Welcome to Purdue Jazz Festival 2010!

The 20th annual Purdue Jazz Festival is a place where high school and middle school jazz musicians come to be inspired by the pros, to show off their skills during intense competition, and to hear what is happening in jazz study with their peers in America’s Midwest.

 It is a festival where students hear many different components of jazz from big bands to various sized combos. It is also a festival where students have the opportunity to learn more about the art of jazz from jazz professionals and educators who present classes and clinics throughout the day, and where they have the opportunity to immediately try out some of these concepts.

This year’s festival will again feature performances by some of the most outstanding jazz musicians in the world. The Dave Holland Quintet is one of the longest running, hardest working combos on the current jazz scene, and they have consistently delivered exciting and well-played music both live and in the studio - to the delight of their growing legion of fans. We are incredibly excited to be able to host this group at our festival.  The lineup features Holland on acoustic bass, the exciting Chris Potter on tenor and soprano saxophones, trombone virtuoso Robin Eubanks, new(ish) drummer Nate Smith (replacing Billy Kilson), and secret weapon/vibraphonist Steve Nelson.

 The eminent jazz critic Leonard Feather, said of Eddie Daniels, "It is a rare event in jazz where one man can all but reinvent an instrument bringing it to a new stage of revolution." Eddie Daniels first came to the attention of the jazz audience as a tenor saxophonist with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra. When Thad and Mel first organized their band in 1966 to play Monday nights at the Village Vanguard in New York (where it still plays), Eddie was one of the first musicians they called. Later that year, he sank $400 in a round-trip flight to Vienna to enter the International Competition for Modern Jazz, a contest organized by the pianist Fredrich Gulda and sponsored by the city of Vienna, and won first prize on saxophone. He continued working with Thad and Mel over the next several years and toured Europe extensively with them.

A single clarinet solo recorded with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra, "Live at the Village Vanguard" garnered sufficient attention for him to win Downbeat Magazine's International Critics New Star on Clarinet Award. This conversion to clarinet was not new, for Eddie began clarinet at age 13 and received his Masters in Clarinet from Juilliard. Winning numerous Grammy awards and nominations, Eddie Daniels revolutionized the blend of jazz and classical.

Bob Lark is a trumpet and flugelhorn player whose performances are especially notable for his lyrical style and fine tone.  His harmonically oriented improvisations shift between aggressive and cool playing. Recently released on the Jazzed Media label is the critically acclaimed CD recording Live at the Jazz Showcase, by  the Bob Lark /Phil Woods Quintet.  This  follows the success of the Jazzed Media CD recordings Suggestions, by Bob Lark and Friends, and  In Her Eyes, by the Bob Lark/Phil Woods Quintet, a group which includes prominent jazz artists Jim McNeely, Steve Gilmore and Bill Goodwin.  

Bob Lark serves as the Director of Jazz Studies at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, where he directs the award winning university Jazz Ensemble and the Phil Woods Ensemble, teaches jazz trumpet and courses in jazz pedagogy and jazz style. Tenor saxophonist Mark Colby will join Bob along with the DePaul Jazz Ensemble in a special noontime performance Saturday in Loeb Playhouse.

These superb artists are as committed to education as to the art of jazz and will present clinics and lasses on their individual areas of expertise during the day. And, throughout the day on Saturday there will be close to one hundred performances by high school and middle school big bands and combos that will be free and open to the public. I know these concerts will inspire and entertain everyone who experiences them.

Along with the generous support of Purdue Employees Federal Credit Union (PEFCU), the Tippecanoe Arts Federation and Indiana Arts Commission, the Purdue University Bands, Purdue Convocations, the Yamaha Corporation, and the Lafayette/West Lafayette community are ready to welcome you to this exciting jazz weekend. I hope to see you there.

Dr. M.T. Mo Trout