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Welcome to Jazz Notes!
Keeping you informed about the
UNO Jazz Program
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| Spring 2017 Sandbar Guests Announced, First Concert This Wednesday! |
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Wendell Brunious, 3/8, 7pm |
UNO's acclaimed music series Jazz @ the Sandbar kicks off this week with special guest Wendell Brunious. Brunious
will be performing with the Text Messengers, directed by Victor Atkins
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Born into a Louisiana Creole Family, Wendell Brunious began playing trumpet at age 11 following in a lineage of family jazz musicians. Wendell´s father, John Brunious, played trumpet and piano and arranged for Billy Eckstein and Cab Calloway. Wendell´s uncle, Willie Santiago, was one of the first recorded guitar players and at one time worked with the legendary Buddy Bolden.
Brunious studied at Julliard before playing with Paul Barbarin and Danny Baker. In the 1960's, Brunious sang in Chief John and the Mahogany Hall Stompers, a group in which his father was also a member. In 1976, Brunious substituted for his father in Albert "Papa" French's band for Mardi Gras, and by 1979 was playing regularly at Preservation Hall with Kid Thomas Valentine. He has remained a regular performer at Preservation Hall and performs with the likes of Dr. Michael White, Chris Barber, Don Vappie, and the Pfister Sisters.
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Amina Figarova, 3/15, 7pm
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Next week's Jazz @ the Sandbar welcomes pianist/composer Amina Figarova. She will be performing with student ensembles under the direction of Brian Seeger and Ed Petersen.
Figarova was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, and as a child studied to be a classical concert pianist. In the late 1980s she entered Rotterdam Conservatory to pursue jazz, coming to the United State in 1989 to complete her formal education at Boston's Berklee College of Music, where she met flutist Bart Platteau, a fellow student from Belgium. After more than a decade of bookings in major U.S. jazz clubs, concert halls and festivals, the couple gained legal immigrant status in 2014.
Figarova was named "Rising Star Composer" in Downbeat Magazine's critics' polls for 2014, 2015 and 2016. Amina and Bart currently live in Manhattan and tour constantly. For more info, visit
AMINAFIGAROVA.COM.
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The Wednesday concerts continue throughout the semester with these special guest artists:
- March 22: Drummer Johnny Vidacovich
- March 29: Guitarist Mahmoud Chouki
- April 5: Pianist Cyrus Chestnut
- April 19: Harmonicist Howard Levy
- April 26: Guitarist Don Vappie
- May 3: Saxophonist Donald Harrison
Jazz @ the Sandbar
was established in 1990 by Ellis Marsalis, the first Coca-Cola Endowed Chair of the Jazz Studies Program at UNO. The series is designed to provide UNO Jazz Studies students an opportunity to get experience performing with high-level professional musicians in front of a live audience. Concerts are presented on Wednesday nights during the Fall and Spring semesters and feature a different jazz artist each week.
Jazz @ the Sandbar is presented by the UNO Jazz Studies Program with support from the UNO Student Government Association, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, Inc., the New Orleans Jazz Celebration, Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro, WWNO FM, OffBeat Magazine, the New Orleans Theatre Association (NOTA), and Nathan and Pricilla Gordon. For more information, call the UNO Music Department at (504) 280-6039 or New Orleans Jazz Celebration (504) 309-JAZZ, or visit us on the web at
www.nojc.org/sandbar.
Concert times: 7:00 - 9:30pm.
Location: The Cove, Founders Road, UNO Lakefront Campus.
General Admission: $5.00 at the door.
Faculty, Staff & Student Admission: FREE w/ UNO ID Card.
Tickets sold at the door.
The admission charge goes toward the George Brumat Scholarship Fund.
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| UNO Jazz Band Plays in Mardi Gras Parade |
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Photo by Debbie Gan |
Under the direction of UNO graduate student Jeronne Ansari (saxophone), the UNO Jazz Allstars entertained the crowds at the recent Pygmalion parade. Sponsored by UNO Jazz Program supporters Nate and Pricilla Gordon, the event gave the students the opportunity to experience New Orleans from the riders' point of view while promoting the UNO Jazz Studies Program.
