Jazz Orchestra Program Notes: Dan Aldag on Fabulous 1959

This semester, we're going to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of 1959, one of the most significant years in jazz's history, and some of that music will be part of our program on the 21st. 1959 was the year of:

Kind Of Blue--Miles Davis
The album that established modal jazz (very few chord changes) as a viable alternative to the bebop approach of very complex and fast-moving chords. Maybe the best-selling jazz album of all time. Renowned for its combination of surface beauty and extraordinary depth.

Giant Steps--John Coltrane
The album that was the apotheosis of the aforementioned bebop approach. The title tune remains today a kind of test piece for jazz improvisors.

The Shape of Jazz To Come--Ornette Coleman
The album that established free jazz (no pre-set, fixed chord progressions.) The beginning of jazz's avant-garde revolution of the 1960s.

Time Out--Dave Brubeck
The album that first popularized unusual time signatures in jazz. Up to this point, almost all jazz had been in a meter of 4. This album included tunes in meters of 3, 5 ("Take Five"), 6 and 9 ("Blue Rondo a la Turk")

Portrait In Jazz--Bill Evans
The first album from the Bill Evans Trio, the group most responsible for freeing bass and drums from their timekeeping, accompanimental roles. In the Evans Trio, the piano, bass and drums operated as nearly equal musical partners, with often no one explicitly stating the pulse.

Mingus Ah Um--Charles Mingus
The album where Mingus first put together in a coherent and unified way his many and disparate influences, including blues and gospel, Ellington and the complex counterpoint of cool jazz. This album also introduced several of Mingus's best-known and most-performed compositions, including "Better Git It In Your Soul," "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" and "Fables of Faubus."

On this concert, we'll be playing tunes from the latter two albums, Mingus's "Open Letter to Duke" and Evans's "Peri's Scope". In May, we'll feature more music from 1959.