Jazz Band and Combos
Matthew McGarrell, director
Jazz at Brown has a history as old as the style itself. Alumni who played with earlier Brown jazz groups include Red Balaban, '51, former owner of Eddie Condon's and Jimmy Ryan's Jazz Clubs in New York, trombonist Stan Vincent, '57' of the New Black Eagle Jazz Band. In recent years the jazz program at Brown has grown to include instrumental instruction, courses in history, transcription and analysis, an eighteen member big band, and combos, all available for academic credit. World class musicians such as James Moody, Carl Fontana, Gerald Wilson, Clark Terry, Bill Watrous, Dick Hyman, Annie Ross, Tito Puente, Joe Henderson, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Slide Hampton, Gary Burton, Phil Markowitz, Rufus Reid, Jimmy Heath, Joe Lovano, Bob Mintzer and Gerry Mulligan have performed with the Brown Jazz Band in concerts on campus, all over the United States, England and Japan. In recent years the Jazz Band has performed in Amsterdam as well as in Madrid, Spain. In March 2004, the Jazz Band toured Rome.
Central to the jazz program is the eighteen member big band. It consists of five sax players (some doubling on flute), eight brass players (four trumpets and four trombones), a vocalist and a rhythm section of piano, bass, guitar and drums. This arrangement has been traditional since the days of the great Ellington, Basie and Goodman bands of the 1930s. The band's repertoire has included classic pieces by such composers as Duke Ellington as well as more modern works by Thad Jones, Herbie Hancock, Bob Minzer and Toshiko Akiyoshi. Once each year a concert pays tribute to a jazz legend, and, in the spring of 1998, the jazz band recorded and released its first CD. Finally, working in tandem with the big band are four combos, ranging in size from four to eight musicians, who are selected each semester, and coached by the professional jazz musicians on our staff: David Zinno, Ed Tomassi, Ron SanFilippo and Paul Mason.
Tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano, who appeared with the jazz band in spring 2004
