The American Jazz Repertory Orchestra with Guest Soloist Claire Daly and the Berkshires Jazz Youth Orchestra will be coming to the Colonial Theatre on October 16 at 8PM. Tickets are $25 and $15 and can be purchased in person at the Colonial Ticket Office at 111 South Street, Pittsfield, MA, Monday-Friday 10AM-5PM, performance Saturdays 10AM-2PM, by calling (413) 997-4444 or online at www.thecolonialtheatre.org.
Baritone sax virtuoso Claire Daly appears as guest artist at both ends of a big band double bill. Daly will perform her unique sounds and improvisations with the Berkshires Jazz Youth Orchestra; then, she will be featured with the American Jazz Repertory Orchestra, back by popular demand after its 2009 Pittsfield debut. The 16-piece ensemble closes out the Pittsfield CityJazz Festival with its varied repertoire of jazz standards.
Claire Daly was 12 years old and had been playing the saxophone (a rented Conn alto) for five months when her father took her to a concert at the Westchester County Center, just north of New York City. It was not the sort of concert the average pre-teenager was likely to attend in 1971: nostalgia was the theme, and the lineup included Vaughn Monroe and the
Tommy Dorsey ghost band.
Nonetheless, young Claire was enraptured-especially by Buddy Rich's big band, which ignored nostalgia and played burning jazz versions of tunes like "Norwegian Wood" that had her "standing on my seat, screaming." After the concert, Claire saw Rich's musicians boarding the band bus, and she has never forgotten the thought that entered her head at that moment: "I would do anything to be on that bus."
Nine years later, fresh out of the Berklee College of Music, Claire Daly was a full-time professional musician-the downbeat for her first job came mere hours after she picked up her diploma. And while she admits that over the last two decades she has often found herself wondering why she ever thought going on the road was glamorous, she has never stopped working and she has never looked back.
American Jazz Repertory Orchestra (AJRO) is the musical arm of American Jazz Venues, whose mission is to develop new, younger audiences for jazz and to find new places to perform the music. The band returns to Pittsfield by popular demand, after a 2009 appearance on Independence Day weekend. Besides a set of familiar big-band selections spotlighting Daly and other soloists, AJRO will perform jointly with the Berkshires Jazz Youth Ensemble, directed by Ron Lively, in a finale that will bring all the musicians on stage at once.
American Jazz Repertory Orchestra is directed by Clem DeRosa, a member of the Jazz Hall of Fame, a big-band drummer and pioneer in jazz education. During his military career, DeRosa served with one of
Glenn Miller's Air Corps Bands, and later fronted one of Miller's "ghost bands," and the
Benny Goodman band, on tours.
The Pittsfield CityJazz Festival was formed in 2005 to present mainstream and traditional jazz in a downtown setting. Over its first four years, the festival has presented such headline talent as NEA Jazz Masters
Billy Taylor and Phil Woods; up-and-coming artists such as
Grace Kelly; individual standouts such as TS Monk, Jr., Claire Daly,
Peggy Stern, Winard Harper and Barbara Dennerlein. The New England Jazz Ensemble released a ‘live' recording of that band's appearance at the festival. The festival's 2005 opening act, The New Black Eagle Jazz Band, was the first group to make a return engagement, appearing with the Pittsfield CityJazz Youth Orchestra in 2008.
Tickets are $25 and $15 and can be purchased in person at the Colonial Ticket Office at 111 South Street Monday-Friday 10AM-5PM, performance Saturdays 10AM-2PM, by calling (413) 997-4444 or online at
www.thecolonialtheatre.org.
