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.
