Tuesday, July 14, 2015

28. Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra: Basie Bash - SRJO Celebrates20Years

Twenty eight down. Twenty seven to go.


The staging for the Basie Bash pretty
well mirrored the night outside.
Even if you are not a "jazzoid", it doesn't take long at a Count Basie concert to find yourself listening to very familiar music. The world clearly loved Count Basie, and the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra gave a loving tribute to his music in celebration of the orchestra's twentieth anniversary.

SRJO is a professional ensemble composed of nineteen top jazz performers from our region. We saw the orchestra on a recent Saturday evening at the beautiful 700-seat Edmonds Center for the Arts. SRJO, which has established schedules in Seattle's Benaroya Hall and the Kirkland Performance Hall, is now adding Edmonds to the orchestra's concert season. The large and enthusiastic audience at the Basie Bash demonstrated the good sense in this move. We were joined at the concert by some old friends, one of whom serves on the Orchestra's board, and Edmonds proved a wonderful place for dinner and an engaging show.


SRJO has a serious commitment to young musicians. Jazz Scholars is the orchestra's school-partnered pilot program that provides music education for low-income and minority band students. Jazz4KIDS Concerts provide children and youth the opportunity to hear live jazz in a concert hall. The Basie Bash demonstrated SRJO's focus on youth through the appearance of three guest soloists from the Edmonds-Woodway High School Jazz program. The Orchestra clearly enjoyed sharing the stage with three aspiring and inspiring young musicians. In addition to professional performance, many in the orchestra are educators, in particular SRJO's co-artistic directors: Drummer Clarence Acox directs the award-winning Garfield High School Jazz Ensemble and saxophonist Michael Brockton has been on the UW music faculty since 1987.


Want to enjoy some jazz? I highly recommend the next season of Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra!

The Edmonds Center for the Arts'
current season features over 

25 live performances.


3 comments:

  1. Thanks Marty for the encouragement! I am ahead of schedule on seeing events, but behind on blogging. Stay tuned.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The large and enthusiastic audience at the Basie Bash demonstrated the good sense in this move. parking lot striping chicago il

    ReplyDelete