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 Over the years, the award-winning Concert Jazz Ensemble has dedicated itself to the performance of the historically significant music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. They have presented such works as: The Far East Suite and The New Orleans Suite with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra; Ellington’s extended orchestral composition, A Tone Parallel to Harlem with the Delaware Valley Philharmonic Orchestra and the Princeton University Orchestra; New World A Comin’ with the Princeton University Orchestra; The Sacred Concert Music of Duke Ellington with the Princeton University Chapel Choir as well as with the University Glee Club and Gospel Ensemble; the all-Strayhorn program of big band music entitled, A Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn; as well as the Ellington/Strayhorn collaborative adaptation of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 & 2. The Concert Jazz Ensemble has also been proud to present a number of concerts devoted to the works of guest composers. Such programs have focused on the music of Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Slide Hampton, Bob Mintzer, Oliver Lake, Michael Philip Mossman, Bobby Watson, Ralph Bowen, Ted Curson, Ralph Peterson, Jonny King and Walt Weiskopf.
Princeton’s jazz groups have also
undertaken a number of stylistically diverse and challenging
projects in concert programming. They have presented such
programs as “Hotter Than That: Louis
Armstrong and the Early Years of Jazz” - featuring
music from Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings,
Jelly Roll Morton and Fletcher Henderson; “Jazz
and the Latin Tinge” - spotlighting classic
works from the Latin jazz orchestras of Mario Bauza, Dizzy
Gillespie, Chico O’Farrill, as well as the Brazilian
and Afro-Cuban based compositions of Milton Nascimento, Arturo
Sandoval, Duke Ellington, and Charles Mingus; "Jazz Meets the Symphony Orchestra" with the Princeton University Orchestra featuring works by Duke Ellington, McCoy Tyner, and Clare Fischer, with orchestral arrangements by Todd Beaney and Anthony Branker; and “A
Love Supreme: The Spirit and Sound of John Coltrane’s
Music” featuring tenor saxophonist Ralph Bowen,
the world premiere of a commissioned work for big band by
composer and trumpeter Michael Philip Mossman, and a performance
of John Coltrane’s A Love
Supreme suite.
Beginning in 2003, Princeton's jazz program has worked in collaboration with The Commission Project (TCP). TCP is one of the most active music commissioning organizations in the country. It provides funding for composer's original titles for professional and school orchestras, bands, and chamber ensembles of all genres. Currently, TCP sponsors composer residencies in metropolitan areas across the country and into Canada. Jazz composers who have received TCP commissions to write for the University Concert Jazz Ensemble include Jimmy Heath, Bob Mintzer, Michael Philip Mossman, Ralph Bowen, and Randy Bauer. Of these commissioned works, Bob Mintzer's "March Majestic" has been made available through Alfred Publishing and appears on recordings by the Bob Mintzer Big Band (Old School, New Lessons) and the Yellowjackets (Altered State), and Michael Mossman's three-movement "John Coltrane Suite" has been performed by university and conservatory jazz programs throughout the United States and is published by RGM. Randy Bauer, a recent Ph.D. recipient and graduate of Princeton's composition program was named the winner of an Honorable Mention Award in the 2004-2005 ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composers Award Competition for his composition, "Wide-Eyed Wonder." This work was created thanks to a commission from The Commission Project and was premiered by the University Concert Jazz Ensemble in 2003. In 2007, through funding from Sons of Sound Productions, the jazz program commissioned trombonist Conrad Herwig to compose the Afro-Latin influenced Reflections of a Man Facing South, a suite that was premiered by the Concert Jazz Ensemble. Recently, the Concert Jazz Ensemble collaborated with the University Sinfonia and the vocal ensemble Fuma Sacra to present the world premiere of “In Another Time,” a five-movement work by composer Laurie Altman.
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