The Jazz Room celebrates the 100th birthday of Thad Jones, the late trumpeter, bandleader, arranger, and founding director of William Paterson University’s Jazz Studies Program, during a concert on Sunday, April 2, 2023. The concert begins at 4 p.m. in the Shea Center for Performing Arts on the William Paterson University campus in Wayne, NJ.
One of the most influential jazz arrangers during his lifetime, Jones (1923-1986) would have turned 100 on March 28, 2023. The concert will feature the William Paterson University Jazz Orchestra, directed by David Demsey, coordinator of jazz studies and a professor of music, and will feature music written by Thad Jones that is held in the Thad Jones Archive on campus. Special guests will join as soloists.
The Thad Jones Archive, which includes original pencil scores and parts for the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and for other recording and tour projects, is part of the University’s Living Jazz Archives, which features tens of thousands of musical scores, arrangements, recordings, videos, photographs, tour itineraries and posters, instruments, and memorabilia by Jones, Michael Brecker, Clark Terry, Art Farmer, James Williams, Jim McNeely, Don Sebesky, and Lee Konitz, among others.
Jones was a member of the Count Basie Orchestra and wrote more than 25 arrangements for that band. He left the Basie Orchestra in 1963 to become a freelance arranger and studio player in New York, and with Mel Lewis formed the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra. The orchestra’s first engagement at the Village Vanguard, for three Monday nights in 1966, has carried on continuously since then, with the group, now called the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, in its 57th year of Monday nights at the legendary jazz club.
In 1973, Jones was hired as the first full-time faculty member and founding director for William Paterson’s Jazz Studies Program. The program was one of the first degree programs in jazz studies in the nation, offering a unique emphasis on small group playing and improvisation. With Jones’s hiring, William Paterson became the first school anywhere to bring a major league jazz star onto the tenured resident faculty. Jones led the program from 1973 to 1979.
The concert will be preceded by “Sittin’ In,” the Jazz Room’s accompanying “meet the artist” concert preview featuring interviews with jazz artists and guest speakers. This informal discussion, free to all Jazz Room ticketholders, begins at 3:00 p.m. in the Shea Recital Hall.
William Paterson University’s Jazz Room series is the longest-running program of its kind in the United States. Launched in 1978, the Jazz Room has welcomed more than 500 jazz legends to the stage, including Sonny Rollins, Wynton Marsalis, Wayne Shorter, Joe Williams, Marian McPartland, Slide Hampton, Kenny Burrell, Joe Lovano, Kenny Garrett, Clark Terry, Michael and Randy Brecker, the Vanguard Orchestra, and more. Concerts have encompassed the entire spectrum of jazz, from early jazz and swing to avant garde, and from intimate solo performances to big bands. The performance series provides support for the University’s internationally renowned Jazz Studies Program, founded in 1973, which draws students from across the United States and abroad under the current direction of pianist Bill Charlap.
Tickets are $15 for the general public, $12 for WP faculty, staff, alumni, and senior citizens, $8 for non-WP students, and WP students are admitted free. Tickets are an additional $5 if purchased on show day. For tickets or additional information, visit wp-presents.org, or contact the Shea Center Box Office at 973.720.2371 or boxoffice@wpunj.edu.
The Jazz Room at William Paterson University has been made possible, in part, by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
William Paterson University
300 Pompton Road
Wayne, New Jersey 07470
973-720-2000
Stay Connected
