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Studio Jazz Ensemble players
Studio Jazz Ensemble – MUSEN 346/546 A
The UW Studio Jazz Ensemble, widely acclaimed for its precision and excitement, aspires to set the highest possible standards of excellence for the performance of jazz in all its forms. The band is responsible for introducing the latest in big band material, while maintaining the roots of the region's healthy jazz tradition. The ensemble is open by audition to both music majors and non-music majors at the UW, and is designed to provide solid, professional training in the full range of musical styles inherent to jazz. Several smaller combos are also offered at the University.
We will be performing traditional big band material (Basie, Ellington, Thad Jones, Nordal) as well as contemporary (Bob Mintzer, Vince Mendoza) and compositions and arrangements by students and local artists.
Open to all students.
Auditions:
You will be asked to sight read and improvise.
Sign up on door of MUS 14 in September. More info
Note: Participants in jazz ensemble auditions and rehearsals will require Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)—bag covers for woodwinds (including saxophones) and bell covers for brass players. Students who are unable to obtain the PPE gear in time for auditions may submit a video audition by following the guidelines indicated here.
Audition links must be sent to mseales@uw.edu by Monday, Sept. 27.
Director Bio:
A noted pianist, composer and leading figure in the Northwest jazz scene, Marc Seales has shared stages with many of the great players of the last two decades. He has played with nearly every visiting jazz celebrity from Joe Henderson and Art Pepper to Benny Carter, Mark Murphy, and Bobby Hutcherson. With the late Don Lanphere he performed in such places as London, England; Kobe, Japan; The Hague in the Netherlands; and the North Sea Jazz Festival.
The musicians he admires most are Herbie Hancock, Charlie Parker, John Lewis, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Wynton Kelly, though he is quick to acknowledge that he owes the basically be-bop/post be-bop sound of his playing to his mentors, Don Lanphere and Floyd Standifer.
Critics have praised Seales variously for his "meaty piano solos," and "blues inflected, Hancock-inspired modernism." Winner of numerous Earshot awards (Instrumentalist of the Year in 1999 and Acoustic Jazz Group in 2000 and 2001; Jazz Hall of Fame, 2009), Seales is today promoting jazz awareness and molding young talents as a Professor of Music at the University of Washington, where he is a professor in the Jazz Studies Program. He teaches an array of courses, including History of Jazz, Jazz Piano, and Beginning and Advanced Improvisation, as well as leading various workshops and ensembles.