IU Summer Festival Jazz 'Dream Team' continues winning streak: IU News Room: Indiana University

Media Contacts

Alain Barker
IU Jacobs School of Music
abarker@indiana.edu
812-856-5719

Linda Cajigas
IU Jacobs School of Music
musicpub@indiana.edu
812-856-3882

IU Summer Festival Jazz 'Dream Team' continues winning streak

Print this page

Encore performance will be July 16

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 10, 2007

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music's "Dream Team" will bring its talent to the stage with a performance on Monday (July 16) during the IU Summer Music Festival.

Reminiscent of the U.S. men's 1992 Olympic basketball team -- where organizers were able to pick the very best of the best and assemble the unforgettable "Dream Team" -- IU Jacobs School of Music Dean Gwyn Richards approached IU Distinguished Professor and Chair of the IU Jazz Studies Department David N. Baker and the rest of the jazz faculty last year about assembling the crème de la crème of the Indiana jazz world, and beyond, to form a new ensemble to add to the already impressive ranks of the IU Summer Music Festival.

The Festival Jazz Orchestra will perform Monday, July 16.

Print-Quality Photo

Thus, the formidable Festival Jazz Orchestra, directed by Baker himself, was born, and it will continue the tradition established last year in an encore performance on Monday, July 16, at 8 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center.

"The assemblage of such top-flight jazz talent into one performance group is unprecedented since I've been here," said Baker, "and I've been here since 1949!"

Baker and his IU jazz faculty colleagues handpicked a roster of primarily IU graduates, all of whom have gone on to extremely successful careers in performance, teaching or recording -- often, all three. The group reads like a who's who of jazz:

Saxophones: Tom Walsh, lead alto; Shannon LeClaire, alto; Ralph Bowen, tenor; Gary Campbell, tenor; Ed Renz, baritone;
Trombones: Brent Wallarab, lead; Tim Coffman; Roland Barber; Rich Dole, bass trombone;
Trumpets: James De La Garza, lead; Pat Harbison, Pharez Whitted, Derrick Gardner, Barry Springer;
Rhythm: Jeremy Allen, bass; Luke Gillespie, piano.
Drummer Steve Houghton, a faculty member at the Jacobs School, is the only musician who didn't study at IU.

Indeed, the Festival Jazz Orchestra well-represents the legacy of jazz at IU, with the affiliations of its members, composers and arrangers dating back as far as the late forties and as recent as today. In many ways, the orchestra vividly portrays the past, present and future of jazz at IU.

David Baker

Print-Quality Photo

For this group of standout players, Baker has chosen music made by some of the jazz world's most distinguished composers and arrangers, including Freddie Hubbard, J. J. Johnson, Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and Baker, among others.

Tickets are on sale now for this historic concert:

In Person: The Musical Arts Center Box Office is located on Jordan Avenue between Third and Seventh streets and is open Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Phone 812-855-7433 for information.
By Phone: Call Ticketmaster at 812-333-9955.
Online: https://www.music.indiana.edu/summer

Web links to artists performing in the ensemble:

Jacobs School of Music faculty

Jeremy Allen: https://www.myspace.com/jeremyallenmusic

David Baker: https://info.music.indiana.edu/sb/page/normal/22.html

Luke Gillespie: https://info.music.indiana.edu/sb/page/normal/863.html

Pat Harbison: https://info.music.indiana.edu/sb/page/normal/864.html

Steve Houghton: https://info.music.indiana.edu/sb/page/normal/1010.html

Brent Wallarab: https://www.bwjo.org/about.htm

Tom Walsh: https://info.music.indiana.edu/sb/page/normal/831.html

Additional musicians in the ensemble

Roland Barber: https://www.thebarberbrothers.com/

Ralph Bowen: https://musicweb.rutgers.edu/info/fac-bio/bowen/