Purdue jazz celebrates Indiana as a 'Crossroads of Jazz'
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Those into trivia know that "Back Home Again in Indiana" enjoys a niche in jazz history as one of the first jazz standards ever recorded. This tune and the Hoosier state's rich jazz history will be celebrated Friday (Nov. 19) when the Purdue Jazz Band and The Original Salty Dogs, a band with Purdue roots dating to 1947, present "Crossroads of Jazz."
Both groups will be in Loeb Playhouse in Purdue University's Stewart Center for an 8 p.m. concert. It's the first of two free weekend jazz concerts. The American Music Repertory Ensemble, Lab and Concert Jazz Bands will present "The Legacy of Benny Carter" at 8 p.m. Saturday (Nov. 20) in Loeb Playhouse.
Carter, a musician, composer, arranger and band leader, "is one of the most important jazz figures you've never heard of," says M.T. "Mo" Trout, director of the Purdue bands featured in the weekend concerts.
Friday's concert brings back a band that made jazz history at Purdue. Before the university officially recognized jazz, informal student groups held jazz jams and introduced other students to jazz. First named the Cary Jazz Club, then the Purdue Jazz Society, Salty Dogs was the name that stuck. Six of the band's current regulars, now based in Chicago, trace their musical roots to Purdue and West Lafayette.
The Salty Dogs will perform music from the 1920s, '30s and '40s, Trout says, featuring tunes from those eras by Hoagy Carmichael, Paul Dresser and Cole Porter. The Purdue Jazz Band will salute jazz musicians from the second half of the 20th century, with Indianapolis roots, including Wes Montgomery, Freddie Hubbard, David Baker and JJ Johnson.
Indiana's proximity to Chicago ensured it would become a jazz state. Some of the first jazz recordings were made at the Gennett Records studio in Richmond, which opened their doors to African-American jazz musicians when other studios wouldn't. In the 1950s Indianapolis became a hot spot for hard bop jazz, and one of the country's cutting edge jazz bands, the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, still calls it home.
The Purdue Jazz Band will perform a Wallarab arrangement of Freddie Hubbard's ''Little Sunflower.'' The band also will play "An Evening Thought" by David Baker, current head of Indiana University's Jazz Department.
Logansport saxophonist Med Flory of the band Super Sax enjoys a footnote in Indiana jazz history for transcribing and rearranging famous Charlie Parker jazz solos for saxophone sections. His version of Charlie Parker's "Now's the Time" also is on the program.
Saturday's concert will focus on New York native Benny Carter. An active performer on both saxophone and trumpet until his death at age 95 in 2003, he earned many honors including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987 and the National Medal of the Arts.
"Musicians know Carter, but not the general public so much," says Trout. "Carter was the first African-American to become involved in composing film scores and to write music for TV shows. He was one of the first alto sax players to be widely emulated and copied, and he helped make the alto sax an important jazz solo instrument."
The American Music Repertory Ensemble will perform the tunes "Blue Jive Five," "Jackson County Jubilee" and "Symphony in Riffs." The AMRE Singers will be featured on an arrangement of "Smack Dab in the Middle."
The Concert and Lab Jazz Bands will provide contrast by playing pieces with a contemporary slant, Trout says.
The jazz concerts are sponsored by Purdue Bands & Orchestras. For more information on concerts at Purdue visit https://www.purdue.edu/bands
Source: Kathy Matter, 765-496-6785, kcmatter@purdue.edu