Evening of Contemporary Jazz Features UNCW Faculty
3/7/2006 8:31:20 AM
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WILMINGTON, NC - University of North Carolina Wilmington music instructor Mike Waddell (clarinet/alto saxophone), along with guest faculty members Robert Russell (guitar) and Jerald Shynett (piano/trombone), will present an evening of contemporary jazz at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 22 in Kenan Auditorium.
The performance is part of the Department of Music's ongoing Artist Recital Series, which features the work of faculty members and musicians of local and national renown. The program features pieces in a trio format, along with a 1941 Cole Porter standard, Ev'rything I Love, and a Waddell original, Holding Hands.
"Our approach to this concert was to highlight some fun, interesting and challenging tunes that don't get played in clubs too often," said Waddell. The result is an evening of jazz which includes Jimmy Rowles' haunting ballad The Peacocks; Very Early, a quirky, yet intriguing waltz by pianist Bill Evans; the sardonic wit of Thelonius Monk's Hackensack; Don Grolnick's wistful Regrets; and the hard bopping Fried Bananas by legendary saxophonist Dexter Gordon.
Waddell's own Holding Hands is a mellow bossa nova composed on a Regional Artist Project Grant from the United Arts Council in Raleigh. It was recorded by Waddell, Russell and others during the summer of 2005 as part of a soon-be-released jazz clarinet play-along CD.
Tickets for this concert are $5 for general admission and free for UNCW students with a valid ID.
For more information, please contact the UNCW Kenan Auditorium Box Office at (910) 962-3500 or the UNCW Department of Music at (910) 962-7416.
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Mike Waddell is a lecturer in clarinet and woodwinds at UNCW. He is a Wilmington native with degrees from the University of Michigan (M.M. 1979, clarinet) and East Carolina University (B.M.E. 1978). His teachers include jazz musicians David Shifrin, Robert Listokin, Fred Ormand and Buddy DeFranco and saxophonist Donald Sinta. Since the late 1970s, he has performed on clarinet and saxophones in a number of styles, touring in the U.S. and abroad. Waddell is the recipient of two Jazz Composer Fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council (1994 and 1999), as well as two Regional Project Artist Grants from the United Arts Council (1998 and 2004). His has released two jazz CD's, Defining Moments (2001) and Not from Concentrate (1995). Jazz Times reviewer Owen Cordle wrote, "Defining Moments defines Mike Waddell as a complete artist, a triple threat as clarinetist, saxophonist and composer." Cordle chose this as one of his top 10 jazz picks of 2001 in the Raleigh News and Observer.
As a clarinetist, saxophonist and vocalist with the world famous Dukes of Dixieland in New Orleans in the late 1980s, Waddell performed nightly on Bourbon Street and to sold-out crowds in the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony. Waddell has also performed to positive reviews on pianist Ed Paolantonio's Dad's Blues (1998), guitarist Scott Sawyer's In the Stream (1993), and concertized with the Temptations, Four Tops, American Dance Festival, North Carolina Theatre, Fairbanks Symphony, Artic Chamber Orchestra, Larry Coryell, Ken and Harry Watters, as well as the late jazz guitarist, Charlie Byrd. He is also featured on solo clarinet in Déjà Vu (1997), an independent film by Henry Jaglom.
Robert Russell is a lecturer in jazz guitar UNCW. He teaches jazz guitar and class guitar, and directs the UNCW Jazz Guitar Ensemble. In addition to his teaching duties, Russell also supervises the department's concert recording service. He plays guitar with his own jazz group, the Bob Russell Trio, as well as with other Wilmington-area jazz musicians. He also plays guitar in the Cape Fear Jazz Orchestra and the popular local rock group The 360 Degrees. A firm believer in the benefits of a varied musical diet, he also performs on recorders with the UNCW Renaissance Consort. Russell has two CDs currently in release: ...if you never..., released in 2005, and Watch This!, released in 2002. Both CDs are available through CD Baby: http://www.cdbaby.com/all/bobrussell. Russell is a member of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) and attended their 2004 conference in New York City.
Jerald Shynett teaches trombone and jazz studies at UNCW. He holds a B.M. degree from the University of South Florida and an M.M. degree from the University of Miami. Before coming to UNCW in 1998, Shynett maintained an active career as a freelance trombonist, composer and arranger in South Central Florida. His performance credits include working as a side-man for K.C. and the Sunshine Band, the O'Jays, Ray Charles, Liza Minelli, Steve Lawrence and Edie Gormet, among others. His compositions and arrangements have been performed throughout the country, most recently with the UNCW Big Band and the Northwestern University Jazz Ensemble.
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