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Livestream: VJC Big Band Scholarship Fundraiser: The Music of Duke Ellington The Vermont Jazz Center’s Big Band will present its Annual Scholarship Gala on Friday, December 2nd at 8:00 PM. This event is the primary fundraiser for the VJC Scholarship Fund which grants an annual average of $27, 000 in scholarships to students, offsetting fees for VJC ensembles, private lessons and its world-renowned summer jazz workshop. This year the band will feature clarinetist/vocalist Evan Arntzen in a tribute to one of America’s most important composers, Duke Edward Kennedy Ellington as well as raffle of some exciting items. The VJC Big Band, under the leadership of musical director Rob Freeberg, is made up of area professional musicians who come together to enjoy the rewards of playing invigorating, challenging and historically significant repertoire while raising money for the VJC’s Scholarship Fund. This year’s event will also include a raffle to enhance the Scholarship Fund. Duke Ellington’s music is widely loved. A small portion of his immense catalog are jazz standards, performed by jazz bands around the world, but Ellington’s imprint goes much deeper: his impact on the history of modern music cannot be overemphasized. According to music historian Gunther Schuller, Ellington was “the most significant composer of his genre.” Ellington’s Wikipedia entry confirms that he “wrote or collaborated on more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, and many of his pieces have become jazz standards.” Ellington gifted the world with a repertoire that includes hundreds of popular songs including “Satin Doll, ” “Do Nothing ‘till You Hear From Me, ” “It Don’t Mean a Thing, if it Ain’t Got that Swing, ” and “Mood Indigo, ” as well as symphonic works, movie soundtracks, music for ballet and opera, and three sacred concerts. The Ellington Orchestra remained together for over 50 years and featured legendary artists such as tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges, trombonist Lawrence Brown, bassist Jimmy Blanton, and many, many others. Ellington was the recipient of nine Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Pulitzer Prize for music. The United States Treasury and Postal Service have issued commemorative quarters and stamps with Ellington’s image. His achievements and persona have catapulted his presence into the world of myth and legend, earning him a star on Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame. He has been immortalized in songs and compositions written by Stevie Wonder, Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus and Miles Davis. Ellington was recognized for his gentle manners; he was a man of grace who was wined and dined by government leaders throughout the world. He charmed Queen Elizabeth and composed “The Queen’s Suite” for her alone - a single pressing of its recording was given to her and was not commercially issued during his lifetime. Ellington was a complex individual who often composed throughout the night, greeting the day at 2:00 in the afternoon. He was a deep-thinker, who despite his image as an entertainer, composed music that was ahead of its time, breaking down barriers and challenging expectations. For example, in numerous interviews, Ellington expounded on how he was not a fan of the word or concept of “jazz.” He claimed that pigeon-holing the music was a marketing tool detrimental to its perception, that because it was “beyond category, ” it would be better described using the phrase “free expression.” When asked by Edward R. Morrow in 1959 how he described his own music, Ellington said “we try to capture the natural sounds of the people, the people who are around us, walking down the street, whistling a tune or working while humming. We want to absorb what’s natural with the people.” Ellington raised the sounds of life to the level of art. He distilled and musically conveyed the qualities of those “natural sounds, ” encapsulating their essences and presenting them to the public (who he adored) in the context of swinging big-band music. Ellington’s compositions sensitively evoke the spirit of places and people, but they also embrace the value of bringing together people to dance and socialize. While accomplishing these grand feats Ellington simultaneously asserted activist statements that molded peoples’ conceptions about the Black experience. Even in the early years of his career, Ellington was a leader who was cognizant of the power of his place as a prominent artist. He strategically used this energy and positioning to became a spokesperson who utilized media to raise awareness of the plight of Black Americans. For example, his 1935 film Symphony in Black was the precursor to his musical suite Black Brown and Beige, which debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1943. Both of these works relayed the story of the lives of African Americans, emphasizing the place of slavery and the church in their history. Both narrative works brought to light the disparities of how people were (and are) being treated as a result of the shade of the color of their skin. Symphony in Black won an Academy Award for Best Musical Short Subject in 1935. Ellington was known for composing music for the people he cared for (such as his mother and the Queen of England) and for writing songs dedicated to the musicians in his band, some of whom stayed on for decades. He said “it’s a wonderful thing for me to write for an individual person when you know who the guy is who’s going to be playing it.” He composed “Jeep’s Blues” for Johnny Hodges, “Yearning for Love” for Lawrence Brown, “Trumpet in Spades” for Rex Stewart, and “Concerto for Cootie” for Cootie Williams; there are numerous other examples as well. In perusing Ellington’s original scores viewers can see the nick-names of the artists (like “Rabbit” for Johnny Hodges) scrawled in beside the staves of the manuscript. The VJC is proud to present the music of Duke Ellington in this special dance concert. Almost all of the original material was composed and arranged by Ellington or Billy Strayhorn, his musical-partner of 30 years. Concert-goers will hear music that was transcribed note-for-note from the original recordings. These “charts” were later made available by Essentially Ellington, a non-profit educational program that was established and funded by Jazz at Lincoln Center to distribute initially amongst schools and they have now been made commercially available. Audiences at this show will listen and dance to the authentic musical arrangements that were played by the Ellington orchestra. The arrangements will be embellished by improvised solos from the members of the VJC