MSM to Celebrate 50th Anniversary of Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage

On Thursday, October 22 (7:30 pm) at Manhattan School of Music's Borden Auditorium, and on Monday, November 23 (7:30 & 9:30 pm) at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the MSM Concert Jazz Band, under the direction of Justin DiCioccio (MM '71), will pay tribute to Herbie Hancock's seminal Blue Note Records album, Maiden Voyage. The album, which received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999, turns 50 this year.

The concert - dubbed Maiden Voyage Suite - will feature Hancock's classic compositions in a big band setting, with arrangements by MSM Jazz Arts Faculty Mike Holober and Tony Kosleck (BM '89), and MSM alumni Jay Brandford (MM '93) and Pete McGuinness (MM '87).

Maiden Voyage was the fifth album led by legendary jazz pianist-composer Herbie Hancock, who had a brief career as a composition student at Manhattan School of Music in the spring semester of 1962, not long before he joined Miles Davis in the latter's now-legendary quintet. "Herbie Hancock did study at MSM for a brief time in the early sixties," Justin DiCioccio chuckles, "but in this case, we defer all credit for launching him into the jazz stratosphere to Mr. Davis."

DiCioccio says of Maiden Voyage, considered by musicians and critics alike to be Hancock's finest record of the 60s, "I am pleased that this fine MSM ensemble will have the opportunity to dig into not just one of my favorite jazz records of all time, but one of the best, period."

Maiden Voyage Suite will be performed in MSM's Borden Auditorium on Thursday, October 22 (7:30 pm), admission free, and at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center on Monday, November 23 (7:30 & 9:30 pm sets); cover $35 ($20 for students).

For press seats and further information, please contact Caryn Freitag, Manhattan School of Music's Communications and Public Relations Associate, at cfreitag@msmnyc.edu.