Wind Ensemble, Jazz Orchestra will perform – Times-Standard

The Cal Poly Humboldt Department of Dance, Music and Theater will present the Cal Poly Humboldt Jazz Band and Orchestra on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Fulkerson Recital Hall.

Concert tickets are $15 in general, $5 for children and free for Cal Poly Humboldt students with ID. Tickets can be purchased at the door or in advance at centerarts.humboldt.edu, including tickets for a paid live stream. (From the “All Events” drop-down menu, select “School of Dance, Music, and Drama” and select your event.) Proof of COVID-19 vaccination and booster is still required for all on-campus guests. At press time, wearing a face mask is not mandatory, but is strongly encouraged.

The evening program begins with five performances by the Wind Ensemble. “Marche des Parachutistes Belges” by Pierre Leemans, arranged by Charles Wiley, was written “towards the end of World War II, supposedly in a single night, after Leemans had encountered a group of real Belgian paratroopers. It takes the form of a patrol, giving the impression of a marching band as it begins and ends softly.

Composed to mark the film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s short story of the same name, Aaron Copland’s “The Red Pony” is a series of vignettes about a young boy named Jody and his life on a California ranch. In the first movement, “Dream March and Circus Music”, Jody has a way of daydreaming. Two of them are represented here: in the first, Jody imagines herself with the valet Billy Buck at the head of an army of knights in silver armour; in the second, Jody is a ring master who cracks the circus whip.

John Mackey’s “This Cruel Moon” is an adaptation of “Immortal Thread, So Weakness”, the second movement of Mackey’s “Wine-Dark Sea: Symphony for Band”. It was “…the song of the beautiful and immortal nymph Kalypso…” that saved Odysseus and then had his heart broken.

“Satiric Dances” was commissioned to commemorate the bicentennial of April 19, 1775, the day that launched the American Revolutionary War. Dello Joio accepted the commission but stipulated that it would be based on a play he had used for a comedy by Aristophanes, the famous ancient Greek comic playwright, who frequently employed satire.

Viet Cuong’s “Diamond Tide” was inspired by an experiment in which scientists successfully melted a diamond for the first time. The piece uses the “melted” sounds of metallic water percussion and trombone glissandi throughout.

The second half of the program includes five arias performed by the Jazz Orchestra. Discovered by jazz legend Oscar Peterson during his tour of Japan in 1952, Toshiko Akiyoshi came to America several years later. In the 1970s, she founded, with her husband, the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band. She wrote “Tuning Up” for the group’s first tour of Japan. According to jazz bandleader Dan Aldag, “It’s designed to introduce each of the band’s sections and several soloists – it’s a great way for us to introduce ourselves to the audience.”

“April In Paris” is an iconic arrangement that organist Wild Bill Davis wrote for the Count Basie Orchestra. The band Basie’s 1955 recording is in the Grammy Hall of Fame and includes a famous solo by trumpeter Thad Jones. Jazz Orchestra trumpeter Andrew Henderson will add his personal touch.

“All of Me” is a jazz standard arranged by Thad Jones for his own group, the Thad-Jones Mel Lewis Orchestra. This will feature several soloists, including pianist John Gerving, alto saxophonist Rebekka Lopez and trombonist George Epperson.

“11:11” was composed by Jazz Band leader Dan Aldag. Inspired by his incredible ability to look at a clock at precisely 11:11 a.m. several times a week, Aldag says that “a tune called ’11:11′ must be in meter 11, and must be an 11 bar blues”. .” Soloists on “11:11” include trombonist Brian White, guitarist Nick DeAnda, and trumpeters Jeff Ruiz and Eddie Kallen.

“Harlem Air Shaft” is a Duke Ellington masterpiece from the early 1940s. New York City apartment buildings must have a small gap between them so residents can open windows. These are known as “air ducts”. Ellington once described the play like this: “So much going on in a Harlem air shaft. You get all of Harlem’s essence from an air shaft. You hear fights, you smell dinner, you hear people having sex. You hear intimate gossip floating around. You hear the radio. An air shaft is a very large loudspeaker. Featured are Andrew Henderson and Ricardo Paredes on trumpet and clarinet, respectively.

To buy tickets for this show, go to centerarts.humboldt.edu.