Joe Chambers Plays with Rutgers University Jazz Ensemble Tonight

Joe Chambers is set to play with the Rutgers University Jazz Ensemble, directed by Conrad Herwig, tonight, Dec 10, 2012 at 7:30PM at Rutgers University in the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center. General Public $15 / Students $5.

Joe Chambers will perform music from the new CD: "Moving Pictures Orchestra, Live at Dizzy's Coca Cola Club" Savant 2120, all compositions and arrangements by Joe Chambers.

The Rutgers Jazz Ensemble, directed by Conrad Herwig, is the top student jazz ensemble at the Mason Gross School of the Arts. The group has performed with Ray Charles, the fifth-anniversary celebration of Harmony Hall in Fukui, Japan, and has had several gigs at the legendary Blue Note in New York City.

Joe Chambers has been described as one of the great drummers to come out of the '60s -- a master of dynamics, percussive color and polyrhythmic density. Also a master of all mallet instruments, piano and a composer, he has performed with most of the modern jazz giants, including Freddie Hubbard, Eric Dolphy, Donald Byrd, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie and the Max Roach M'Boom Ensemble. Chambers has recorded close to 300 albums as a sideman and 10 as a leader. Joe Chambers, the composer, has scored soundtracks for several Spike Lee films and it is his composing and arranging talents which are spotlighted in his most recent album. The skillful arrangements and his imaginative use of orchestral color certainly places Joe Chambers as one of the most creative and versatile men in jazz today. The stellar ensemble, recorded live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola features top New York jazz and studio musicians such as Craig Handy, David Weiss, Conrad Herwig, Xavier Davis and others. With the Moving Pictures Orchestra, Joe Chambers displays a passion for jazz that reaches far beyond the confines of the studio or bandstand, beyond genre and characterization, beyond even the music and extends into the culture itself.

New York jazz trombonist Conrad Herwig has recorded 20 albums as a leader. With his Latin Side projects, he has recorded the music of JohnColtrane, MiLes Davis, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock--live at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City--receiving three Grammy nominations for Best Latin Jazz Performance. Featured musicians included Eddie Palmieri,Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Valentin and Randy Brecker, among other jazz greats. Herwig's solo recordings on the CrissCross label are "A Jones for Bones Tones," "Obligation," "Land of Shadow," "Hieroglyphica," "Unseen Universe," "Osteology" and "Heart of Darkness," which received four-and-a-half stars in DownBeat magazine. He has been voted No. 1 Jazz Trombonist (TDWR) in the 1998, 1999, and 2002 DownBeat Jazz Critics' Poll, and was nominated for Trombonist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2007 and 2008.

Professor Herwig has been a featured member in the Joe Lovano Nonet, Tom Harrell's Septet and Big Band, and the Joe Henderson Sextet. Herwig has also performed and recorded with Eddie Palmieri's La Perfecta II and Afro-Caribbean-Jazz Octet, Paquito D'Rivera's Havana-New York Connection, and the Mingus Big Band (often serving as musical director). He is currently Visiting Professor of Jazz Studies at the Juilliard School in New York City, has served on the board of directors of the International Trombone Association, and was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 2007. An in-demand jazz educator and clinician, Herwig performs on Michael Rath trombones, as well as composing and arranging exclusively using Sibelius Music Notation software.

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