Pit Stop Players to Present BOLLING NIGHT, 2/9

The Pit Stop Players, a fourteen-member instrumental ensemble composed of veteran Broadway pit musicians, will present "Bolling Night," an evening of music by the legendary Claude Bolling, plus pieces by other composers who combine jazz and classical idioms. The event will take place Monday, February 9, at 7:30 pm, at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street, New York City.

Bolling, whose groundbreaking "Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano" won a Grammy in 1975 and stayed on the Billboard Chart of Top-Selling Albums for a full ten years, almost singlehandedly created the so-called "crossover" genre. He followed the hugely popular "Suite for Flute" with subsequent jazz/classical suites for violin, guitar, trumpet, cello, chamber orchestra, and two pianos, as well as a second suite for flute and piano in 1987. Although the later suites are not nearly as well-known as the first one, they all contain wonderfullyoriginal and transfixing movements, many of which surpass the original "Suite for Flute" in complexity, imagination, and even sheer catchiness.

The concert will include works by other composers who combine the jazz and classical genres in their own distinctive ways, including David Baker's "Boogie Woogie" for piano trio, three of David Chesky's "New York Rags" (specially arranged for piano and marimba), and Joshua Rosenblum's "Prelude and Fugue" for cello and jazz trio.

Pit Stop Music Director Joshua Rosenblum said, "Many of us fell in love with Claude Bolling's music in the '70s and '80s. We thought it would be fun to revisit our favorite movements from the different suites and mix the familiar with the lesser known. I hope it will also be enlightening to hear some of these other pieces, just to get a sense of how influential Bolling's concept of fusing jazz and classical has been."

Performing on the program will be Robin Zeh and Paul Woodiel (violins), Alissa Smith (viola), Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf (cello), Steve Kenyon (flute), Chris Jaudes (trumpet), Jeff Carney (bass), and Greg Landes (drums and marimba). Garah Landes will share piano-playing duties with Rosenblum.

The Pit Stop Players is a genre-defying ensemble for contemporary music, comprised of some of New York's top freelance musicians, many of whom normally spend their evenings playing in Broadway pit orchestras. Founded in 2009 by conductor/composer Joshua Rosenblum, the Pit Stop Players gives these musicians a chance to climb out of the pit and take center stage, performing a stimulating and eclectic assortment of music from the worlds of contemporary classical, jazz, rock, fusion, film, and opera. Repertoire includes arrangements and transcriptions of great pieces from the recent past (encompassing numerous genres), but the primary emphasis is on new compositions that are both challenging and immediately engaging, written and orchestrated specifically for the group by today's most exciting creative talents. Since their first concert in February 2010, the Players have performed works by Bernstein, Bartok, Ginastera, Stravinsky, John Psathas, William Bolcom, Peter Schickele, Danny Elfman, Lennon/McCartney and Freddy Mercury, among others, as well as world premiere compositions by Steven Burke, David Chesky, Gary William Friedman, Steve Kenyon, Jamie Lawrence, Julian Rosenblum, Josh Schmidt, Michael Starobin, Fay Wang, and David Wolfson. Works that stretch or (even better) shatter the conventional boundaries between genres are especially encouraged. The New York Times has praised the Pit Stop Players for their "flair, sprightliness, and precision" and their "playfully cohesive" programs. With their unique mission, exciting repertoire, and broad appeal, the Pit Stop Players have cemented their place at the cutting edge of New York's cultural landscape.

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