic Director Jon Faddis and The Chicago Jazz Ensemble continue the celebration of the 10th American Heritage Jazz Series with The Great American Songbook featuring Bobbi Wilsyn, Curtis Fuller and Ron Hawking and the premiere of the ASCAP Jazz Commissioning Program salute to the life, work and 90th birthday of Hank Jones on Friday, February 20, at 8:00 pm at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 East Randolph, Chicago. In addition, Faddis and writer/broadcaster Neil Tesser will present a pre-concert conversation about the evening's performance at 7:20 pm. The Great American Songbook is an evening of American classics featuring the music of Leonard Bernstein, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and others. Drawing on classic arrangements from The CJE's library as well as from Faddis' own collection, the concert is sure to present some of everyone's favorite compositions from America's masters. Although she is originally from Los Angeles, Bobbi Wilsyn has found Chicago to be her "kind of town." As Artist-in-Residence and the Voice Studies Coordinator at Columbia College Chicago, she shares her professional expertise as a jazz singer, recording artist, and actress with her students. In addition to performing with The CJE, she performs and records in concert and nightspots with some of Chicago's foremost jazz artists, including Ramsey Lewis, Orbert Davis and Kurt Elling. Her musical theater performances include Beehive, Sophisticated Ladies and It Ain't Nothin' but the Blues. She has a self-produced CD, entitled It's About Time, recorded with her group, Bobbi Wilsyn & Co. She also has made her mark on the music scene as leader of the all-female jazz combo, SHE. Curtis Fuller was born in Detroit, where he spent 10 years of his childhood in an orphanage. His interest in jazz was piqued when a nun at the orphanage took him to see Illinois Jacquet's band, which featured J.J. Johnson on trombone. Fuller began playing the baritone horn in high school and switched to the trombone at age 16. He is an internationally-renowned master clinician in jazz studies programs, working with students and young professionals at numerous institutions across the country from institutions from Duke University to Harvard to Stanford and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He holds an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music. He has performed with some of the greatest in jazz, including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Sonny Clarke and Lionel Hampton. Curtis Fuller is known in the industry for his lyrical improvising and ingenious writing. On the road, on stage or in the studio, he is applauded as a relaxed professional who lifts every situation with his incredible sense of humor. Ron Hawking is creator, producer and star of "His Way: A Tribute to the Man and His Music, " which opened at Chicago's Mercury Theater for a six-week run, but ended up lasting eight months. The "His Way" album, which he produced, is getting distribution and airplay not only in the United States, but on the United Kingdom's BBC as well. In 1998, he wrote the music and lyrics for "Go Go Sammy Sosa" as a salute to the Chicago Cubs superstar. Hawking has performed at New York's Carnegie Hall with the Philly Pops Orchestra and has opened for Carol Channing, Sheena Easton, Robert Klein and The Temptations. In addition to being an accomplished vocalist, he is also one of the country's leading impressionists and one of the most sought-after jingle singers and commercial voice-over artists in the country. For the 12th year, the ASCAP Jazz Commissioning Program has commissioned two new works in honor of one of the genre's major figures. This year, the new compositions will honor the life, work, and 90th Birthday of composer and pianist Hank Jones. The ASCAP Commissioning Program awards two cash prizes - the first to an established jazz composer of international prominence, the other to an emerging jazz composer under the age of 35. This year's prize recipients are Richard Sussman in the Established Jazz Composer Category, and Tyler Gilmore in the Emerging Jazz Composer Category. Richard Sussman has extensive experience as a jazz and rock keyboardist and composer, including performances with Lionel Hampton, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Donna Summer, David Sanborn, Little Anthony, and many others. Based in Denver, Tyler Gilmore is pursuing various artistic goals with his jazz large ensemble "ninth+Lincoln, " as well as teaching composition privately. His ensemble features some of Colorado's top jazz performers and has made a name for itself as the top progressive composer's orchestra in the region. The Chicago Jazz EnsembleTM is: JON FADDIS, Artistic Director & trumpet;alto saxophones, DAN NICHOLSON and JARRARD HARRIS; tenor saxophones, PAT MALLINGER and ROB DENTY; baritone saxophone, BRIAN SJOERDINGA; trombones, AUDREY MORRISON, TIM COFFMAN, TRACY KIRK, and THOMAS MATTA; trumpets, MARK OLEN, LARRY BOWEN, ART HOYLE and PHAREZ WHITTED; guitar, FRANK DAWSON; bass, DAN ANDERSON; Music Director & drums, DANA HALL; vocals, BOBBI WILSYN. The Chicago Jazz Ensemble's 10th anniversary series also includes The Art of the Composer: Music by William Russo and Frank Foster on Friday, March 20, 2009. On June 5, 2009, at 8 pm, The CJE - with MacArthur-Award winner Regina Carter as special guest on violin - takes the stage at Symphony Center for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Echoes of Nations: Dvořák Festival in a performance of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington: "Black, Brown and Beige" and "The New Orleans Suite." The CJE, in residence at Columbia College Chicago, is sponsored in part by Downbeat, Schilke Music Products, MacArthur Fund for Arts & Culture at Prince, Illinois Arts Council, The Chicago Community Trust, Polk Bros Foundation, Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, The Robert Pritzker Family Foundation, The Sara Lee Foundation and media sponsor WDCB/90.9 FM. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Jazz News :: home page |