KU Jazz Ensemble I with special guest Steve Wilson by Lied Center of Kansas

Tuesday

MAR 31 7:30 pm

KU Jazz Ensemble I with special guest

Steve Wilson saxophones

Jayhawk Live

This event is sponsored, in part, by the Lied Performance Fund.

Please be mindful of the following in the auditorium: • Please silence cellular phones and electronic devices • No food or drink • No cameras or recording devices

March 31, 2015

The program will be announced from the stage. There will be no intermission during this performance.

STEVE WILSON, Alto and Soprano Saxophones Highly regarded as a musician’s musician, Steve Wilson has brought his distinctive sound to more than 100 recordings and ensembles led by such celebrated artists as Chick Corea, Ron Carter, Christian McBride, George Duke, Michael Brecker, Dianne Reeves, Bill Bruford, Gerald Wilson, Maria Schneider, Joe Henderson, Charlie Byrd, Karrin Allyson, and Don Byron among many others. Arriving in New York in 1987, Wilson quickly became first-call choice for veteran and emerging artists alike, prompting a New York Times profile “A Sideman’s Life.” Since 1997 he has been regularly cited in the Downbeat Magazine Critics and Readers Polls in the soprano and alto saxophone categories. In 2008, the Jazz Journalists Association nominated him for Soprano Sax Player of the Year and for Alto Sax Player of the Year in 2010. In February 2011, Wilson celebrated his 50th birthday with a sixnight engagement, leading six different bands, at Jazz Standard, NYC’s premiere jazz club. In a major interview feature preview, The Wall Street Journal proclaimed, “The Sideman Becomes the Star.” The WSJ article, by writer Larry Blumenfeld, added, “Mr. Wilson is essential to this city’s jazz landscape.” Wilson is a respected leader of two diverse ensembles––Steve Wilson Quartet and Wilsonian’s Grain. He is also one-half of three dynamic duos, one with drummer Lewis Nash, the other with pianist Bruce Barth as documented on their recent recording Home on the We Always Swing label, and he also partners with pianist Billy Childs. Wilson also co-leads a sublime and elegant trio with Renee Rosnes and Peter Washington. Wilson has seven recordings under his own name, leading and collaborating with such stellar artists as Nicholas Payton, Mulgrew Miller, Rene Marie, Ray Drummond, Cyrus Chestnut, Greg Hutchinson and Ben Riley. Random Act Records releases Wilson’s eighth recording as a leader, Steve Wilson & Wilsonian’s Grain: Live in New York: The Vanguard Sessions on March 24, 2015. Recorded live at the historic Village Vanguard in New York City, the CD features Orrin Evans on piano, Ugonna Okegwo on bass and Bill Stewart on drums. This project was partially funded through the generous support of 216 donors who contributed to Wilson’s first-ever Kickstarter campaign. An in-demand and passionate educator, Wilson is an associate professor of music at City College of New York, and he is on faculty at the Juilliard School. He has been artist in residence at numerous institutions including the University of North CarolinaChapel Hill, University of Manitoba, University of Maryland-College Park and Virginia Commonwealth University. He conducts clinics and master classes around the world.

Steve Wilson, saxophone DAN GAILEY, KU Director of Jazz Studies and Professor of Music Saxophonist, composer and arranger, Dan Gailey, is in his 25th year as the director of jazz studies and professor of music at the University of Kansas. At KU, Gailey directs Jazz Ensemble I, teaches courses in jazz composition and arranging, produces the annual KU Jazz Festival, and is the director of the KU Jazz Workshop. He is the recipient of the 1996 IAJE Gil Evans Fellowship, an annual award that identifies an emerging jazz composer from an international field of candidates. Under his direction, the KU Jazz Studies Program has received 19 DownBeat Student Music Awards. Gailey holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Pacific Lutheran University and a Master of Music degree in Theory/Composition from the University of Northern Colorado. His compositions can be heard on numerous professional and college big band albums and are published exclusively through UNC Jazz Press. His debut CD with the Dan Gailey Jazz Orchestra, What Did You Dream?, was released in July 2010 on Origin/OA2 Records and features all original compositions. The CD spent almost two years on the JazzWeek Radio Airplay charts and received favorable reviews from JAZZIZ, JazzTimes and Cadence magazines, among others. KU JAZZ ENSEMBLE I The University of Kansas Jazz Ensemble I, directed by Dan Gailey, is the flagship ensemble within the KU Jazz Studies Program. The program has received 19 DownBeat Student Music Awards, with three of these awards going to Jazz Ensemble I in the category of Best College Big Band in the United States or Canada. In July 2014, the ensemble played eight shows in 11 days as part of a European tour, with dates in France, Germany and Switzerland. The tour included appearances by invitation at two of the world’s most prestigious jazz festivals—the Montreux Jazz Festival, where the band performed twice, and the Jazz À Vienne Festival. The ensemble has also been featured at International Association of Jazz Educators Conferences in New York City, Boston and Atlanta, with guest soloists including Dave Liebman, Jim McNeely and Rick Margitza, and guest composer/conductor Maria Schneider. Other major appearances consist of two recent concerts at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, including the band’s December 2014 performance with internationally acclaimed vocalist Deborah Brown. Jazz Ensemble I has had the distinction of performing with such noted guest artists as Toshiko Akiyoshi, Clark Terry, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Dave Douglas, Rich Perry, Alex Sipiagin, Louie Bellson, Tim Ries, Peter Erskine, Vince Mendoza, Conrad Herwig, Bob Sheppard, Gary Foster, Steve Houghton, Bob Mintzer, Bobby Shew, Carl Fontana, Dick Oatts, Frank Mantooth, Ingrid Jensen, Dave Pietro, Scott Wendholt, John Fedchock, Bill Watrous, Mavis Rivers and Matt Catingub, Jon Hendricks, Pete Christlieb, Kevin Mahogany, Don Shelton, Marvin Stamm, Paul McKee and many others.

Saturday

APR 11

OF KANSAS

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Million Dollar Quartet

Listen in on one of the greatest jam sessions ever!