A Slight Derangement: Last Jazz Stand with the AM Jazz Band and HSU Jazz Orchestra

“A Slight Derangement” by contemporary trombonist and composer Bret Zvacek highlights the AM Jazz Band performance on Thursday night, December 11, kicking off the last jazz weekend of the calendar year at HSU.

The mid-sized jazz ensemble plays a little-known tune by Gerry Mulligan and Zoot Sims called "The Red Door," plus new arrangements of jazz standards, including “After You’ve Gone,” featuring Branden Lewis on trumpet.

Then on Saturday night, December 13, two ambitious jazz suites and new works by local musicians highlight the final HSU Jazz Orchestra performance of the year.

“Panama Suite” by Panamanian-born pianist Danilo Perez sizzles with traditional rhythms in a contemporary jazz context. AkaBella, a four-woman vocal ensemble (all HSU graduates), will be featured in this three-movement work.

The other long work on the program is “What Goes Around” by Dave Holland, which he wrote for his acclaimed contemporary big band.

The concert also features a new composition by Jazz Orchestra drummer Jonathan Kipp (“Chased By A Wolf Down A Mountain”) and a new arrangement of a Bud Powell tune (“Parisian Thoroughfare”) by Dan Aldag, HSU Music professor and the orchestra’s director.

The Jazz Orchestra will present a new arrangement by Alan Baylock of the classic “When I Fall In Love.” “Baylock's arrangement makes use of dissonance and extended harmonies to create a moody and haunting version of that well-known standard,” Dan Aldag noted.

Among the tunes reprised for this concert are "'Round Midnight" by Thelonious Monk (featuring Sky Miller on alto saxophone), "A Night In Tunisia" by Dizzy Gillespie, “Pedal Point Blues” by Charles Mingus and "V Gorakh Gruzii" (In The Mountains of Georgia) by Oleg Lundstrem—the founder of the Soviet Union’s first jazz orchestra. This tune features Isaac Williams on tenor saxophone.

Both the AM Jazz Band performance on Thursday (December 11) and the Jazz Orchestra concert on Saturday (December 13) begin at 8 p.m in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID.

Media: Arcata Eye, North Coast Journal, Humboldt State Now.