Celebrated Aardvark Jazz Orchestra Opens 43rd Season, CD Release Party, Scullers Jazz Club Boston

BOSTON - Sept. 30, 2015 - PRLog -- The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, led by founder/director Mark Harvey, has been a force in the international jazz scene for more than 40 years.  The venerable band kicks off its 43^rd season at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston on October 8, 2015 at 8:00 pm.  Tickets are $25.  Reservations and information: 617-562-4111.  The show, Jazz Americana, features the CD-release of Deep River, written for Aardvark by Richard Nelson (“an ambitious and daring composer – Allaboutjazz.com).  In addition, Aardvark performs Billy Strayhorn’s classic Chelsea Bridge, marking the centennial of this great American composer, and the band pays tribute to New Orleans a decade after hurricane Katrina, with Mark Harvey’s NOLA and Duke Ellington's raucous Second Line from his New Orleans Suite.

Aardvark has been praised for “a stunning hour of music that is in turn beautiful, poignant and raucous” (Billboard.com) and has been hailed for “expansive harmony, brilliant music... discipline, openness, and freedom” (CultureJazz.Fr - France).  To make reservations for Aardvark's October 8 show at Scullers:  http://www.scullersjazz.com/

More on Aardvark’s 43^rd Season.   On November 14, Aardvark gives its annual Fall concert at MIT’s Killian Hall, Cambridge, including the world premiere of Mark Harvey’s Tritonology, and an improvised score to Kate Matson's animation "FiLmprov Cha Cha Cha!"  On December 5, the band performs Ellington Blues for the Highland Jazz Series in Newton Massachusetts, and on December 12, Aardvark celebrates its 43rd Annual Christmas Concert at Boston's Emmanuel Church (proceeds to benefit Community Works, Boston).  On January 31, the orchestra makes its debut at the Silver Center for the Arts (Plymouth NH) with a Salute to Duke, and on April 16, Aardvark explores the full range of progressive jazz with originals by Mark Harvey at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium in Cambridge.

More on Deep River:   Richard Nelson’s multi-faceted suite Deep River, written for The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, brings a contemporary, jazz-influenced lens to a diverse set of American traditional songs from the 1920s and 1930s:  Deep River Blues, Old Country Stomp, Wake Up Jacob, and Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor.  Nelson keeps the original source recordings hovering in the background while he conjures a vivid orchestral soundscape in the foreground. The album features assured writing by Nelson, rich ensemble work, and inspired improvisation by the stellar musicians of Aardvark.  Vocalists Marcia Gallagher and Timothy Johnson are engaging and affecting across a range of colors and moods, from melancholy blues to up-tempo scat-singing.  The album offers captivating solos by long-time Aardvark members Bill Lowe on rumbling tuba, Bob Pilkington on swinging trombone, Phil Scarff on lush soprano sax, Arni Cheatham on searing tenor, Richard Nelson on expressive guitar, and Peter Bloom, who opens the album’s title track with sumptuous flute and animates the later track Old Country Stomp with irrepressible piccolo.

Richard Nelson's works have been performed by ensembles such as the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and the BMI Jazz Composers Orchestra, and he has performed as guitarist with many notable figures, across the U.S. and abroad.  A core member of The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra for many years, Dr. Nelson is Professor of Music and head of the Composition Concentration at the University of Maine at Augusta.

About the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and Mark Harvey:   Founded in 1973, The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra is one of the longest running large jazz ensembles in the world.  The band has given premieres of more than 175 works for jazz orchestra, performs widely, and appears on 13 CDs, including 7 discs from Leo Records, one of the world’s leading adventuresome music labels.  Guest artists who have appeared with Aardvark include jazz luminaries Jaki Byard, Sheila Jordan, Jimmy Giuffre, Geri Allen, Raj Mehta, Dominique Eade and Matt Savage.

Mark Harvey is the founder and music director of the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and teaches jazz studies at MIT. Harvey has performed in major venues including Fenway Park and Symphony Hall, Boston, the Knitting Factory and the Village Gate (NYC), the National Gallery of Art (DC), the Left Bank Jazz Society (MD), the Southern California Institute of Architecture (CA), the Berlin Jazz Festival (Germany), and the Baja State Theater (Mexico).  His musical credits also include recordings with George Russell’s Living Time Orchestra (Blue Note), and Baird Hersey & the Year of the Ear (Arista/Novus) and appearances with Gil Evans, Howard McGhee, Sam Rivers, Claudio Roditi, and other notables.  Harvey has received commissions from the Meet the Composer/Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program, the 15^th Annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert, the MIT Sesquicentennial Celebration, and others.  His essay on the history of avant-garde jazz in Boston will appear as part of a forthcoming compilation recording, The Boston Creative Jazz Scene 1970—1983 (Culture of Souls) featuring Mark Harvey, Peter Bloom, and Arni Cheatham, among others.   In 2015, Dr. Harvey was named Boston Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association.

Aardvark is:  Arni Cheatham, Peter Bloom, Phil Scarff, Chris Rakowski, Dan Zupan, Tim O’Dell/saxes and woodwinds; K.C. Dunbar, Jeanne Snodgrass/trumpets; Bob Pilkington,  Anita Jerosch, Tom Plsek/trombones; Bill Lowe, bass trombone/tuba; Richard Nelson/guitar; John Funkhouser/string bass; Harry Wellott/drums; Jerry Edwards and Grace Hughes, vocalists; Mark Harvey/trumpet, music director.   Aardvark’s veteran trombonists Jay Keyser and Jeff Marsanskis will not be on stage at Scullers, but should be rejoining the band for the next show, November 14 at Killian Hall, MIT, Cambridge, MA.

The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra is managed by Americas Musicworks, Rebecca DeLamotte, Managing Director, 29 Newbury Street, Somerville, MA 02144, Telephone 617-776-8778.  Email:  delamotte-amw@comcast.net