Jca Orchestra to Open 41st Season at Boston and Cambridge Venues

The Jazz Composers Alliance will open its 41st season with JCA Orchestra concerts on consecutive nights featuring music by resident composers David Harris, Darrell Katz, Bob Pilkington and Mimi Rabson. The 21-piece ensemble performs on Sunday, November 8 at 2 p.m. at The Lilypad, 1353 Cambirdge St., Cambridge. Tickets $20, $15 students and seniors. On Monday, November 9, the orchestra performs at Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass. Avenue, Boston. Tickets for the 8 p.m. concert are $19.50, $16.50 students and seniors, Berklee students and faculty free. 

The concerts feature ingenious new compositions for jazz big band. Inspirations for the pieces include sounds on the Green Line; a meeting in a bar of a Bulgarian, an Arab, and an Ethiopian; and a setting of a Charles Coe poem about inviting Duke Ellington to dinner.

Drawing on influences that span the history of jazz and the world's musical traditions, the JCA Orchestra has brought together a huge palette of sounds, structures and concepts and has premiered over 200 pieces. The group has performed with an illustrious group of guest performers and composers, including Sam Rivers, Julius Hemphill, Dave Holland, Maria Schneider, Henry Threadgill, Steve Lacy and Oliver Lake. The JCA has endured since 1985, sustained by being a group of like-minded people who love making music, are committed to stretching boundaries, and write and perform with joy and passion.

Dedicated musicianship, innovative programming and fresh concepts make JCA concerts colorful, adventurous, high-energy events. The JCA Orchestra has released twelve critically acclaimed albums, including the 2016 Wheelworks which was named a best album of the year by DownBeat.