Jazz ensemble to perform 1st spring concert

Some of IU’s top jazz students will perform the works of notable musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus and Slide Hampton, when the David Baker Jazz Ensemble presents its opening spring semester concert.

The ensemble, consisting of 20 students under the direction of renowned jazz musician David Baker, will perform at 8 p.m. today at the Musical Arts Center.

“It will be a lot of great music,” said Baker, distinguished professor of the Jacobs School of Music. “It’s a pretty good representation of musicians who have passed on and those who are still fairly active.”

The ensemble has been preparing diligently for the concert, rehearsing six hours per week for the past month, said senior and piano player Zack Cross.

“These concerts are something we prepare for pretty much all year long,” Cross said. “We have two per semester and until both of those are done, rehearsing with the jazz ensemble takes a pretty big chunk of our time.”

Baker, whose history with the IU Jazz program goes back nearly 50 years, called this group of students the best of the best.

“These are people who are going to have major careers in jazz music,” he said. “They are top-level players across the board. It’s a program which is very substantial and one which I think is one of the finest programs.”

Baker began school as a student at IU in 1949 and came back to teach in 1966 when he founded the jazz degree program.

He is now chairman of the jazz department and conductor and artistic director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra.

A Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award nominee, he has impacted the world of jazz far outside of Bloomington.

“He has played with a lot of the masters of jazz, and because of that history he has a deeper understanding than most people do,” junior saxophone player Dustin Laurenzi said. “Outside of IU, David works with the best musicians, and he treats his band no differently. In all of the IU big bands I’ve been in, but David’s especially, I’ve learned a lot about professionalism and what is expected of a working musician in the real world.”