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New CD Releases by UNO Students and Faculty
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MASAKOWSKI FAMILY
Steve Masakowski, the legendary New Orleans jazz guitarist and educator, along with his rising star children, Sasha and Martin, have collaborated on a new album featuring a variety of their favorite songs related to their hometown of New Orleans in a style that Steve describes as "Nouveaux Trad."
The CD features several original compositions including three by Steve and lyricist Jay Miles Griggs which were inspired by the iconic masterpiece novel "A Confederacy of Dunces." On the recording are also other New Orleans favorites including "The House of the Rising Sun", and songs by legendary jazzmen James Black and Sidney Bechet.
The CD is now available for download via Band Camp HERE.
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NEW MUSIC BY MOONEY
On "Hope of Home," Davy Mooney's first Sunnyside Records CD release since moving back to New Orleans from New York City, band members Mooney, Brian Blade, Jon Cowherd, John Ellis, and Matt Clohesy (all of whom were also featured on 2012's "Perrier St) exhibit an uncanny level of musical interaction as well as individual virtuosity. On eleven original tunes, Mooney expresses the hope and anxiety of the move back home after six years in the jungles of New York. The focus of the album, however, is on the improvising, and as Geraldine Wyckoff puts it in her March 2017 review in Offbeat Magazine: "Mooney's fingers fly over the fretboard, though no note sounds superfluous. His playing throughout relies on imagination rather than licks."
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 ROSSIGNOLI CD RELEASE
Celebrate the album release of UNO grad student Oscar Rossignoli's trio "Extended" on Sunday March 12 at Snug Harbor.
Extended is a New Orleans based trio made up of drummer Brad Webb, bassist Matt Booth, and pianist Oscar Rossignoli (ASCAP Scholar.). Formed in 2016, the trio album "Extended" features compositions by each member of the band and embraces group improvisation, yielding a unique performance each time they take the stage.
Doors open at 7PM, shows at 8 and 10
$15 cover
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SEEGER CLIMBS CHARTS
The second release by Brian Seeger's
Organic Trio
is making quite a splash. Released on January 27 by the French label Jazz Family, "Saturn's Spell" got immediate radio airplay in the US, jumped to #2 in the JazzWeek charts, and has been in the top 10 for the past 6 weeks! Here's a link to an interview Brian recently did about the new recording: INTERVIEW
Find out how to get the CD and anything else you might want to know about this creative trio by visiting their website:
ORGANICTRIO.COM.
And if you happen to be in Paris, catch their CD release show at the renowned Duc du Lombard this Saturday, March 17, or catch them in a rare US appearance at the New Orleans French Quarter Festival April 17.
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| Jazz Studies Facebook Page |
UNO Jazz Studies now has our own page on Facebook. Click the logo above to "Like" our page and see photos and program-related anecdotes!
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Jazz Notes is a service provided by the University of New Orleans Jazz Studies Program to keep you informed of upcoming events and news. Jazz Notes is paid for by funds from the Coca-Cola Endowment account.
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Jazz Faculty
Victor Atkins
Associate Professor and Danny Barker Endowed Professor
Steve Masakowski
Professor and Coca-Cola Endowed Chair
Ed Petersen
Professor and Al Belletto Endowed Professor
Brian Seeger
Associate Professor and Alvin "Red" Tyler Endowed Professor
Brent Rose
Instructor
Adjunct Jazz Faculty
Bass:
Roland Guerin
Peter Harris
Bill Schettler
Clarinet:
Tom Fischer
Drums:
Herman LeBeaux
Ricky Sebastian
Guitar:
Chris Adkins
Davy Mooney
Piano:
Kris Tokarski
Saxophone
Derek Douget
Trad Ensemble & Sousaphone:
Matt Perrine
Trombone:
David Phy
Trumpet:
Ashlin Parker
Violin:
Matt Rhody
Voice:
Leah Chase
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