PLEASE NOTE: Vic Juris is unable to come; the Feb. 14 Jazz Cafe performances will still take place with Eastman faculty members joining the Eastman students.
Guitarist Vic Juris will give two performances in Sproull Atrium in Miller Center on Friday, Feb. 14, as part of the Eastman School of Music’s Jazz Café series, which features Eastman jazz students in performance with a nationally acclaimed jazz artists.
Juris will perform at 7 p.m. and again at 10 p.m. He will be joined by Eastman students Jacob Dupre, piano, Emiliano Lasansky, bass, and Eric Metzgar, drums. Tickets to each performance are $10 general admission and are available at the door. Drinks and light snacks will be available for purchase.
The new Jazz Café series will also present trombonist Jim Pugh on 10 p.m. on Friday, March 21, and saxophonist Jimmy Greene at 10 p.m. on Friday, April 11.
Juris made his recording debut in 1975 on alto saxophonist Eric Kloss’s Bodies’ Warmth. He has also appeared with pianist Barry Miles and alto saxophonist Richie Cole. In the early ’80s, Juris immersed himself in acoustic guitar, performing duets with guitarists Larry Coryell and Biréli Lagrène. He was a member of the Gary Peacock Quartet and musical director of the Charles Mingus Guitar Quintet. For the past 10 years, Juris has been touring with the Dave Liebman Group. He teaches at Rutgers and Lehigh Universities and has conducted clinics throughout the United States and Europe.
Pugh, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degree at Eastman in 1972 and 1975, respectively, has performed in collaboration with leading classical and popular artists and orchestras including Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Simon, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, St. Luke’s Orchestra, and others. He can be heard on soundtracks for such feature films as A League of Their Own, When Harry Met Sally, and Meet Joe Black, and on the Broadway cast recordings City of Angels, Fosse, and Victor/Victoria. Pugh is the only recipient of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences Virtuoso Award for Tenor Trombone.
Greene was named one of DownBeat magazine’s “25 Young Rising Stars in Jazz” in 1999. He has nine solo recordings and has toured or recorded with the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Freddie Hubbard, Harry Connick Jr., Tom Harrell, Horace Silver, and other artists. The Jimmy Greene Quartet appears regularly in jazz festivals, venues, and clubs worldwide. As a composer, Greene was awarded the prestigious 2005 ASCAP / IAJE Commission in honor of Ornette Coleman. The commissioned piece, Anthem of Hope, was premiered by Greene’s quartet at the 2006 International Association for Jazz Education Conference in New York.
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