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William Paterson University Summer Jazz Series Features Legendary Jazz Saxophonist Jimmy Heath on July 24

Jimmy Heath and Albert “Tootie” Heath

--Weeklong Summer Jazz Room series line-up also includes the Jazz Workshop Faculty Featuring Cecil Bridgewater on July 20; The Warren Vaché Quartet on July 21; Dena DeRose and the WP Summer Jazz Orchestra on July 22; the Steve LaSpina Quartet on July 23; and the Heath Brothers Reunion Quintet with Tony Purrone on July 24

Jimmy Heath, the saxophonist, composer, arranger, educator, and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, will perform with special guest Tony Purrone and the Heath Brothers Quintet that includes his brother, Albert “Tootie” Heath on drums, David Wong on bass, and pianist Jeb Patton, as part of William Paterson University’s 22^nd annual weeklong Summer Jazz Room Series on July 24 in the Shea Center for Performing Arts on the campus in Wayne. The series, which runs from July 20 to July 24, also includes the Summer Jazz Workshop Quintet featuring Cecil Bridgewater, the Warren Vaché Quartet, Dena DeRose and the Summer Jazz Orchestra, directed by Stephen Marcone, and the Steve LaSpina Quartet.

The Summer Jazz Room Series features concerts every evening at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for each concert. The weeklong series, which has drawn thousands of jazz fans to the University’s campus during the past 20-plus summers, is designed to make jazz more accessible to the community. The Summer Jazz Room coincides with the University’s 22^nd annual Summer Jazz Workshop for interested middle and high school jazz students with Jimmy Heath as artist-in-residence. William Paterson University has been a flagship of jazz education for more than 40 years and is recognized internationally for its Jazz Studies Program and nationally acclaimed Jazz Room Series of concerts each fall and spring.

The series opens on Monday, July 20, with the Summer Jazz Workshop faculty, featuring Tim Newman on trombone, James Weidman on piano, Steve LaSpina on bass, and Winard Harper on drums. Joining the group for this performance is a new Workshop faculty member—Cecil Bridgewater. Bridgewater, a veteran trumpeter, composer, arranger and teacher, has been on the adjunct faculty of the William Paterson Jazz Studies Program since 2005. He has toured and recorded with Max Roach, Horace Silver, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, and has played with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie, Lena Horne, and Art Blakey. His music has been played by Lena Horne, Vanessa Rubin, the Uptown String Quartet, the Count Basie Orchestra, and Dee Dee Bridgewater.

On Tuesday, July 21, New Jersey native Warren Vaché’s swinging cornet moves from the familiar to the unpredictable within the turn of a phrase. Through a synthesis of influences across the spectrum of jazz history, Vaché has established an emotional style that resists clarification.

The mid-week performance on Wednesday, July 22, features Dena DeRose and the WP Summer Jazz Orchestra, directed by Stephen Marcone, William Paterson professor of music. Dena DeRose’s music is innovative, direct and swinging. Like the iconic singer-pianists Nat King Cole and Shirley Horn, DeRose is recognized among the best artists in both areas, with acclaim from DownBeat and other major jazz publications.

On Thursday, July 23, a longtime member of the William Paterson University jazz community, bassist and composer Steve LaSpina, appears with his quartet, comprised of some of the New York’s most creative musicians. LaSpina is a skillful instrumentalist, known for his big sound, impressive swing, and exciting solo work.

On Friday, July 24, the Heath Brothers Quintet returns to the Jazz Room, this time featuring Tony Purrone on guitar. From 1978 until 1982, Purrone toured and recorded as a regular member of the original Heath Brothers Band. He then went on to a wide-ranging career playing with a veritable “who’s who” of jazz, making important recordings with the Heaths, Lenny White, Grover Washington, and Ed Thigpen, among others.

William Paterson’s 22^nd annual Summer Jazz Room Series is funded, in part, by grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. For more information, contact the Shea Center Box Office at 973-720-2371 or visit wppresents.org.