Music

On Saturday, April 27, 2019 Jim McNeely’s acclaimed ten-piece jazz ensemble performed a selection of music from their album Group Therapy during their New England debut. GRAMMY Award-winning pianist/composer Jim McNeely has performed with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra (now the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra), the Stan Getz Quartet, the Phil Woods Quintet, Bob Brookmeyer, and David Liebman, among other artists. The New York Times has called his writing “exhilarating,” and DownBeat has said that his music is “eloquent enough to be profound.”

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

On Sunday, April 7, 2019 The Russell House hosted the New England debut of ‘spirit of clavier’, an inventive duo concept for percussion and piano developed by Pheeroan akLaff and Angelica Sanchez. Drummer and Wesleyan Private Lessons Teacher, Pheeroan akLaff, has been a contributor to the Wesleyan community for 25 years, employing non-standard procedures of improvisation and creativity and inspiring hundreds of students worldwide.

Photos by Richard Marinelli. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

On Sunday, March 31, 2019 at Crowell Concert Hall, John Spencer Camp Professor of Music Neely Bruce presented the seventeenth and final concert in a series of CD-length recitals of his piano music, featuring the Fifth Piano Sonata; the rest of the Friendly Fugues, including “A Double Fugue for Kay Briggs” (the widow of Professor Emeritus Morton W. Briggs), plus three world premieres including “A Fugue for Elena Bruce;” and the world premiere of a bonus fugue by Robert Carl on the name “Neely Bruce.”

Photos by Richard Marinelli. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

On Friday, March 29, 2019 at Crowell Concert Hall, The Nubatones — leader and singer/songwriter Alsarah, percussionist Rami El-Aasser, bassist Mawuena Kodjovi, oud (stringed instrument) player Brandon Terzic, and background vocalist Nahid — performed lavish, joyful East African retro-pop, full of Arabic-language reflections on identity and survival.

Photos by Richard Marinelli. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

On Saturday, February 9, 2019 a concert in Crowell Concert Hall commemorating Jon Barlow took place, closing a full day of events. Jon Barlow was a visionary musician and teacher, whose mind ranged freely through an immense field of topics. A remarkable pianist, and an authority on topics as diverse as mathematics and the history of baseball, he had a profound impact on several generations of Wesleyan students. Participants will include John Spencer Camp Professor of Music Neely Bruce, Professor of Music Ron Kuivila, Alex Waterman, and Jonathan Zorn ’02 MA ’07.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

On Sunday, February 3, 2019 Elite Syncopation returned to The Russell House to re-create historically authentic performances of landmarks from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The group featured Wesleyan Private Lessons Teachers Roy Wiseman on double bass, Perry Elliot on violin, and Julie Ribchinsky on cello; Liz Smith on flute, clarinet, and saxophone; and Gary Chapman on piano. Elite Syncopation performs historic American music, with a focus on ragtime and early jazz.

Photos by Richard Marinelli. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.