PJCE Tonight!
Posted on | October 30, 2009 | No Comments
Tonight at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Portland will be the final performance in our second year of concerts by the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, one of my favorite ongoing projects. As I was just making up the program here, I went back through our old programs and determined that we have already debuted 30 new works written and arranged specifically for our group, and will be premiering 6 more tonight!
Despite the immense logistical (and sometimes financial) difficulties, this is an endeavor which I’m very happy to have started and hope to continue for many years. One of the best parts of this whole project is putting out the call to composers and seeing what comes in. Each time, I worry that we will get a bunch of pieces which won’t fit well together, or are too hard, or too easy, or whatever, and each time I am pleasently surprised by the way in which the compositions we recieve fit well into a cohesive program. This time is no different, though for perhaps the first time since we started out, we will be presenting a program of works which are a bit more in the “modern big band” vibe. Lots of straight 8th notes, slower tempos, and nice epic buildups.
I’m especially excited about Dan Duval‘s new piece “Glass Beads”, which he has spent many months on, it’s really a great composition and has come together very nicely. Also of note, Stephen Connolly will be in town from eastern Washington to conduct his arrangement of Nick Sweet‘s “Tricks and Tests” (which you may remember from our July concert), with Nick on trombone, vocalist Lindsey Stormo will be singing on a new reflective piece she co-wrote with Sam Howard, we’ll play new tunes by myself (based on precipitation records) and Kyle Williams (based on Salvador Dali), and we’ll be performing “Just Me” by JW Davis, the first local composer to contact us out of the blue and ask to have a piece performed, along with a reprise of Gus Slaytons “Deep Fjords” from our fall 08 concert.
All in all, it promises to be a great evening! I’ll post the audio next week, meanwhile if you’re in Portland stop by!
Friday, October 30, 2009, 8 PM
Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble
Redeemer Lutheran Church
5431 NE 20th Ave. (at Killingsworth)
Portland, OR 97211
$10
Comments
Leave a Reply