Contact: Andrea Ebeling, Public Relations Assistant, 920-832-6585 or andrea.ebeling@lawrence.edu
For Immediate Release
October 27, 2006
Jon Hendricks and Wycliffe Gordon Highlight Jazz Celebration Weekend at Lawrence University
APPLETON, WIS. — Highlighting the 26th edition of Jazz
Celebration Weekend at Lawrence University this November are two world-renowned
jazz artists. Friday night, November 10, jazz vocalist and NEA Jazz Master Jon
Hendricks and Company featuring Aria Hendricks and LHR Redux take the stage.
Saturday, November 11, features trombonist Wycliffe Gordon. Both concerts begin
at 7:30 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Tickets are priced between $22
and $15 and can be purchased through the Lawrence University Box Office, located
in the Music-Drama Center, or by phone at 920-832-6749. Tickets, if available,
will also be sold beginning one hour before each show at the box office.
A recipient of the nation's highest honor in jazz, the National Endowment
for the Arts Jazz Masters Award, the legendary Hendricks brings his music to
Lawrence through the NEA Jazz Masters on Tour program. Hendricks, one of the
world's favorite jazz vocalists, is widely considered to be the "Father
of Vocalese," or the art of setting lyrics to recorded jazz instrumental
standards and then arranging voices to sing the parts of the instruments. Hendricks
is the only person many jazz greats have allowed to lyricize their music in
this way for no one writes hipper, wittier, or more touching words, while extracting
from a tune the emotions intended by the composer.
In 1957, Hendricks teamed with Dave Lambert and Annie Ross to form the well-known
vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross. With Hendricks as lyricist, the trio
perfected the art of vocalese and took it around the world, earning them the
designation of the "Number One Vocal Group in the World" for five
years in a row from Melody Maker magazine.
During his career, Hendricks has worked as the jazz critic for the San Francisco
Chronicle and has taught classes at California State University at Sonoma and
the University of California at Berkeley. In 2000, Hendricks returned to his
hometown to teach at the University of Toledo, where he was appointed Distinguished
Professor of Jazz Studies and received an honorary Doctorate of the Performing
Arts.
As part of his performance at Lawrence University, Hendricks will perform with
his daughter, Aria, and LHR Redux, a tribute to his famous trio Lambert, Hendricks
and Ross. Opening for Hendricks are the Lawrence University Jazz Singers.
Hendricks was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2003. Established in 1982, the NEA
Jazz Masters program honors living legends for their exceptional contributions
to jazz and helps to connect them, and their music, to the American people through
broadcasts, publications, educational initiative, and NEA Jazz Masters on Tour,
an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts sponsored by Verizon in
partnership with Arts Midwest. Additional support is provided by the Doris Duke
Charitable Foundation through a grant to Chamber Music America.
Gordon enjoys an extraordinary career as a performer, conductor, composer, arranger, and educator, receiving high praise from audiences and critics alike. Gordon tours the world performing hard-swinging, straight-ahead jazz for audiences ranging from heads of state to elementary school students. Gordon received the Jazz Journalists Association 2002 and 2001 Award for Trombonist of the Year, the Jazz Journalists Association 2000 Critics' Choice Award for Best Trombone and has been nominated for the Jazzpar Award.
In addition to a thriving solo career, he tours regularly leading the Wycliffe
Gordon Quartet, headlining at legendary jazz venues throughout the world. Gordon
is also a gifted composer and arranger, being commissioned to compose a new
score for the 1925 classic silent film "Body and Soul." His compositions
have been performed by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Wynton Marsalis
Septet, the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet, the Brass Band of Battle Creek, and numerous
other ensembles.
Gordon currently serves on the faculty of the Jazz Studies Program at The Juilliard
School, a position he has held since the founding of the program. His work with
young musicians and audiences from elementary schools to universities all over
the world is extensive, and includes master classes, clinics, workshops, children's
concerts, and lectures.
During his performance at Jazz Celebration Weekend, Gordon will perform with
the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble (LUJE), the Faculty Jazz Trio, and the
Trombone Choir, with whom he will perform "Cliffe Hangin'," a piece
composed for him by Lawrence Conservatory of Music faculty member Fred Sturm.
He will also perform a duo feature with conservatory faculty member Marty Erickson
on tuba during the show.
Jazz Celebration Weekend at Lawrence University began in 1981 with the intentions
to bring professional jazz artists to the Lawrence campus and to establish a
non-competitive jazz educational festival for local schools. The first festival
was attended by 125 students from eight Fox Valley high school ensembles. By
1987, Jazz Weekend attracted over 1,000 middle school, high school, collegiate,
and teacher participants from 60 schools in five Midwestern states. This year
there will be 45 instrumental and vocal ensembles from over 500 high schools
and middle schools from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois participating in
Jazz Celebration Weekend.
This year's team of education clinicians is the most diverse group that has
ever engaged in Jazz Celebration Weekend. Clinicians include five renowned jazz
educators, three men and two women from Nebraska, Missouri, Oregon, California,
and Maryland, along with five Lawrence University jazz faculty members. In addition
to working with each visiting school ensemble on their prepared jazz selections,
the clinicians will also focus extensively upon improvisation and aural training.
Jazz Celebration Weekend has attracted numerous jazz greats to the Lawrence
campus over its 26-year history. Artists such as Bobby McFerrin, Dizzy Gillespie,
Benny Golson, the Chick Corea Elektric Band, Jon Faddis, and Kenny Wheeler have
all been part of Jazz Celebration Weekend.
For more information on the "Performing Arts at Lawrence" concert series, visit www.lawrence.edu/news/performingartsseries.