FREE CONCERT SERIES

A FREE CONCERT SERIES which will provide a rare chance for Madison’s best local jazz musicians to showcase their own new original music (i.e., music composed and performed by the concerts’ featured artists). The Fall series will be co-produced by the Greater Madison Jazz Consortium (GMJC) and the Madison Music Collective (MMC) and presented at the UW MEMORIAL UNION’S FREDERIC MARCH PLAY CIRCLE, recently renovated into one of Madison’s best live music venues for performers and audiences alike. The Fall series will be comprised of four free, stylistically and culturally diverse concerts.

Russ Johnson’s Headlands Quartet

September 30, 2016
7:30 pm

Trumpeter Russ Johnson, Director of Jazz Studies at UW-Parkside, is part of Madison’s “extended jazz family,” often performing here with UW-Madison Jazz Studies Director Johannes Wallmann. Johnson spent 23 years as an important member of New York City’s jazz community, and has worked with such top-flight jazz musicians as Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell and Steve Swallow. Appearing on over 75 recordings, his most recent CDs gained rave reviews in DownBeat magazine. Along with a set of newly-composed Johnson tunes, the quartet will perform his new extended work: a suite commissioned by Chicago’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival and premiered there last Fall. Other quartet members include pianist Rob Clearfield, bassist Matt Ulery, and drummer Jon Deitmeyer.

Major Vistas/Anders Svanoe Trio

October 14, 2016
7:30 pm

Playing all the saxophones as well as clarinet, Madison’s Anders Svanoe has performed with a “who’s who” of the contemporary improvised music scene, such as multi-reedman and “free jazz” pioneer Roscoe Mitchell, pianists Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn, and saxophonists Ari Brown and Evan Parker. A long-time member of Tony Castañeda’s Latin Jazz Sextet, Svanoe has composed two CDs worth of new works, ranging from Latin to mainstream to free, and from which his trio (with bassist John Christensen and drummer Rodrigo Villanueva) will draw for this concert. In the concert’s opening set, local contemporary organ trio Major Vistas (keyboardist Mike Weiser, guitarist Chris Bucheit, and drummer Geoff Brady) will perform original improvisational music that straddles the line between jazz and rock, from their forthcoming (2016) CD.

Nuggernaut

November 4, 2016
7:30 pm

Emerging from a jazz composers workshop, this popular local quintet (saxophonist Jon Hoel, trumpeter Andrew Traverse, keyboardist Vince Faris, bassist Ben Ferris, and drummer Kelby Kryshak) formed in 2008. Nuggernaut specializes in groove-oriented jazz, fusion and funk. The band is in the midst of a long-running monthly residency at Alchemy, the Schenk’s Corners restaurant and live music venue, where their typical set includes new arrangements of an eclectic array of music ranging from Coltrane and Scofield to The Meters and The Roots, with some of their original compositions mixed in. For their Fall 2016 InDIGenous concert, they will present a full program of original music from the catalogue they developed over the past seven years plus brand new compositions that will receive their debut.

Tim Whalen Nonet

November 18, 2016
7:30 pm

Madison expatriate pianist Tim Whalen returns to town to perform with 8 musicians who are among our community’s top jazz players on their respective instruments: Al Falaschi (alto sax), Tom Gullion (tenor sax), Anders Svanoe (baritone sax), Dave Cooper and Jon Schipper (trumpets), Darren Sterud (trombone), bassist Nick Moran, and drummer Jamie Ryan. They will perform a mix of new Whalen compositions and originals from their CD “Magnus,” recorded live at Madison’s now-defunct Restaurant Magnus. Of Whelan, internationally-renowned jazz pianist Kenny Barron wrote, “He is an exceptional player who fully understands the jazz language and is fully conversant with all genres of the music.” In addition to his own ensembles, Whelan has performed with jazz luminaries such as David “Fathead” Newman, Ambrose Akinmusire, Jon Hendricks, Richard Davis, and Ben Sidran, among others.