“New Musical Express”

Williams Jazz Ensemble presents “New Musical Express”

Friday, January 10
8:00-10:00 p.m.
$10 for members; $20 for guests (includes 1 glass of wine)

The music of Mary Lou Williams, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.

Under the direction of saxophonist and Lyell B. Clay Artist-in-Residence Kris Allen, the 16-piece Williams Jazz Ensemble returns to the Club to present a program of works by three seminal composers of America’s original art form.  The Ensemble last appeared at the Club in February 2018, to a large and enthusiastic audience.  This performance will showcase musical portraits with a wide range of subject matter, from the locomotive (“New Musical Express” and “Take The A Train”) to the literary (“Star Crossed Lovers” and “Eighth Veil”), the geographic and cultural (“Ad Lib on Nippon”) all the way to the existential (“Blood Count”).

Also featured are Ellington’s beloved arrangements of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Benny Carter’s iconic “Symphony in Riffs.”

Throughout the program each band member will be featured, both as individual soloists and in the creation of “head arrangements,” wherein band members collaborate for on-the-spot group improvisations.