NEWS

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By JENA WITTKAMP
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL – Professional musicians of the David Berkman Quartet, the Roy Hargrove Quintet and trombonist Conrad Herwig will be among performers at this year’s Carolina Jazz Festival, Feb. 21-28 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Celebrating the American Popular Song" will be the theme for the 26^th annual festival, offering nine concerts and mini-concerts, lectures, a symposium, a day of performances by high school jazz bands and combos and late-night jam sessions at local clubs.

"Each year we work to create a balanced festival that showcases sterling professional and student performances and invites students and others to develop a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the jazz art form," said James Ketch, professor and chair of the UNC music department, director of jazz studies and festival organizer. "Each festival also features the scholarly insights of authors and historians who have devoted themselves to this music and its meaning.

"We want to invite everyone to our celebration of this rich American cultural treasure we call jazz."

Concerts will include those by the visiting professionals, alone and with UNC student groups, and the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra, composed of 18 musicians from across the state and directed by Ketch. Many events are free; tickets for others are on sale at the Carolina Union box office, 962-1449, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

"Something old and something new will be recurring themes as the musicians pay homage to the American songbook," Ketch said. "They also will present exciting contemporary compositions and arrangements that reflect the ongoing creative process in this improvisational art form we call jazz."

The festival also will repeat its popular "Jazz Under the Stars," in which audience members can view a celestial show at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center while listening to live music. Festival guest artist Herwig will join five UNC jazz faculty artists to make music for the Milky Way.

Herwig has recorded 13 albums as a band leader, including the Grammy-nominated "The Latin Side of John Coltrane." He has received performance and teaching grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and is an adjunct professor in jazz studies at the Manhattan School of Music, the New School for Social Research, New York University and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.

A member of the board of directors of the International Trombone Association, Herwig has conducted master classes, seminars and workshops at universities and conservatories around the world, including the Sibelius Academy in Finland, the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, the University of Koln in Germany and the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in New York.

Berkman, a pianist, recently released his fourth compact disc, "Start Here . . . Finish There," on the Palmetto Label. He studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston and the University of Michigan. He has played with other jazz artists including Cecil McBee, Tom Harrell, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Joe Lovano, Billy Hart and Ray Drummond.

The quartet also includes saxophonist Dick Oatts, who played on Berkman’s new CD. Oatts has performed with groups and artists including the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Tito Puente, Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Torme. He has recorded solos for pop artists including Luther Vandross, James Taylor and Everything But The Girl.

Oatts has recorded three CDs under his own name with co-leader Garry Dial for the DMP label. His latest CD, on RED Records with bassist Dave Santoro, is "Meru." Oatts also has five CDs on which he was band leader. He is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and the Amsterdam Conservatory, the Netherlands.

Bassist Johannes Weidenmuller and drummer Gerald Cleaver complete the quartet.

Roy Hargrove is a Grammy-award winning trumpet and flugelhorn player known as a leader in the recent resurgence of acoustic jazz music. Beginning as a high school student sitting in with Wynton Marsalis’ band, Hargrove has gone on to play with jazz luminaries including Dizzy Gillespie and Herbie Hancock.

Festival sponsors include the Carolina Inn, Jamey Aebersold Jazz, Double Time Records, The Herald-Sun/Chapel Hill Herald, Hopper Piano Co., The Independent Weekly, Katie’s Soft Pretzels, Selmer Corp., the Sheraton Chapel Hill Hotel, WUNC-FM, WNCU-FM and WSHA-FM.

Campus sponsors include the offices of the provost and the vice chancellor for research and economic development, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Carolina Union Activities Board, the Center for the Study of the American South, the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence, the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, the Center for the Study of the American South, the music department and the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonians.

. Ticket sales at the door on the day of any ticketed event will begin an hour before the concert. All seating is general admission. For more information, call the box office at 962-1449 or the music department at 962-1039, or visit www.unc.edu/depts/music/jazz-festival.html. A schedule and details follow:

· Feb. 21, Phi Mu Alpha High School Jazz Festival, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Hill Hall Auditorium and Person Recital Hall. At least a dozen local high school jazz bands and combos will perform and receive critiques from music professors Dr. John Harding, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Mitch Butler, N.C. Central University. Trombonist and visiting professional Conrad Herwig will listen to the combos and provide informal instruction. He also will give two mini concerts, at 12:30 p.m. with the UNC Jazz Combos 4 p.m. with the UNC Jazz Band. Outstanding ensembles and individuals will be recognized at the end of the day. Sponsored by UNC’s Phi Mu Alpha chapter of the Sinfonians, a student group in the music department. Free and open to the public.

