Indiana Univ Hosts BIG BAND EXTRAVAGANZA With David N Baker, Brent Wallarab 4/25

Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music will host its annual Big Band Extravaganza, featuring IU jazzmen David N. Baker and Brent Wallarab, Saturday, April 25, at 8 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center.

The evening will feature special guests Delores King Williams and Everett Greene, and the event will mark the first Big Band Extravaganza for Wallarab since he joined the Jacobs School faculty in jazz studies in the fall of 2008.

The Big Band Extravaganza merges two student jazz ensembles trained by Baker and Wallarab. This year's concert, titled "When Swing Was King," will present music by artists including Duke Ellington, Bill Finegan, Sy Oliver and Ralph Burns and will feature guest performances by vocalists King Williams and Greene, who will be back by popular demand after performing in the concert last year. Williams was also guest vocalist in the 2007 Extravaganza.

Wallarab is considered one of the leading authorities on historical composition for jazz orchestras (such as Duke Ellington, Sy Oliver, Fletcher Henderson and Gil Evans). He is also a trombonist with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra.

"I am very honored to share the stage with David Baker in what has become an important tradition at IU," said Wallarab. "There's something timeless about the music of the '30s and '40s, much of it transcending its disposable status as pop music and remaining relevant as art even today."

Wallarab said the music is challenging and requires tremendous musicianship, providing a valuable experience for Jacobs students, also serving as a reminder to audiences of a time when jazz was the most popular music of the day.

"But beyond the practical and artistic merits of having our students perform this repertoire annually, there is a spirit, optimism and hopefulness that reminds us that it was more than just pop music. Spanning the Great Depression through the Second World War, the music of the Swing Era helped a beleaguered country, not yet a major world power, cope with uncertainty and fear. The music may betray a time when America was a little less cynical and jaded, but its continued popularity suggests that there is still a need for music that exudes pure rhythm and joy."

Delores King Williams, a Baltimore native, has performed with Baker and the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra since the early 1990s. She is a winner of a Downbeat magazine award, a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk Vocal Competition, a winner of the Billie Holiday Vocal Competition, an Audie Award-winner for audio book narration in Blood: Stories of Life and Death in the Civil War and a former soloist for the U.S. Army Band. Williams has performed internationally and is equally at home in theatrical productions, as well as concert settings, musicals, plays, cabaret, commercials and video productions.

She initially met Baker in Washington, D.C., but years of collaboration with the legendary Jacobs jazzman have brought Williams to Indiana many times. She also can be heard singing the music of Hoagy Carmichael on Heart and Soul, her recording with the Indianapolis-based Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra.

Indianapolis native Everett Greene is an accomplished bass baritone with a diverse repertoire that spans jazz, blues, gospel and popular music. He is a skilled actor, narrator and voice-over artist who has been honored with an Emmy Award for Precious Memories/Strolling 47th Street; performed at the Democratic Governors' Association Dinner honoring President Bill Clinton in Washington, D.C. and was a finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocal Competition. He has toured internationally and also performed at numerous festivals, including in South Africa, Canada, Japan and across the United States.

Greene has been a featured vocalist with the Count Basie Orchestra, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and regularly featured at Indianapolis Colts, Pacers and Fever games, as well as in television commercials.

For more information on the Jacobs School of Music, see music.indiana.edu/events.

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.