Illustrious Aardvark Jazz Orchestra Performs Duke Ellington's Music December 5 and December 12

BOSTON - Dec. 2, 2015 - PRLog -- The internationally acclaimed Aardvark Jazz Orchestra continues its historic 43rd season with exhilarating music of the great Duke Ellington:

December 5, 2015 at 8:00 pm:   Duke Ellington Blues.  Highland Jazz Series, Newton South High School, 140 Brandeis Road, Newton Centre, MA.  Advance tickets: $18, ($17 seniors, $10 for students).  $20 at the door: Reservations:  781-237-1917.  An exuberant tour of Ellington’s blues, including C Jam Blues, Such Sweet Thunder, Portrait of Mahalia, Blue Pepper, and The Shepherd.

December 12, 2015 at 7:30 pm:  Duke Ellington Sacred Music.  Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury St., Boston, MA 02116, Tickets at the door:   $20.  Information:  617-452-3205 or 617-776-8778.  Aardvark celebrates its 43^rd Annual Christmas Concert with Duke Ellington’s jubilant sacred music, including Come Sunday, Tell Me It’s the Truth, Almighty God Has Those Angels,  It’s Freedom, A Song for Christmas (by Billy Strayhorn), and the Duke’s portrait of the Three Wise Men from his Three Black Kings suite.  Proceeds of the December 12 concert will benefit Community Works, a coalition of Boston-area social justice organizations.

Allaboutjazz wrote "Aardvark and Ellington are an ideal couple," while JazzTimes praised the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra's "lush sonorities and a saxophonic blend worthy of Duke's finest reed sections.   The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra 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, Lewis Porter, Dominique Eade and Matt Savage.

The Aardvark Christmas Concert has been a Boston holiday tradition for more than four decades.  Aardvark gave its inaugural concert December 23, 1973 at the Church of the Covenant in Boston as a benefit for the Chelsea Fire Fund.  Every year since then, the band has held a Christmas concert to support a deserving cause. Past beneficiaries have included Doctors Without Borders, American Friends Service Committee, Rosie’s Place, Pine Street Inn, and dozens more.

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).  He has recorded with George Russell’s Living Time Orchestra (Blue Note) and Baird Hersey & the Year of the Ear (Arista/Novus); appeared with Gil Evans, Howard McGhee, Sam Rivers, Claudio Roditi, and other notables; and has received numerous commissions   In 2015, Dr. Harvey was named Boston Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association, one of 24 jazz advocates/activists recognized nationally for significant contributions to their communities.

Aardvark is:  Arni Cheatham, Peter H. Bloom, Dylan Sherry, Chris Rakowski, Dan Zupan, saxes and woodwinds; K.C. Dunbar, Jeanne Snodgrass/trumpets; Bob Pilkington, Jay Keyser, Jeff Marsanskis, 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/ music director.

For information:  www.aardvarkjazz.com    or    www.americasmusicworks.com

The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra is managed by Americas Musicworks,  Rebecca DeLamotte, Managing Director, 29 Newbury Street, Somerville, MA 02144-2442 USA.     Tel: 617-776-8778.  Email:  delamotte-amw@comcast.net