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  • Karrin Allyson
    Oct 15, 2023 @ 4:00 PM
    Location: Shea Center for Performing Arts

    The widely respected vocalist Karrin Allyson has a career that spans musical genres, including jazz and pop standards, the Great American Songbook, vocalise versions of instrumental jazz compositions, and repertoire in five different languages. She released 12 albums on the prestigious Concord label, and has received five Grammy nominations, including recognition for her all-Rodgers & Hammerstein CD and for her recreation of the iconic John Coltrane Ballads album, collaborating with the late WP jazz studies director and pianist James Williams. Her much-praised newest recording is Shoulder to Shoulder: A Centennial Tribute to Women’s Suffrage. We are excited that she has just joined the William Paterson adjunct jazz faculty this fall.

    Each Jazz Room concert is preceded by Sittin’ In Meet-the-Artist session in Shea 101 Recital Hall one hour prior to performances. Sittin’ In is free to all ticket holders. This gives audience members the rare opportunity to meet and interact with the artist of the day in an intimate setting.

    Admission: $15 General Public • $12 WP community & senior citizens • $8 Non-WP students • WP Students admitted free with ID • $5 additional charge on show day per ticket.


     
  • Gary Smulyan with the William Paterson University Jazz Orchestra
    Oct 29, 2023 @ 4:00 PM
    Location: Shea Center for Performing Arts

    Baritone saxophone virtuoso Gary Smulyan is the winner of 21 polls and awards over the last decade, including the 2022Down Beat Critics Poll for Baritone Saxophonist of the Year. One of the main solo voices of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and the Joe Lovano Sextet, he is considered one of the great improviserson any instrument. This concert matches Smulyan’s powerful voice with the exciting students of the William Paterson Jazz Orchestra, in a program featuring music arranged by Bob Brookmeyer, Pete McGuinness, Rich DeRosa, and Thad Jones, as well as the premieres of two WP graduate student arrangements of works by Smulyan’s baritone mentor, Pepper Adams.

    Each Jazz Room concert is preceded by Sittin’ In Meet-the-Artist session in Shea 101 Recital Hall one hour prior to performances. Sittin’ In is free to all ticket holders. This gives audience members the rare opportunity to meet and interact with the artist of the day in an intimate setting.

    Admission: $15 General Public • $12 WP community & senior citizens • $8 Non-WP students • WP Students admitted free with ID • $5 additional charge on show day per ticket.


     
  • Spirit of Life Ensemble
    Nov 05, 2023 @ 4:00 PM
    Location: Shea Center for Performing Arts

    This multi-horn Jersey City-based ensemble, founded by percussionist David Daoud Williams, is heavily grounded in the loft scene of the 1970s. This is jazz with a world beat, paying homage to the all-important African roots of jazz. The band has had numerous jazz legends as its members, including Archie Shepp, RandyWeston, Pharoah Sanders, Eddie Henderson, Kenny Barron, and Joe Ford. The ensemble has deep Paris roots; it is regularly heard in the city’s jazz clubs and has collaborated with many great French jazz musicians. This performance is part of a yearlong celebration of the American artist, activist, Paterson native and WP alumnus Ben Jones, in collaboration with New Jersey City University and funded in part by a Mellon Foundation grant.

    Each Jazz Room concert is preceded by Sittin’ In Meet-the-Artist session in Shea 101 Recital Hall one hour prior to performances. Sittin’ In is free to all ticket holders. This gives audience members the rare opportunity to meet and interact with the artist of the day in an intimate setting.

    Admission: $15 General Public • $12 WP community & senior citizens • $8 Non-WP students • WP Students admitted free with ID • $5 additional charge on show day per ticket.


     
  • Saxophonist Steve Wilson
    Dec 03, 2023 @ 4:00 PM
    Location: Shea Center for Performing Arts

    Steve Wilson is one of the great alto saxophonists on the scene today—and truly one of the premiere soprano saxophone performers as well. He is the lead alto saxist in the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra and toured internationally for years with the great Chick Corea Origins group. He has collaborated with such celebrated musicians as Dave Holland, Cyrus Chestnut, Nicholas Payton, Orrin Evans, and Lewis Nash, and has long been involved at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC through Dr. Billy Taylor. Wilson’s career was closely intertwined with former WP jazz directors Mulgrew Miller and James Williams, and we are proud that he was a member of our adjunct faculty for a number of years. He is on the faculty at City College, CUNY and at the prestigious Ravinia Festival.

    Each Jazz Room concert is preceded by Sittin’ In Meet-the-Artist session in Shea 101 Recital Hall one hour prior to performances. Sittin’ In is free to all ticket holders. This gives audience members the rare opportunity to meet and interact with the artist of the day in an intimate setting.

    Admission: $15 General Public • $12 WP community & senior citizens • $8 Non-WP students • WP Students admitted free with ID • $5 additional charge on show day per ticket.


     
About the Jazz Room Series

Inaugurated in the spring of 1978, the Jazz Room Series is the longest-running campus-based jazz concert series in the nation. With a tradition of encompassing the complete spectrum of jazz from New Orleans to the avant-garde, it features world-class professionals and William Paterson student ensembles. There are three series of concerts each year, including the six-concert Fall and Spring Jazz Room Series, and the weeklong Summer Jazz Room held the third week of July.

The Jazz Room has received over two decades of continuous grant support from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, as well as numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. The series has been featured on national and metropolitan-area media, including recorded broadcasts and live CD recording sessions.

The Jazz Room Series is directly connected to the William Paterson Jazz Studies Program. Unique among college and university programs, the Jazz Studies program is one of the few in the nation with an emphasis on small-group playing, improvisation, and a genuine commitment to the jazz tradition. Founded by music faculty member Martin Krivin and joined by trumpeter/arranger Thad Jones in 1973, the program was led by bassist Rufus Reid for twenty years, then by the great jazz pianists James Williams, Mulgrew Miller, and most recently Bill Charlap, who accepted the position in fall 2015. The program is co-led and coordinated by David Demsey. The artist/teacher faculty is made up of world-class New York area professionals.

The program is a true jazz environment in which students learn firsthand about the jazz world and the requirements for becoming a successful professional musician. Jazz majors come to William Paterson this year from twenty-six states and six foreign countries, including a number of Fulbright Scholars.

The University also presents the Summer Jazz Workshop for high school students. The University's Summer Jazz Workshop, active since 1994, is a week-long intensive program in late July, featuring classes, small-group rehearsals and performances, and clinics taught by William Paterson resident faculty and special guest clinicians.

William Paterson University is home to the Living Jazz Archive, which includes the personal music archive of legendary trumpeter and educator Clark Terry, as well as the archives of Thad Jones, James Williams and Michael Brecker. The Living Jazz Archive provides students, researchers, and visitors with the opportunity to explore original jazz manuscripts and other materials that are an important part of jazz history.

Grant Logos

WP Presents! and The Jazz Room Series events are made possible in part by a grant from the NJ Council on the Arts/Dept. of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Jazz Room Series Partner