34th Annual Jazz Festival
Thursday—Saturday April 12–14, 2012, 7:30 p.m.
NOTE: This year, the West Central All-Stars will be the opening band for the Thursday night show, not Friday night as in the past.
Guest Artists
Dennis Mackrel
Drummer/composer/arranger Dennis Mackrel was born on April 3, 1962. A child prodigy, he began playing the drums when he was two. He graduated from Clark High School in Las Vegas, Nevada, and attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is the recipient of numerous awards such as Who’s Who in Music, 1979; National Endowment For The Arts grant for composition in 1983; and Outstanding Alumni from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in 1992.
While attending UNLV, Mackrel was a member of the acclaimed UNLV Jazz Ensemble, where his drumming and arranging skills caught the attention of vocalist Joe Williams. In 1981, at 19, he moved to New York City and landed a gig as a drummer on Broadway. His Broadway credits include The First and A Chorus Line.
In January 1983, Mackrel joined the Count Basie Orchestra on the personal recommendation of Williams. He would become the youngest member of the orchestra and the last drummer to be hired by Basie personally.
Mackrel traveled extensively and worked alongside Basie until his death in April 1984. He continued with the orchestra under the direction of interim leader Eric Dixon followed by Thad Jones. “I think Dennis is one of the finest young drummers I’ve ever heard. He is extremely knowledgeable and he is also a very accomplished writer…,” said Jones.
In 1985 under Jones’s leadership, the Count Basie Orchestra recorded one of Mackrel’s compositions, “And That’s That.”
Mackrel stayed with the band when Frank Foster took over as leader, until December 1987. Mackrel’s composition “Bus Dust” was included on the CD Long Live The Chief, which was recorded during Foster’s tenure as leader.
After leaving the Count Basie Orchestra, he returned to New York to become the drummer of choice for a number of large ensembles including The American Jazz Orchestra, The Carla Bley Big Band, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, The Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band and his own band, The Manhattan Symphony Jazz Orchestra.
Gary Smulyan
Baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan was born April 4, 1956, in Bethpage, New York. The gifted multi-instrumentalist started his music career by first learning alto saxophone during his teenage years on Long Island. Today, he is critically acclaimed across-the-board and recognized as a major voice on the baritone saxophone. His playing is marked by an aggressive rhythmic sense, an intelligent and creative harmonic approach and, perhaps most importantly, a strong and incisive wit.
While still in high school, Smulyan had the chance to sit in with major jazz artists such as legendary trumpeter Chet Baker, saxophonist Lee Konitz, trombonist Jimmy Knepper, and violinist Ray Nance. After graduating high school, he attended State University New York, Postsdam and Hofstra University, before he joined Woody Herman’s Young Thundering Herd in 1978. The group was a remarkable collection of young musicians who ultimately would find themselves in the forefront of present-day jazz. Joining Smulyan in the band were saxophonist Joe Lovano, bassist Marc Johnson, and drummer John Riley, who would eventually become a fixture in the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.
In 1980, unlike many of his colleagues and peers, Smulyan didn’t have to go very far to move into New York City proper, where he became part of the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra then under the direction of Bob Brookmeyer. Smulyan also worked with other important large ensembles including the Mingus Epitaph band and the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra.
Gradually establishing himself, the talented Smulyan was asked to share the stage and the recording studio with a stunning potpourri of luminaries, including trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Dizzy Gillespie; saxophonist Stan Getz; pianist Chick Corea; timbales king Tito Puente; and R&B/Blues and soul icons Ray Charles, B.B. King, and Diana Ross.
Smulyan, in addition to performing and recording in support of a myriad of people, began to accumulate a discography as a leader. At this point in his career, he has at least 10 recordings out under his own name. Meanwhile, he continued to play with wide variety of artists, each presenting him with an opportunity to fully express himself. In addition to his work on Monday nights with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Smulyan remained close with Lovano, working with him in his nine-piece Nonet; the exhilarating and liberating Dave Holland Octet; and the seminal bassist’s Big Band. Beyond that, Smulyan has also enjoyed stints in the cooperative Three Baritone Saxophone Band, as well as working with powerhouse tenor saxophonist George Coleman in his octet and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band that, similar to the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, is comprised of some of the world’s best players.
No matter who he is performing with—or whether he is leading his own band, Smulyan brings to the stage the spirit, style, and savvy of a deepÂtoned master of bebop.
“Gary Smulyan’s lineage comes more from musicians like Cecil Payne, Leo Parker, Pepper Adams, Serge Chaloff, and Nick Brignola—the few baritonists that dared to master the tricky, chromatic music known as bebop,” wrote All About Jazz’s Francis Lo Kee in a review. “Indeed…Smulyan is fluent in the language.”
Smulyan was heavily influenced by Adams who was known as “The Knife” for his hearty tone and the energy of his rhythmic playing style. Smulyan’s Homage was recorded following Adams’ death, and every track on the recording, released in 1994, is written by Adams.
Similarly, Smulyan organized the Three Baritones Band, which places him in the company of two of his seniors—Ronnie Cuber and Nick Brignola. The group released Plays Mulligan in 1998, the date serving as a tribute to the late Gerry Mulligan, one of the foremost baritone saxophonists in jazz history and a mentor for many artists, including Smulyan.
“Smulyan’s tone seems to get bigger and his ideas more expansive from album to album,” wrote longtime critic Doug Ramsey in Jazz Times magazine. In 1995, WBGO, the all-jazz, Newark, New Jersey-based NPR station voted Smulyan’s Saxophone Mosaic as one of the best 25 CDs of 1995. Two years later, the Boston Globe selected the baritone saxophonist’s Gary Smulyan with Strings as one of the 10 best jazz CDs of 1997.
Always in search of new ideas, in 2008 Smulyan released High Noon&kmdash;The Jazz Soul of Frankie Laine, a nine-piece band tribute to the prolific 1940s and 1950s pop singer Frankie Laine, who died in 2007 at age 93.
“This is the kind of album whose melodies linger after the session’s over,” wrote another longtime critic, Owen Cordle of Charlotte News and Observer.
The Northern Colorado Voices
Northern Colorado Voices is the University of Northern Colorado’s (UNC) premier vocal jazz group. They perform exciting new arrangements of jazz, rock, and pop favorites as well as original songs. The Northern Colorado Voices have opened for the New York Voices, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Patti Austin, Sixth Wave, and will open for the Real Group at the UNC/Greeley Jazz Festival in 2012. The group includes 2010 DownBeat Student Music Award-winner Kate Skinner, Angela Parrish, Ashlee Varner, Dan Barton, Andy Jaramillo, and Evan Bell. Kate Skinner directs the group
This activity is funded in part by a grant from the Lake Region Arts Council through a Minnesota State Legislative appropriation.
