The music of legendary jazzman Stan Kenton,
as performed by Bill Russo's 18 piece Chicago Jazz Ensemble, will soon
echo in the halls of Richard J. Daley College. The opening-of-the-school-year
concert on Tuesday, September 19th is sponsored by Richard J. Daley College.
The program will begin at 7:00p.m. in the college's Beattie Theater. There
will be no admission charge.
Jazz pioneer Stan Kenton, with whom Russo
played, performed from the 1940's into the 1970's. Kenton headed a range
of bands and orchestras that sometimes included as many as forty musicians.
These musical organizations produced a string of alumni whose influence
on jazz is incalculable: June Christy, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, Maynard
Ferguson, and Kay Winding. Alumni of his bands include artists better known
for other musical styles, such as Stan Getz and Laurindo Almeida..
Bill Russo is a Chicago alumnus of the
Stan Kenton band from the early 1950's. He is now director of Columbia
College's Contemporary American Music Program as well as longtime leader
of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, based at the college. Russo attended to Senn
High School with legendary saxophonist and Kenton alumnus Lee Kontz. From
that meeting ground, they occasionally played together at city clubs and
initiated a lifetime of off-and-on collaboration. During the 1960's, Russo
wrote a symphony for Leonard Bernstein and a number of operas, and turned
down an invitation from Duke Ellington to join his band as a full-time
member. Russo has ben interested in Kenton's music for many years and has
welcomed the groundswell of interest since Kenton's death in 1979.
Russo's work with Kenton's music is given
special importance by his role as an alumnus of one of the Kenton bands.
But it is also related to Russo's interest ib contemporary American music
because of Kenton's crucial role in the history of American jazz. Writing
on the Stan Kenton web site, curator Dave Powell notes that Kenton has
"the distinction of being the most 1970's. From his lush dance orchestras,
musically unparalleled "Innovations Orchestra," to his exciting big bands
of the Sixties and Seventies, [Kenton] was a man who strived to bring progressive
jazz to the people. As one admirer noted, "Stan took big band jazz out
of the dance hall and into the concert hall." [He} was an energetic figure
committed to jazz education. Through his Jazz Orchestra in Residence clinics,
Stan Kenton created a bond between jazz and the Humanities departments
of many colleges in North America. Touring almost constantly, the Kenton
band performed all over the world; in London, Wiesbaden, across America
in large halls, but also in the small hamlets such as Creston and Perry,
IA. This close touch with young musicians living in small communities was
instrumental in fostering an interest in an art form seldom receiving attention
in those more isolated areas. His influence on high school and college
jazz ensembles studies remains huge today...." The concert at Daley College
will be an opportunity for a new audience to hear and enjoy the music of
Stan Kenton as performed by Russo's Chicago Jazz Ensemble.
For information on the concert, call the
Humanities Department at (773)838-7713. Daley College, one of the seven
City Colleges of Chicago, is located at 7500 S. Pulaski Road in Chicago.