INFORMATION FOR
William Paterson University’s fall 2020 Jazz Room at Home series continues with a performance by the Ed Neumeister Quartet recorded live in Shea Center for broadcast online on Sunday, October 18 at 4 p.m.
The Jazz Room, now in its 43rd season, is virtual for fall 2020. Jazz fans can enjoy world-class jazz from the comfort of their home by viewing each concert on their computer, tablet, smart TV, or phone.
Trombonist and arranger/composer Ed Neumeister recently rejoined the William Paterson jazz faculty, after having served as a professor at the University of the Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. He is a veteran of many major big bands, including 15 years with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and 19 years with the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, which featured him as both an arranger and a major soloist. His arrangements span many musical worlds and speak in many musical dialects, and he has performed with an equally broad array of artists, including Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra, Gerry Mulligan, Aretha Franklin and Jerry Garcia. His arrangement of A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square for the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement. He will be joined for this performance by Gary Versace, Drew Gress, Tom Rainey and vocalist Jay Clayton.
William Paterson University’s Jazz Room series is the longest-running program of its kind in the United States. Launched in 1978, the Jazz Room has welcomed more than 500 jazz legends to the stage, including Sonny Rollins, Wynton Marsalis, Wayne Shorter, Joe Williams, Marian McPartland, Slide Hampton, Kenny Burrell, Joe Lovano, Kenny Garrett, Clark Terry, Michael and Randy Brecker, the Vanguard Orchestra, and more. Concerts have encompassed the entire spectrum of jazz, from early jazz and swing to avant garde, and from intimate solo performances to big bands. The performance series provides support for the University’s internationally renowned Jazz Studies Program, founded in 1973, which draws students from across the United States and abroad under the current direction of pianist Bill Charlap.
The concert will be preceded by “Sittin’ In,” the Jazz Room’s accompanying “meet the artist” concert preview featuring interviews with jazz artists and guest speakers. This informal discussion, free to all Jazz Room ticketholders, begins at 3 p.m., one hour prior to each concert, and will be broadcast on the WP Presents! You Tube channel. Subscribe to the channel here. Submit questions in advance to: jazzroom@wpunj.edu.
Tickets are available at wp-presents.org. Ticket prices are “pay what you want” at $25, $20, $15 and $10 for the public, $8 for non-William Paterson students and the William Paterson community, and free to William Paterson students via a weekly code emailed by faculty. Tickets must be purchased in advance. For additional information, call the Shea Center for Performing Arts Box Office at 973-720-2371 or visit wp-presents.org.
The Jazz Room at William Paterson University has been made possible, in part, by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts: Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
09/27/20
