SRJO begins 13th season with popular Great American Songbook concert
Dates, times and ticket prices:
– Saturday, November 3, 7:30pm
Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall (at Benaroya Hall)
– Sunday, November 4, 3:00pm
Kirkland Performance Center
Tickets: $15-$36
Available at:
– SRJO offices (206-523-6159) www.srjo.org
The Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra (SRJO) will open its 2006-2007 concert series with the “Great American Songbook IV,” the always popular concerts featuring best-loved songs by great American composers such as George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington and others. Award-winning jazz vocalists Greta Matassa, James Caddell, and Bernie Jacobs will join the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra for this subscription season opener.
This is 13th annual concert series for the award winning orchestra. The concert featuring these great American song writers is one of the most popular in the orchestra’s repertoire. The “Great American Songbook IV” will be presented in the orchestra’s traditional two-concert format, one in Downtown Seattle and the other on the Eastside. The concerts will take place at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, November 3, in the Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall, and 3 p.m. Sunday, November 4, at the Kirkland Performance Center.
Greta Matassa has been named Best Northwest Vocalist at the Earshot Jazz Golden Ear awards in four separate years, and is widely acclaimed for her “first ladies of jazz” tributes to Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Anita O’Day. James Caddell was the winner of the Earshot 2006 Best Northwest Vocalist award, and stars in the annual SRJO Duke Ellington Sacred Concerts. Bernie Jacobs thrilled audiences with his deft performance in the SRJO’s recent “Woody Herman Tribute” and “Louis Armstrong Tribute” concerts, and now appears regularly at the New Orleans Creole Restaurant, filling the shoes of the late Floyd Standifer.
These concerts are the 4th production by the SRJO in its highly popular Great American Songbook series, first begun in 2003. Past guest vocalists have included Ernestine Anderson, Marlena Shaw, and Dee Daniels. Selections for this year’s concerts include vocal favorites Love You Madly, Just Squeeze Me, I Got It Bad, and Blue Skies.
TICKETS AND INFO
Ticket prices for SRJO concerts range from $15 to $36, and can be purchased from the SRJO offices (206-523-6159) and online at www.srjo.org. Discounts for purchasing the series subscription is 15%.
ABOUT THE SRJO
The SRJO is currently in its 13th concert season, which features 16 concerts and educational outreach activities. The band was named “Northwest Best Acoustic Jazz Ensemble” at the 2005 Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Awards. The 17-piece group is co-directed by saxophonist/arranger Michael Brockman, a long-time faculty member of the UW School of Music and an authority on the music of Duke Ellington, and drummer Clarence Acox, award-winning conductor of the Garfield High School bands. The SRJO includes many of the region’s best-loved jazz soloists and band leaders, including trumpeters Jay Thomas and Thomas Marriott, bassist Phil Sparks, saxophonists Bill Ramsay, Hadley Caliman, Travis Ranney and Mark Taylor, and trombonists Scott Brown, David Marriott, Bill Anthony and Dan Marcus, and pianist Randy Halberstadt.
The SRJO has received Golden Ear awards from Earshot Jazz for “Best Acoustic Jazz Group” and “Concert of the Year” as well as two “Starlight Awards” from the Kirkland Performance Center. The band’s recent concerts featuring guest composers Jimmy Heath and Gerald Wilson were named in the “Best Concerts of 2006” and “Best Concerts of 2005” by the Seattle Times. Several members of the all-star group have been named to the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame, with tenor saxophonist Hadley Caliman most recently inducted at the 2005 Golden Ear Awards. The band’s first compact disc “SRJO Live” is now in its second pressing after receiving wide acclaim on a national scale, and is one of the best selling titles at local record outlets. Their newest CD, “Sacred Music of Duke Ellington” featuring Dee Daniels was released in 2006, is now also in its second pressing, and was named in “Best Recordings of 2006” by AudiophileAudition.com. It has been featured widely on nation-wide broadcasts, and is included in the “best picks” of PRI’s Jazz After Hours radio show with Jim Wilke. For more information about the SRJO, visit www.srjo.org.
SPONSORS
The 13th season of the SRJO is also supported in part by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, ArtsFund, the 4Culture Lodging Tax of King County, the City of Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, the Washington State Arts Commission, the Nesholm Family Foundation, the Seattle Foundation, Glaser Foundation, Earshot Jazz, Horizons Foundation, PONCHO, the Target Foundation, KPLU FM88.5, KUOW FM94.9, KBCS FM91.3, and KING FM98.1.