APPLETON, WIS. — One of the latest compositions of Lawrence University Professor Fred Sturm’s most recent jazz writing project will be featured in a week-long concert tour of Scotland by legendary vibraphonist Gary Burton beginning Sept. 10.
Sturm, director of jazz studies and improvisational music at Lawrence, was part of a team of internationally renowned jazz composers and arrangers, who worked on the music for the tour “The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra Presents the Music of Wayne Shorter featuring Gary Burton.” Through a commission by SNJO leader Tommy Smith, Sturm arranged the Shorter composition “Yes and No” for the concert program.
“Shorter is our greatest living jazz composer, and ‘Yes and No’ epitomizes his work from the 1960s,” said Sturm. “The SNJO granted me free rein to reconstitute the piece in my own voice.”
Burton, considered by many the world’s premier jazz vibraphonist, will perform arrangements of nine works by celebrated jazz composer/saxophonist Shorter during a five-city concert tour beginning in St. Andrews. Other performances are scheduled in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling and Gordonstoun.
This is Sturm’s third collaboration with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, which has previously performed the Sturm-arranged concert programs “Bodacious Cowboys: Three Decades of Steely Dan” in 2008 and “Tango Nuevo: The Music of Astor Piazzolla” this past May.
