[NEohioPAL] Oberlin Jazz Ensemble Kicks Off Season Nov. 3 with Works of Jean-Baptiste 'Illinois' Jacquet

[Marci Janas]

Media Contact Only:

Marci Janas, Director of Conservatory Media Relations

440-775-8328 (office); 440-667-2724 (cell); marci.janas at oberlin.edu


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:



THE OBERLIN JAZZ ENSEMBLE KICKS OFF THE SEASON IN STYLE
  WITH THE WORKS OF JEAN-BAPTISTE ‘ILLINOIS’ JACQUET NOV. 3


OBERLIN, OHIO (October 25, 2007)—The acclaimed Oberlin Jazz Ensemble  
(OJE) at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music will kick off the 2007-08  
performance season in style on Saturday, November 3, 2007, at 8 p.m.  
in Finney Chapel with a program of works by Jean-Baptiste “Illinois”  
Jacquet. Considered by most musicians to be the greatest tenor  
saxophonist of the 20th-century, Jacquet (1922-2004) contributed  
numerous standards to the repertoire, including “Flying Home,”  
“Stompin’ at the Savoy,” “More Than You Know,” and “Three Buckets of  
Jive,” all of which will be performed by the OJE under the direction  
of Visiting Professor of Jazz Dennis Reynolds.

Politics and jazz collided in January 1993 when Jacquet played “C-Jam  
Blues” with former President Bill Clinton, an amateur saxophonist, on  
the White House lawn during Clinton’s inaugural ball. Jacquet’s  
lifelong companion and business manager, Carol Scherric, as well as  
his daughter Pamela, will be in Oberlin to hear the Oberlin Jazz  
Ensemble perform his works.

All OJE concerts are free and open to the public, and are held in  
Oberlin’s historic Finney Chapel, located at 90 North Professor St.,  
across from Tappan Square, on the Oberlin College campus. Finney  
Chapel is wheelchair accessible, and free parking is available  
throughout the campus. Upcoming OJE concerts for this season are  
planned for Saturday, December 1, 2007, Saturday, March 8, 2008, and  
Saturday, May 10, 2008; all concerts begin at 8 p.m.

The Oberlin Jazz Ensemble was founded by Wendell Logan, Professor of  
African American Music and Chair of Oberlin’s Jazz Studies  
Department, in 1973. Composed of jazz as well as classical  
performance majors, the ensemble is a component in a four-year  
curriculum in jazz studies, leading to a bachelor of music degree  
with a concentration in performance, composition, or both. The United  
States Information Agency has invited the ensemble to make an  
extended tour of major cities in Brazil, and the OJE frequently  
appears at collegiate festivals throughout the U.S. In 2002, the OJE  
took the top honors at the 44th Annual Collegiate Jazz Festival, held  
at the University of Notre Dame.

		Visiting Professor of Jazz Dennis Bradley Reynolds is the artistic  
director of the Jazz Heritage Orchestra. A former lead trumpet player  
with the Count Basie Band, directed by Frank Foster, he is also a  
former member of the Lionel Hampton orchestra, and a former lead  
trumpeter with the Clark Terry Big Band. Mr. Reynolds has performed  
with such stars as Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Lawrence and Edie Gormé,  
Rita Moreno, Patti Austin, Roberta Flack, Rosemary Clooney, and Ella  
Fitzgerald. A resident of Warren, Ohio, he has assembled the group of  
artists who make up the Jazz Heritage Orchestra not only because they  
are excellent performers and teachers, but also because of their  
ability to relate to young people and to serve as role models. Mr.  
Reynolds is a graduate of the Lamont School of Music.

		The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, founded in 1865 and situated  
amid the intellectual vitality of Oberlin College since 1867, is the  
oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States.  
Renowned internationally as a professional music school of the  
highest caliber and pronounced a “national treasure” by the  
Washington Post, its alumni have gone on to achieve illustrious  
careers in all aspects of the serious music world. Oberlin offers a  
premier undergraduate jazz studies program, chaired by Professor of  
African American Music Wendell Logan, that prepares students for  
careers as professional jazz musicians and for advanced study in  
jazz. The jazz studies faculty includes composers and performers who,  
in addition to teaching lessons and coaching ensembles, maintain  
active performing careers throughout the world. Numerous Oberlin  
alumni have achieved success in the jazz idiom, among them  
keyboardist Ted Baker, pianist and composer Stanley Cowell, bassist,  
composer, and arranger Leon Lee Dorsey, pianist, arranger, and  
producer Allen Farnham, bassist Ben Jaffe, composer and pianist Jon  
Jang, writer, composer, and saxophonist James McBride, and trumpeter,  
trombonist, and composer Michael Mossman. For more information about  
Oberlin, please visit www.oberlin.edu/con.


# # #


CALENDAR LISTINGS

THE OBERLIN JAZZ ENSEMBLE

Dennis Reynolds, guest director

Program:

Works by Jean-Baptiste “Illinois” Jacquet

Saturday, November 3, 2007, at 8 p.m.

FINNEY CHAPEL

Free

Free parking







Marci Janas
Director of Conservatory Media Relations
Oberlin Conservatory of Music
39 West College Street
Oberlin, OH  44074
www.oberlin.edu/con
(P) 440.775.8328
(F) 440.775.5457
marci.janas at oberlin.edu






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