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Cal Poly Humboldt Wind Ensemble and Jazz Orchestra

The Department of Dance, Music, and Theatre at Cal Poly Humboldt presents The Cal Poly Humboldt Wind Ensemble & Jazz Orchestra. Join us Saturday, October 8th at 8:00 p.m. at the Fulkerson Recital Hall. Concert tickets are $15 General, $5 Children, and FREE for Cal Poly Humboldt students with ID. Tickets may be purchased at the door or in advance at centerarts.humboldt.edu—including tickets to our paid livestream.

From the "All Events" drop down menu select "School of Dance, Music, and Theatre" and select your event. Proof of COVID vaccination and booster is still required for all guests on campus. At press time, the wearing of facemasks is not mandatory, but it is strongly encouraged.

The evening’s program begins with five performances by the Wind Ensemble.

“Marche des Parachutistes Belges” by Pierre Leemans, arranged by Charles Wiley, was written “near the end of World War II, allegedly in just one night, after Leemans meeting with a group of real Belgian paratroopers. It takes the form of a patrol, giving the impression of a passing parade band by beginning and ending softly.”

Composed to score the film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novella of the same name, Aaron Copland’s “The Red Pony” is a series of vignettes concerning a young boy named Jody and his life on a California ranch. In the first movement, “Dream March and Circus Music”, Jody has a way of going off into daydreams. Two of them are pictured here: in the first, Jody imagines himself with the cow-hand Billy Buck at the head of an army of knights in silvery armor; in the second, Jody is a whip-cracking ringmaster at the circus.

“This Cruel Moon”, by John Mackey, is an adaptation of “Immortal thread, so weak,” the second movement of Mackey’s “Wine-Dark Sea: Symphony for Band”. It is “…the song of the beautiful and immortal nymph Kalypso…” who saved, and was later heartbroken by, Odysseus.

“Satiric Dances” was commissioned to commemorate the Bicentennial of April 19, 1775, the day that launched the American War for Independence. Dello Joio agreed to the commission but stipulated it would be based on a piece he had used for a comedy by Aristophanes, the famous comic dramatist of ancient Greece, who frequently employed satire.

“Diamond Tide” by Viet Cuong was inspired by an experiment in which scientists were able to successfully melt a diamond for the first time. The piece utilizes the “melting” sounds of metallic water percussion and trombone glissandi throughout.

The program’s second half features five tunes performed by the Jazz Orchestra.

Discovered by jazz legend Oscar Peterson on his 1952 tour of Japan, Toshiko Akiyoshi came to America several years later. In the 1970s she founded, with her husband, the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band. She wrote "Tuning Up" for the band's first tour of Japan. Says Jazz Orchestra Leader Dan Aldag “It's designed to showcase each of the sections of the band and several soloists— it's a great way for us to introduce ourselves to the audience.”

"April In Paris" is an iconic arrangement organist Wild Bill Davis wrote for the Count Basie Orchestra. The Basie band's 1955 recording is in the Grammy Hall of Fame and includes a famous solo by trumpeter Thad Jones. Jazz Orchestra trumpeter Andrew Henderson will put his own twist on it.

"All of Me" is a jazz standard arranged by Thad Jones for his own band, the Thad-Jones Mel Lewis Orchestra. This will feature several soloists, including pianist John Gerving, alto saxophonist Rebekka Lopez, and trombonist George Epperson.

"11:11" was composed by Jazz Orchestra leader, Dan Aldag. Inspired by his uncanny ability to look at a clock at precisely 11:11 many times a week, Aldag says that "a tune called '11:11' has to be in the meter of 11, and has to be an 11-bar blues." Soloists on “11:11” include trombonist Brian White, guitarist Nick DeAnda, and trumpeters Jeff Ruiz and Eddie Kallen.

"Harlem Air Shaft" is a Duke Ellington masterpiece from the early 1940s. New York City apartment buildings are required to have a small space between them so residents can open windows. These are known as “air shafts.” Ellington once described the piece like this: “So much goes on in a Harlem air shaft. You get the full essence of Harlem in an air shaft. You hear fights, you smell dinner, you hear people making love. You hear intimate gossip floating down. You hear the radio. An air shaft is one great big loudspeaker.” Featured are Andrew Henderson and Ricardo Paredes on trumpet and clarinet, respectively.

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