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Jazz I to open Twin Cities Jazz Society performance

By Jean Mullins '07
February 17, 2006

St. Olaf College's Jazz I ensemble will open for a performance of St. Olaf Artist in Residence Dave Hagedorn's band, the Out to Lunch Quartet, Friday, Feb. 17, at 8 p.m. in the Lion's Pause in Buntrock Commons at St. Olaf. The performance is part of series created by the Twin Cities Jazz Society. Admission is $10 for the public, $7 for TCJS members and $5 for students.

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Artist in Residence Dave Hagedorn played during a faculty jazz performance in the Pause last year.
TCJS, which holds most of its concerts for this series in the Twin Cities, is breaking precedent to host this performance in Northfield. Hagedorn explains that many TCJS members are eager to hear the award-winning Jazz I, which only rarely performs away from St. Olaf. Last year the ensemble won first place at a regional jazz competition at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

"The concert will be a wide assortment of music," Hagedorn said. Jazz I will not only play the Afro-Cuban ?Cubano Bop," but also a funk piece, a "straight-ahead" jazz piece, a piece by a New York composer and a work by jazz musician Thelonious Monk that was arranged by Dan Cavanagh '01, who teaches music at the University of Texas-Arlington.

Jazz I will be playing the legendary "Cubano Bop," the piece written by George Russell for Dizzy Gillespie. Hagedorn, also the director of Jazz I, played with Russell in the '80s. Russell gave him the music when Hagedorn left that band. The piece was the first Afro-Cuban piece written for a big band and is not often performed because the music can only be obtained directly from Russell.

Following Jazz I, Hagedorn and the Out to Lunch Quartet will be performing the highly acclaimed final album by Eric Delphy: Out to Lunch. The album, recorded in 1964, is regarded as a cornerstone in the modern jazz movement. "The album is unique in the way it was composed and the way it has been improvised over," Hagedorn says.

The Out to Lunch Quartet features Hagedorn on vibraphone, Kelly Rossum on trumpet, Phil Hey on drums, Tom Lewis on bass and David Milne on reeds. Each piece of music is only about a minute long, but the Out to Lunch Quartet improvises over each piece for nearly 10 minutes.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.