For immediate useNov. 4,1997--No. 817

Local angle: Winston-Salem

N.C. Jazz Repertory Orchestra show to trace music of Armstrong, Ellington

By KARYN MITCHELL
UNC-CH News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- The North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra will trace the music of King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington in a Nov. 14 concert in Winston-Salem.

And on Nov. 14-15, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Humanities Program will offer a related seminar, “Daybreak Express: Southern Journey 1895-1954,” also in Winston-Salem.

The jazz show, titled “Daybreak Express,” will be at 8 p.m. in the Salem Fine Arts Center. Highlights will include “Hotter than That,” “Ring Dem Bells” and “Take the A Train.”

The show marks the first Winston-Salem appearance for the 18-member orchestra of professional musicians from across the state, which has received acclaim in North Carolina and beyond for classic jazz performances. The musicians include educators from UNC-CH, UNC-Greensboro and N.C. Central, East Carolina, Pembroke and Duke universities. Founded in 1993, the orchestra performed a 1995 concert of Ellington's music that was widely televised; its “Nutcracker Suite” has become an annual holiday favorite.

In conjunction with the concert, the UNC-CH Humanities Program will offer the weekend seminar at Salem Academy and College. The seminar will feature a reception and Southern dinner, a tour of Salem's Happy Hill community and lectures by UNC-CH distinguished professors.

Music professor James Ketch will discuss Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington; history professor Dr. Peter Coclanis, Southern poverty and the social and political response; English professor Dr. Trudier Harris, black writers and the South; and David Moltke-Hansen, director of UNC-CH's Center for the Study of the American South, Nashville agrarians.

For more information and to register for the seminar, call the UNC-CH Humanities Program at (919) 962-1544. Concert tickets, $6 for students and $10 for others, may be purchased at the door or in advance from the Carolina Union Box Office at UNC-CH, (919) 962-1449.

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Jazz orchestra contact: James Ketch, (919)-962-7560 or (919)493-3378

News Services contact: Laura J. Toler