Harris Center Announces The Concert That Changed The World

Next month, the Harris Center joins Capital Public Radio in celebrating a historic moment in the history of jazz. The date was January 16, 1938 at Carnegie Hall - the hallowed venue for "respectable" classical music. There, Benny Goodman's band played swing music for the first time, with one of the earliest racially-integrated jazz groups.

Renowned clarinetist Ken Peplowski ("arguably the greatest living jazz clarinetist," BBC2) joins the Sacramento Jazz Orchestra, performing highlights from the famous concert. Peplowski will also lead a quartet (as Goodman did) during a spotlighted section of the concert with Ehud Asherie, "a master of swing and stride" (New Yorker) on piano and the "exquisite" (Jazz Times) Chuck Redd on vibes. Vocalist Ann Roach will also make a special appearance.

Benny Goodman, Carnegie Hall AND THE CONCERT THAT CHANGED THE WORLD comes to Folsom Friday, January 19, 2018 at 7:30 pm. Tickets $25-$45; Premium $50; there is a 50% discount for students with ID. They are available online at www.harriscenter.net or from the Harris Center Ticket Office at 916-608-6888 from noon to 6 pm, Monday through Saturday, and two hours before show time. Parking is included in the price of the ticket. The Harris Center is located on the west side of the Folsom Lake College campus in Folsom, CA, facing East Bidwell Street. Benny Goodman's daughter, Rachel Edelson, is available to Sacramento media for comments and interviews.

The Harris Center performance is not the only concert in January during which clarinetist Ken Peplowski will perform a tribute to Goodman's Carnegie Hall concert - he will join Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis January 11-13, 2018 for three similarly themed events. "These concerts pay tribute to one of the first major public performances of a racially-integrated group, considered a milestone in the acceptance of jazz as America's classical music." (Jazz at Lincoln Center website).

A milestone it certainly was, and many have written about it:

"The remarkable result was that Goodman's big band, plus guest soloists from the Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras, broke the mold on January 16, 1938, and played a full-on, extensively improvised, racially integrated jazz concert in the temple of white American culture's musical authority - New York's Carnegie Hall. The show sold out weeks early, and though an audience mostly unfamiliar with jazz was uncomfortable with the music's ragged edges, informality and jam-session atmosphere at first, by the end it was ecstatic. Many commentators since have suggested that, as a wakeup call to the wider public about what was really happening in American music, it was the most significant concert of popular music in the 20th century." (The Guardian)

By 1938, with The Depression nearly over and World War II looming ahead, swing was considered a disturbing fad, one that was sure to pass.

"'Swing' music had been formally identified thanks largely to Goodman, and the cultural elders of the land felt strongly that its incendiary rhythms and gyrating fans pushed basic propriety, common decency and musical taste pretty much to the limit...Carnegie was, after all, the home of the New York Philharmonic, a temple of refinement and high culture. When the place opened in May 1891, Tchaikovsky himself came in to conduct several of his symphonic works... So when the January 1938 concert came to pass... "it was the first time the more or less sacred halls of Carnegie have ever echoed to the music of youth, freedom and the primitive urge for barbaric rhythm," the Daily News would write afterwards.... As the curtain was rising, trumpeter Harry James muttered, "I feel like a whore in church" (New York Daily News).

The Harris Center and Capital Public Radio have assembled an exceptional lineup of musicians for the concert.

Ken Peplowski is "arguably the greatest living jazz clarinetist," declared the BBC2's Russell Davies in 2013. "Mr. Peplowski sounds the way (Benny) Goodman might if he had kept evolving, kept on listening to new music, kept refining his sound...into the 21st century," wrote music journalist Will Friedwald in 2012 for the Wall Street Journal. Peplowski has recorded approximately 50 CDs as a soloist, and close to 400 as a sideman - some of the artists he's performed/recorded with include Charlie Byrd, Mel Torme, Rosemary Clooney, Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops, Hank Jones, Peggy Lee, Bill Charlap, Woody Allen, and Madonna. Not only has Peplowski performed a number of tribute concerts to Benny Goodman, he was hired to play saxophone by Goodman himself in one of the clarinet legend's last bands.

CHUCK REDD is an accomplished performer on both drums and vibraphone. Chuck began performing and recording internationally when he joined the Charlie Byrd Trio in 1980 at the age of 21. That year, he also joined the Great Guitars (Barney Kessel, Charlie Byrd and Herb Ellis.) He served as Artist-In-Residence at The Smithsonian Jazz Café in Washington, DC from 2004-2008.

EHUD ASHERIE is a jazz pianist who integrates the venerable New York piano tradition into his inventive style. The New Yorker dubbed him "a master of swing and stride." Asherie has worked with a broad range of musicians including: Eric Alexander, Roy Ayers, Peter Bernstein, Jesse Davis, Bobby Durham, Vince Giordano, Wycliffe Gordon, Scott Hamilton, Catherine Russell, Ken Peplowski and Clark Terry. Asherie's playing can be heard on countless recordings, including the 2010 Grammy Award-winning soundtrack of HBO's 'Boardwalk Empire'.

ANN ROACH is an extraordinary vocalist who is well versed in styles ranging from jazz, pop, musical theatre and more. The list of artists that Roach has worked with or opened for include: trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, saxophonist Houston Person, Capital Jazz Project, Jim Martinez, and Dave Bass.

THE SACRAMENTO JAZZ ORCHESTRA is one of the region's swinging-est big bands, featuring a roster of top-notch musician/educators including Steve Roach, Josh Murray, Dyne Eifertsen, Mike McMullen, Steve Homan, and Rick Lotter.

This Year Marks Seven Seasons of Great Shows. Up Close. In Folsom!

The Harris Center for the Arts at Folsom Lake College brings the community together to share in cultural experiences featuring the work of artists from throughout the region and around the world. Built and operated by the Los Rios Community College District, the $50 million, state-of-the-art regional performing arts center boasts three intimate venues with outstanding acoustics, an art gallery, a recording studio, elegant teaching spaces, plenty of safe parking and all the other amenities of a world-class performing arts venue. Each year the Center hosts approximately 400 events attracting upwards of 150,000 annually.

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