ROCHESTER, NY – Rochester jazz fans have the first chance to experience the newest music by the Eastman Jazz Trio/Quartet – and purchase the group’s debut recording – at a special concert at 3 p.m., Sunday, October 7, in Kilbourn Hall (26 Gibbs St.).
The concert, part of the Eastman School of Music’s Faculty Artist Series, will feature music from the group’s debut recording called The Question Is. The CD, which includes live and studio performances recorded at Eastman during the past two years, will be available in limited quantities for purchase in “advanced release” at the concert. It is the first CD in a new recording series called “Eastman in Concert” (which officially will be launched in 2002), designed to showcase the School’s faculty in exceptional performances.
In addition to pieces by Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and others, the CD features music written by members of the Eastman Jazz Trio: pianist Harold Danko, bassist Jeff Campbell, and drummer Rich Thompson. It also includes three tracks in which the trio welcomed trumpeter Clay Jenkins, the newest member of the Eastman jazz faculty, to their group – thereby “morphing” into the Eastman Jazz Quartet. All are accomplished musicians and acclaimed performers in their own right.
Tom Hampson – Rochester attorney, host of the NPR program “Mostly Jazz,” and longtime supporter of Eastman jazz – wrote the liner notes for the CD. In them, he says, “The playing throughout is exemplary. Danko’s versatility transcends patterns… Campbell’s steady bass buttresses the group… Thompson’s interjections provide rhythmic punctuation… and Jenkins’s trumpet lines are clean, precise, and imaginative.”
General admission tickets to the concert are $5 (one free ticket to University of Rochester faculty, staff, and students with ID), and are available one hour before the start of the performance at the Kilbourn Hall Box Office only. The artists will be available after the concert to sign the limited number of advance CDs that will be sold.
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Note to editors: Members of the Eastman Jazz Quartet are available for interviews. Photos are available upon request.