· Feb. 22, Jazz Under the Stars, 3 p.m., Star Theatre, Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. Herwig and the UNC Faculty Jazz Quintet will perform while the Morehead projects a star show overhead. Faculty members performing will be Ed Paolantonio on piano; John V. Brown, bass; Thomas Taylor, drums; and James Ketch, trumpet. Brad Linde and Asher Stein, undergraduate music students, will play saxophone. Free for children and UNC students with IDs, $3 for planetarium members, $5 for others.

· Feb. 25, David Berkman Quartet, 7 p.m. lecture, 8 p.m. concert, 107 Hill Hall. Berkman, piano; Dick Oatts, saxophone; Johannes Weidenmuller, bass; Gerald Cleaver, drums. Berkman will speak before the concert on the nature of jazz improvisation and on communication, on the bandstand and with an audience. The quartet will perform music from their new CD, "Start Here . . . Finish There." Free for UNC students with IDs; $5, seniors; $10, others.

· Feb. 25-28. Jazz After Hours. Festival musicians will jam after the concerts, starting around 10:30 p.m., at Henry’s Bistro, 403 W. Rosemary St. Feb. 25; the West End Wine Bar, 450 W. Franklin St., Feb. 26 and 28; and Top of the Hill Restaurant & Brewery, 100 E. Franklin St., Feb. 27. Free.

· Feb. 26, David Berkman Quartet, 12:30 p.m., Commons Room, James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence. Free.

· Feb. 26, North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra, "Celebrating the American Popular Song," 8 p.m., Hill Hall Auditorium, with vocalist Kathy Gelb. UNC music professor and department chair James Ketch, director of jazz studies, directs this 18-member orchestra of professional musicians from across the state. Its mission is to preserve jazz through concerts and education programs. The orchestra will salute the American popular song with tunes spanning the 20^th century. Selections in this concert will include music by writing partners George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein III, and Richard Rodgers and Lorenzo Hart. The audience may want to sing along. $10 for seniors; $5, students; $12, others.

· Feb. 27, UNC Jazz Combos with the David Berkman Quartet, 4 p.m., 107 Hill Hall. Part of the Fred and Gail Fearing Friday Afternoon Jazz Series. Free.

· Feb. 27, Roy Hargrove Quintet, 7 p.m. curtain call lecture by James Ketch, 107 Hill Hall; 8 p.m. concert, Hill Hall Auditorium. Part of the Carolina Union Performing Arts Series. $18 for students; $35, others.

· Feb. 28, Jazz Symposium: "Celebrating the American Popular Song: Jazz and the Songsmiths," 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Person Recital Hall. Scholars and artists will explore how jazz interacted with the writers of American popular songs. Speakers will include Bill Kirchner, Grammy award winner, saxophonist and professor at The New School University in New York City; Dr. Scott DeVeaux, author and associate professor of music at the University of Virginia; Dr. Robert O’Meally, a professor of literature at Columbia University; and Dr. David Carson Berry, an assistant professor of music theory at the University of Cincinnati’s College- Conservatory of Music. Free.

· Feb. 28, UNC Jazz Bands in Concert with the David Berkman Quartet, 8 p.m., Hill Hall Auditorium. James Ketch and Wally West of the UNC music faculty will conduct. Free for UNC students with IDs; $4 for seniors; $6 for others.

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(Wittkamp, of Raleigh, is a December 2003 UNC graduate, with degrees in women’s studies and journalism and mass communication.)

Note: Media representatives are welcome to cover most festival events. For details, contact James Ketch at 962-7560 or jketch@email.unc.edu ; L.J. Toler at UNC News Services, 919-962-8589 or laura_toler@unc.edu ; or Glenn McDonald at 962-1039, gmcdonal@email.unc.edu .

Photo URLs:

· http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/event/concert/berkman_david.jpg

· http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/event/concert/hargrove_roy.jpg

Contact: James Ketch, 962-7560, 962-1039 or jketch@email.unc.edu
News Services Contact: L.J. Toler,962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu