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UW Modern Band (Photo: Gary Louie).
The Studio Jazz Ensemble performs big band arrangements and repertory selections. The Modern Band performs innovative arrangements of jazz standards, selections from the outer limits of the genre, and new original compositions.
Program
Modern Band
Here you came and there you'll go
to be why the grass grows
to be why the eyes close
when a kiss under the moon
feels like the light of the sun
inspired Me
to kiss you.
Can I be for while you wait?
To borrow stories from a
greyhound next to us on the
interstate
On our way to the next place
I'll illustrate
what I see deep inside your
fingerprint face
You're the most recent reason
for this liminal feeling
that every morning is a funeral
and every night is a wedding
One of us is ending as the other is
becoming
a lit fuse with little left to do
but color our sky with the infinite
in You.
Decorated delusions
Far away conclusions
Patient inspiration
Everchanging solutions
to a problem that is not
I believe we are free
Falling isn't fatal
I prayed to be
You: the ground beneath
Bare-minded
standing in You
I am reminded:
We are what we're looking for.
Use Us to find It
- Jack Kennelly
Prelogue: Transition Modern Band
Can I Be For While You Wait Jacob Lipp
The Most Recent Reason Beau Wood
Chemical Burn Jacob Lipp
Solution EJ Brannan
Believe in Freedom Jai Lasker
The Ground Beneath EJ Brannan
S.O.S. (Smell of Spring) Shai Permilovsky
Studio Jazz Ensemble
It’s Just Talk Pat Metheny arr. Bob Curnow
Dream of the Return Pat Metheny arr. Bob Curnow
Whirly Bird Neal Hefti arr. Sammy Nestico
In a Mellotone Duke Ellington arr. Frank Foster
Don’t Be That Way Benny Goodman/ Edgar Sampson/ Mitchell Parish arr. Matt Catingub
PERSONNEL
Modern Band
EJ Brannan, drums
Jai Lasker, guitar
Jacob Lipp, saxophone
Shai Permilovsky, piano
Beau Wood, bass
Jack Kennelly, poet, guest speaker
Studio Jazz Ensemble
TROMBONE
Richie Torres-Antunez
Alex Weber
Peter Joaquin Koenig
Daniel K. Matsumoto, 1st trombone
Alec Raring
TRUMPET
Ben F. Von Jess
Noah Kim, 1st trumpet
Gavin Elias
SAXOPHONE
Leo Zhang, alto sax
Joshua Cheng, alto sax
Liam Jaeden Salas, tenor sax
Imants Smidchens, tenor sax
BASS
Elise Corinne Soper
DRUMS
Dante Reiger
PIANO
Gavin Westlund
Director Bios
Cuong Vu is widely recognized by jazz critics as a leader of a generation of innovative musicians. A truly unique musical voice, Cuong has lent his trumpet playing to a wide range of artists such as Pat Metheny, Laurie Anderson, and David Bowie.
As a youngster, Cuong's intense dedication and love for music led him to a full scholarship at the New England Conservatory of Music where he received his Bachelor of Music in Jazz studies with a distinction in performance. Transitioning from his studies in Boston, he moved to New York in 1994 and began his career actively leading various groups while touring extensively throughout the world. As a leader, Cuong has released eight recordings, each making critics’ lists of the 10 best recordings of their respective years and has received rave reviews from notable publications such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper’s, the Guardian, BBC Music Magazine, JazzTimes and Downbeat. Each record displays how he has carved out a distinctive sonic territory as a trumpet player, blurring all stylistic borders while developing his own compositional aesthetic and sound world.
Awards and honors that Cuong has garnered include grants from the Royalty Research Foundation, the Donald E. Petersen Professorship, ArtistTrust, 4Culture, CityArts and the Colbert Award for Excellence. Cuong is currently associate professor and chair of Jazz Studies at the University of Washington and was awarded the University of Washington's prestigious Distinguished Teacher Award in his third year on faculty. In 2002 and 2006, Cuong was a recipient of the Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album as a member of the Pat Metheny Group. He’s been recognized as one of the top 50 Jazz Artists in an article called “The New Masters” from the British magazine, “Classic CD” and in 2006 was named the Best International Jazz Artist by the Italian Jazz Critics’ Society. Amazon listed Vu’s “Come Play With Me” on their “The 100 Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time.”
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.