“Velvet on Ivory” Program Insert

“Velvet on Ivory”

Friday, March 25, 2022, 8:00 p.m., BLU Jazz+

Saturday, March 26, 2022, 7:30 p.m., Maltz Performing Arts Center

The CJO welcomes tubist Velvet Brown and composer/pianist Ellen Rowe to share an evening of music and memories. 

A note from Artistic Director Paul Ferguson:

I chose this title in reference to a recording Doc Severinson made with Henry Mancini in the 1970’s–”Brass on Ivory.” 

We happily exchange Doc’s trumpet for the tuba of Velvet Brown, a leading force in jazz tuba and faculty at Penn State for 15 years. We’ll feature Velvet on music from her new CD, Lonnie’s Lament, recorded with the CJO. We’ll feature a “Tuba Concerto” Paul Ferguson wrote for her in 2014.

In for Hank Mancini is Ellen Rowe, one of the nation’s finest jazz pianists, composers, and educators–she’s directed the prestigious jazz program at the University of Michigan for over 20 years.

This performance offers us a chance to close the circle with one of the founders of the CJO. The late Baritone saxophonist and composer Ann Stamm Merrell (1951-1999) helped found the North Coast Jazz Orchestra in the early 1980’s, a group which eventually became the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra. With the help of her husband Greg Merrell, the CJO, and our friends at Case Western University, we offer a new composition in her honor, “For the Girls in the Band,” composed by our guest, Ellen Rowe. Ann was a student at Case in the late 1960’s, performing under the great Bob Curnow. I met her during a summer arrangers workshop at Eastman in 1988–a truly beautiful person. 

TONIGHT’S PERSONNEL:

Saxophones

Brad Wagner*

George Shernit

Chris Burge

Johnny Cochran Jr.

Bettyjeane Quimby

*Barbara Becker Endowed Chair

Trombones

Scott Garlock

Mark Mauldin

Brett Balika

Paul Hungerford

Trumpets

Scott McKee

Joe Miller

Jack Schantz

Frank Walton

Rhythm

Aidan Plank, bass

Jim Rupp, drums

Jackie Warren, piano

TONIGHT’S SELECTIONS WILL INCLUDE:

Momentum……….Paul Ferguson

Bossa……….Chick Corea

Squirmy……….Aidan Plank

Crumbs……….Brad Wagner

Loved Ones, Polaris……….Chas Baker

Featuring Velvet Brown and Ellen Rowe

Rays of Light……….Paul Ferguson

For the Girls in the Band……….Ellen Rowe

Single Petal of a Rose ……….Duke Ellington

Tuba Concerto……….Paul Ferguson

Chameleon……….Herbie Hancock

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