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Friday 28 June 2024
7pm
Silk Street Music Hall
Four Decades of Jazz at Guildhall
Guildhall Jazz Orchestra & Singers
Scott Stroman director
Guildhall Jazz Percussion Ensemble
Inês Loubet director
Digital Programmes
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Silk Street
Eating is not permitted in the auditorium. Drinks are allowed inside the auditorium in polycarbonates.
Filming or recording of the performance is not permitted.
Latecomers will be able to enter the auditorium at a suitable break in the performance.
Guildhall School of Music & Drama
Founded in 1880 by the City of London Corporation
Chairman of the Board of Governors
Emily Benn
Principal
Professor Jonathan Vaughan
Vice-Principal & Director of Music
Armin Zanner
Welcome
Guildhall Jazz Department presents a celebration of over 40 years of jazz studies at Guildhall School.
The Jazz Department at Guildhall is among the most renowned and established of its kind with alumni including Cleveland Watkiss, Zara McFarlane, Tim Garland, Steve Williamson, Helena Kay, Binker Golding, Winston Clifford, Huw Warren and Jason Rebello. This performance will premiere a new suite for jazz orchestra and vocal group written and directed by Scott Stroman.
Programme
Scott Stroman Chanobop
Pat Metheny/Emily Kent Always and Forever
Kenny Wheeler Little Suite
INTERVAL
Scott Stroman From Earth to Sky (a suite for Mary)
I. Beginning
II. Ev'ry New Day
III. Mary's Song
IV. Waltz of the Lambs
V. Among the Stars
Notes
Scott Stroman Chanobop
‘Chanobop’ is the final piece of The Tradition, a suite of pieces written for the London Jazz Orchestra inspired by personal musical heroes Thelonius Monk, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Dizzy Gillespie. ‘Chanobop’ honours Gillespie and Chano Pozo, the great Cuban percussionist who collaborated with him and George Russell in pieces including Manteca and Cubano Be, Cubano Bop. It is recorded on the LJO album Dance for Human Folk.
Pat Metheny/Emily Kent Always and Forever
The Guildhall Jazz Singers are a one-to-a part vocal group specializing in close harmony, from jazz classics by the Singers Unlimited and Swingle Singers, gospel and pop, to music created for and by the group's members. Emily Kent has written lyrics for the Metheny classic Always and Forever and arranged it for the current group.
Kenny Wheeler Little Suite
Little Suite was one of group of pieces offered to me by Kenny Wheeler when I approached him to be a guest artist with the Guildhall Jazz Band in 1985. He handed me a pile of manuscripts, several, including Little Suite, which we later recorded with him on the Wave Records album Walk Softly. It is not a traditional suite, more a single tune which is taken through multiple permutations, starting as a rollicking 3/4 and passing through swing and freely improvised sections before settling into a rich ballad. It is inspired by the trumpet player Booker Little, hence the title.
Scott Stroman From Earth to Sky (a suite for Mary)
From Earth to Sky is a newly composed suite of 5 connected pieces inspired by my daughter Mary; the musical material for all the pieces is derived from Mary's Song, written 25 years ago. It rather accidentally mirrors the form of a classical suite/symphony, with an introduction, a multi-themed first piece, a slow second piece, a 3/4 third piece, and a fast-moving finale.
‘Beginning’ is a short, rich hymn, leading to the ‘Ev'ry New Day’, with its pan-Caribbean dance groove (sometimes called the Miami Sound), featuring guitar and piano. ‘Mary's Song’, a warm ballad featuring trombone and bass, follows, adapted for the new suite. ‘Waltz of the Lambs’ is an intimate jazz waltz, featuring flugelhorn and alto saxophone, that opens into a rich tutti for the ensemble. It culminates in a free piano solo followed by a reprise of the delicate melody. ‘Among the Stars’ is an optimistic, dancing finale in an African bembe feel, featuring a quartet within the larger ensemble, and breaking into up-tempo swing on its way to its, and the suite's, conclusion.
Programme notes by Scott Stroman
Guildhall Jazz Orchestra
Woodwinds
Jack Devonshire
alto sax, B-flat clarinet
Harris Dakin
alto sax, tenor sax
John Alcock
tenor sax, flute
Bror Havnes
tenor sax
Emily Masser
baritone sax, B-flat clarinet
Mick Foster
flute, bass clarinet
Trumpet
Sandy Watkin
Sidney Moon
Jack Ross (Guildhall Alum)
Ed Hogben
Trombone
Oli Rath (Guildhall Alum)
Leon Middleton
Max Lawrence
Josh Brierley
Alex Froggatt (bass trombone)
Tuba
Sean Byrne
Guitar
Joe Garland-Johnston
Piano
Lior Solomons-Wise
Will Inscoe
Bass
Murray Dare
Drums
Anmol Mohara
Aaron Carpenter
Vibraphone/Percussion
Micah Baker
Guildhall Jazz Singers
Soprano
Alex Moss
Emily Kent
Alto
Martha Abrahamson-Ball
Issy Owen
Bass
Evie Atkin
Will Inscoe
Guildhall Jazz Percussion Ensemble
Inês Loubet
Angel Wong
Oskar Jones
Vicki Munn
Scott Stroman
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Scott has been a Professor in the Jazz Department at Guildhall School of Music & Drama since 1983 and was made a Fellow of Guildhall School in 1988. US-born but long based in London, he is a composer, conductor, singer, trombonist and educator, and Director of the London Jazz Orchestra, Eclectic Voices, and Artistic Director of Highbury Opera Theatre (HOT). As a trombonist, singer and conductor he has performed with numerous jazz and world music artists including Youssou N’Dour, Goran Bregovich, Ramamani, Phil Collins, Billy Cobham, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Liebman, Norma Winstone, Bobby Wellins and Rufus Reid. He conducts baroque to contemporary music with orchestras, choirs, and opera in the UK and Europe and directed the London Philharmonic Orchestra's innovative cross-genre Renga and Hit Squad ensembles.
He directed the first European performances of all of the Gil Evans - Miles Davis collaborations, created and directed new versions of Coltrane's Africa/Brass, Ellington's Second Sacred Concert and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers Moanin’, and this season directed the Guildhall Jazz Orchestra in the first live performance, since Miles Davis recorded it with the Danish Radio Orchestra in 1989, of Palle Mikkelborg's Aura.
A prolific composer, he has written numerous works for jazz ensemble, choir, orchestra, and the stage and recently premiered his second opera, The Weekend, based the book by Michael Palin. He received a BASCA gold badge award for services to music from the Ivors Academy in 2018.
Inês Loubet
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Inês Loubet is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist that writes Brazilian-influenced, danceable songs that seamlessly blend improvisation and jazz harmony with captivating melodies and powerful lyrics. Loubet's musical journey has been marked by notable performances at prestigious venues and festivals. From gracing the stage at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall to a sold-out Tropicalia show at The Jazz Café, supporting Brazilian legend Gilberto Gil at the O2 Shepherds Bush, and sharing the spotlight with João Bosco & Hamilton de Holanda at The Union Chapel in 2018, Loubet's talent has garnered widespread recognition. Her projects have received acclaim from influential figures such as Gilles Peterson and Mr Bongo, earning her several UK and international tours and radio appearances on platforms like Jazz Fm, NTS, Soho Radio, and BBC Radio 3. In 2022, Loubet received the Drake Yolanda Award, and her dedication to her craft has been further supported by Arts Council funding for her 12-date UK SENGA Tour and Help Musicians UK. Loubet's creative journey culminates in her debut album, "SENGA," set to release in May 2024 under the Alberts Favourites south-london label.
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