Big Band Treasures with SMithsonian Jazz, Quincy JOnes

Media Contact:

Kristen Gleason
Director of Marketing
The Paramount Theater
215 East Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434.979.1922 ext. 103
kristen@theparamount.net

For Immediate Release

January 24, 2008

"The best jazz repertory band in the country" (The New Yorker), The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra (SMJO) promotes understanding and appreciation of jazz within the context of American history. As the jazz orchestra in residence at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, SMJO interprets a wide repertoire of big band classics.

In a Paramount Theater concert on Thursday, February 7 at 7:30 pm, the orchestra proudly presents the big band works of Quincy Jones, one of the most prolific and highly-respected composers of our time. Under the direction of Maestro David Baker, the orchestra offers a program including some of the 2008 NEA Jazz Master recipient’s most important and exciting compositions, such as “Soul Bossa Nova” and “Jessica’s Day.”

Now in its 17th year, SMJO has been hailed for its “vitality and skill” (Jazz Times), “crisp ensemble work,” and “many gifted soloists” (The Washington Post). The orchestra recreates big band jazz as its composers and arrangers intended it to be played.

Stripping away intervening changes and alterations, the seventeen-member big band investigates the intersection of classical and jazz music. The orchestra’s concerts illuminate both small ensembles and jazz masters who contributed to the development of American jazz, honoring the music’s status as a national treasure.

SMJO tours nationally and internationally, and offers its own radio series, Jazz Smithsonian, heard on more than 88 public radio stations across the United States and in six nations. The group was honored to recently perform at the January 11 International Association for Jazz Education awards ceremony in Toronto honoring the 2008 NEA Jazz Masters -- at which recipient Quincy Jones was present.

With a musical career spanning six decades, Quincy Jones has earned his reputation as a renaissance man of American music. Music impresario, conductor, record producer, musical arranger, film composer, and trumpeter, Jones holds the record for the most Grammy nominations at 79 -- 27 of which also garnered him Grammy Awards.

Born in Chicago in 1933, he began his performing career playing small gigs, later touring with Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, and Harold Arlen's jazz musical Free and Easy. He became music director for Mercury Records in 1960, rising to vice president four years later.

In 1964, he composed his first film score with Sidney Lumet's The Pawnbroker. The success of that film led him to pursue what became a highly-successful career as a film score composer. To date he has written scores for more than 35 films including In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night, and Cactus Flower.

Returning to the studio, he recorded a series of Grammy-winning albums between 1969 and 1981 including Walking in Space, Gula Materi, Smackwater Jack, Ndeda, and You've Got It Bad, Girl. Following recovery from a near-fatal cerebral aneurysm, he turned to producing albums, most successfully with Michael Jackson's Off the Wall and Thriller.

Jones made his debut as a filmmaker in 1985 when, with Steven Spielberg, he co-produced The Color Purple featuring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. In 1993, Jones and David Salzman formed QDE, a co-venture with Time Warner encompassing multimedia programming, motion pictures, television, and Vibe magazine. At the same time, he manages his own record label Qwest Records and is the chairman and CEO of Qwest Broadcasting.

Seats are still available for The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra’s February 7 performance featuring big band classics of NEA Jazz Master Quincy Jones. Tickets are $44.50, $47.50, $50.50, and $55.50. Half-price student rush tickets and group discounts are offered.

Tickets are available online or through The Paramount’s Box Office at 434.979.1333.

For more information about SMJO, please visit www.smithsonianjazz.org.