Big Band including this year’s guest artist, Evan Arntzen. Clarinetist, saxophonist, and vocalist Evan Arntzen was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, about as far away from New Orleans as one can be in North America, and yet it is the music of the Crescent City that sparked Arntzen’s musical journey. A third-generation musician, he began learning New Orleans-style clarinet from his grandfather, Lloyd Arntzen, at the age of seven. The first melodies he learned to play were blues tunes from great Black American composers, such as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton. After studying in Vancouver, Arntzen moved to New York City to perform and attend graduate school (he recently received his graduate degree in clarinet performance from Manhattan School of Music). Arntzen has performed at venues throughout the United States and Canada, including Jazz at Lincoln Center, Cafe Bohemia, Birdland, Town Hall, Mezzrow, Smalls, and Symphony Space, as well as Newport, Monterey and Montreal Jazz Festivals. Arntzen held the lead saxophone chair in Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks from 2016-2021, and also was a regular member of Terry Waldo’s Gotham City Band and David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Eternity Band. In 2017, Arntzen was the musical director of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “Jazz for Young People” program on Louis Armstrong. Currently, he performs with Catherine Russell, Jon-Erik Kellso and Bria Skonberg, in addition to his own groups. His discography includes notable recordings by Bria Skonberg, Kat Edmonson, Loudon Wainwright III, and the award-winning soundtrack for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. He has also released three critically-acclaimed albums as a leader: Evan Arntzen Meets La Section Rythmique, Jazz Crush, and Countermelody. Arntzen has performed and recorded with Scott Robinson, Wycliffe Gordon, Jason Marsalis, Ken Peplowski, Houston Person, Ingrid Jensen, Harry Allen, Corcoran Holt, Jerome Jennings, Michael Bublé, Warren Vaché, and Elmo from Sesame Street. December’s Annual Gala is the primary fundraiser for the VJC Scholarship Fund which grants an annual average of $27, 000 worth of scholarships to students, offsetting fees for ensembles, private lessons and their world-renowned summer jazz workshop. Since the pandemic, the VJC educational program is once again picking up steam. This year’s summer workshop, Emerging Artist Festival, and fall semester have all been successful. Your attendance and contributions to the scholarship fund will go directly towards benefitting students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to pursue their musical objectives. This Ellington-feature concert will be a hybrid event with both live stream and in-person components. Live-streamers can create intimate dance parties in their homes or choose to come to the Jazz Center to dance in-person to the sounds of a 16-piece big band. All attendees and musicians and everyone who is not actively playing wind instruments or singing will wear masks. The live stream for home viewers can be accessed on the Vermont Jazz Center’s website (www.vtjazz.org) or via its FaceBook Live page. Livestream viewers are encouraged to make an on-line donation to the Scholarship Fund in lieu of purchasing a ticket. The VJC Big Band is fortunate to have trumpeter Rob Freeberg’s guidance as musical director. He is a seasoned trumpeter and big band conductor who leads the VJC’s large ensemble with finesse and skill, drawing on his respect for the jazz legacy, an unerring ear and decades of experience leading his own Big Band in the New York City region. Freeberg moved to Dummerston, VT in 2012, after retiring from his position as Director of Bands at New Rochelle High School, NY, where he taught for 30 years. Freeberg is the musical director of the VJC Sextet and also performs with the Windham Orchestra, its brass quintet, the Bennington County Choral Society and the Keene Chorale. This year the VJC Big Band celebrates its 18th year, thanks in great part to band manager and baritone saxophonist Sherm Fox. His continued persistence and organizational efforts have provided the glue that has held the band together since 2004. Organizing 16 jazz cats is no small task. The VJC Big Band was originally a collaborative project initiated by Fox and Howard Brofsky (a.k.a Dr. Bebop), the VJC’s mentor and former board president who sadly passed away in 2013. Each year the VJC Big Band performs a concert that features a special guest artist. Past headliners have included Amanda Carr, Houston Person, Dave Stryker, Samirah Evans, Rich Greenblatt, Mark Anagnostopulos, Rebecca Holtz, Kevin Mahogany, Miles Griffith, Peter Eldridge, Wanda Houston and timbalero Eguie Castrillo. The VJC is grateful to the members of the 2022 VJC Big Band: trumpeters Don Anderson, Rick Anderson, Haneef Nelson and Rob Freeberg; woodwind players Michael Zsoldos, Sherm Fox, Matt Steckler, Carl Clements, Evan Arntzen and Donna Morse; trombonists Bruce Eidem, Dave Sporny and Amaranth Cole; and rhythm section members Eugene Uman (piano), Wes Brown (bass), and Steve Rice (drums). The VJC is especially grateful for sponsors Dianne and Steve Lieberman, medical professionals from Amherst, Massachusetts who have demonstrated their belief in the music and the VJC community by sponsoring this annual concert for many years. If you come to the show, you can thank them directly – you will find them kibitzing with audiences in the lobby. Dianne and Steve’s continued support and loving connection with the community is something the VJC is ever grateful for. The VJC also appreciates the support of the Vermont Arts Council, the Vermont Humanities Council, the New England Foundation of the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts. Thanks also to media support from The Commons and The Brattleboro Reformer. Be sure to mark Friday, December 2nd on your calendars, polish your dancing shoes to prepare for this fun evening—dance the night away and savor the sounds of swing music. Make your reservations early, as this concert always sells out quickly. Admission, $25+ general admission (sliding scale). No table seating is available this year in order to maximize social distancing and dancing space. Dancing is encouraged and chairs may be fewer than attendees. Anyone not actively performing will need to wear a mask. Tickets can be reserved by online at www.vtjazz.org, by email at ginger@vtjazz.org, by phone 802 254 9088 x1. Handicapped access is available by emailing or calling the VJC to schedule a time for one of our staff to meet your party. |
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