The Pacific Jazz Orchestra Reveals 2023/24 Season at Launch Event

The Pacific Jazz Orchestra, Los Angeles' first jazz orchestra, announced their 2023/2024 concert season lineup and primary sponsor during their official launch party on April 8th at United Recording (6050 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028). Attendees included Diane Warren; PJO Advisory Board members David Foster, Rickey Minor, and Gregg Field; Mark Isham; Katherine McPhee; and Charles Fox, who recorded his hit song "Killing Me Softly with His Song" in the same United Recording studio in 1971The launch also featured a mini performance conducted by musical director. The Pacific Jazz Orchestra consists of a full jazz big band plus a string section. The program of concerts will reach far beyond the boundaries of jazz, as it will feature pop music, R&B, hip hop, Americana, and music from Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.

The launch event included a taste of the orchestra's upcoming season of performances: a half hour of music performed by a 40-piece orchestra featuring drummer Peter Erskin and pianist Josh Nelson and conducted by musical director Chris Walden. The set was opened with a Walden original, "No Bounds," and was followed by two songs written and performed by Nashville vocalist Kandace Springs, "So Far, So Near" and "Run Your Race." The performance ended with a big-band swing rendition of "Let the Good Times Roll," performed by vocalist Adam Jackson. The recordings from the live performance will be released soon as promotional music videos. As United Recording has announced they will be closing their doors, the live performance recording was likely the last at the historic studio.

The Pacific Jazz Orchestra's 2023/2024 season will include performances at the Wallis in Beverly Hills on October 27th with trumpeter Arturo Sandova and a holiday show at the Alex Theatre in Glendale on December 23rd with Katherine McPhee, Take 6, and violinist Caroline Campbell. Future dates will be announced for performances at the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts in Northridge, Irvine Barclay Theatre, and Theatre at the Ace Hotel.

The announcement of the Herb Alpert Foundation as the PJO's primary sponsor featured a video message from The Herb Alpert Foundation founder, legendary jazz musician and co-founder of A&M Records, Herb Alpert, who is currently on tour and was unable to attend in person. In his video message, Alert says of the PJO: "Under the leadership of my most brilliant musician friend and artistic director, Chris Walden, [the Pacific Jazz Orchestra] will undoubtedly entertain, inspire, and enrich our great city of Los Angeles." Rona Sebastian, the President of the Herb Alpert Foundation, represented the Foundation at the orchestra's launch.

The Herb Alpert Foundation and PJO share the initiative to foster the next generation of musicians and artists and will collaborate on this mission. The PJO, with the help of THAF, will establish a week-long summer seminar/workshop for young musicians. Participants will receive group lessons from orchestra members on their respective instruments, rehearse together as an ensemble and, at the end of the week, perform a concert as the "Pacific Youth Jazz Orchestra".

The artistic director of the orchestra is 7-time Grammy-nominated composer, arranger, and conductor, Chris Walden. Walden has collaborated with artists including Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, Paul McCartney, Diana Krall, Aretha Franklin, Rihanna, Seal, Barbra Streisand, John Legend, and Herb Alpert. His arranging credits include being the lead arranger at the Oscars and the Kennedy Center Honors. Walden has conducted the LA Phil, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Metropole Orkest, Boston Pops, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, and WDR Big Band Cologne. Walden's vast experience in writing orchestral and big band arrangements in many styles with a wide variety of artists makes him uniquely qualified to serve as music director, as he can draw from his many connections to artists he has worked with to attract talent for PJO programs.

The mission of the Pacific Jazz Orchestra is to entertain and enrich the local community of Los Angeles as well as a global community through performance and education. The Pacific Jazz Orchestra is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which produces an annual concert season and a summer education program.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PACIFIC JAZZ ORCHESTRA:

Board of Directors | Advisory Board | Mission Statement

ABOUT THE Herb Alpert FOUNDATION:

Through the Herb Alpert Foundation, Herb Alpert and Lani Hall have dedicated their lives to philanthropy, funding programs that help bring creativity to young students and keep creativity alive for all the arts, for artists young and old, including jazz education and programs that teach compassion and well-being. May 2022 marked the 28th anniversary of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts celebrating 140 awardees over the past 28 years. 2021 also brought the opening of the newly remodeled Harlem School of the Arts at the Herb Alpert Center, funded entirely by Herb and Lani Alpert. During the pandemic, the Foundation dramatically increased its emergency funding to artists in need through organizations such as Chrysalis, the Jazz Foundation, the Good People's Fund and Artists Relief.

ABOUT Herb Alpert

Herb Alpert is a musician, record producer and executive, sculptor, painter and philanthropist. His albums have sold over 72 million copies, and 29 of his records have reached the Billboard 200. Billboard also listed Alpert as #7 on their Greatest Of All Time Billboard 200 Artists. He co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss in 1962 turning it into one of the most successful independent record labels in history. In 2012 Alpert was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

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