Pealer Recital Hall, PAC

The Frostburg State University Jazz Combo, under the direction of Tom Harrison, will be performing well-known classics from some of the most influential jazz musicians such as John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Duke Ellington, Freddie Hubbard, and more. This FSU Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance concert is Tuesday, November 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the Pealer Recital Hall of FSU’s Woodward D. Pealer Performing Arts Center. The concert is free and open to the public; it will also be livestreamed, click the red "Join Stream" button to view the live performance.

Members of the Jazz Combo are Doug Holtz (trombone), Daniel Coughenour (horn), Taylor Bryan (piano), Ray Gibson (guitar), and Joe Rubens III (drums). Mackenzie Taylor will be featured as vocalist. Harrison serves as director and bassist.

The following instrumental selections will be performed.

John Coltrane, commonly known as “Trane”, is arguably the most influential saxophonist is jazz history and the song “Blue Train”, a blues, is the title cut from his classic 1958 album on Blue Note records.

“Have You Met Miss Jones?” was originally written by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart in 1937 for a musical comedy and has since become a jazz standard performed by most jazz musicians.

The well-known standard “In a Mellow Tone” was written and recorded by Duke Ellington in 1940 under the title “In a Mellotone” with lyrics written later by Milt Gabler.

Vocalist Mackenzie Taylor will be featured on the following selections, either as an integral part of the instrumental harmony or in the traditional vocal role.

Saxophonist Wayne Shorter wrote and recorded “Footprints” for his 1966 album “Adam’s Apple” and recorded the song with Miles Davis for the “Miles Smiles” album from the same year. It is a jazz waltz, although musicians have enjoyed the interplay of combining a dupletime over the waltz feel.

The 1931 composition “All of Me” by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons, sung here by Mackenzie Taylor, was a popular chart-topping song then and is still performed today as a jazz standard.

“Don’t Know Why” was the title cut for the debut album of singer/pianist Norah Jones by the same title and won three Grammy awards in 2003 for the song composed by Jesse Harris.

The Bossa Nova “One Note Samba” was written by the prolific Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Jobim. Portuguese lyrics were written by Newton Mendonça and later, the English lyrics were written by Jon Hendricks.

The 1967 album “Backlash” by jazz trumpet player Freddie Hubbard included the song “Little Sunflower”. It is stylistically modal, and the combo arrangement incorporates quartal harmony moving through the sparse chord changes.

The Burt Bacharach and Hal David composition “The Look of Love” was popularized by singer Dusty Springfield and later by artists such as Dionne Warwick and Diana Krall.

“Happy People” is the title cut on the 2002 album by saxophonist Kenny Garrett and represents his funky jazz style while maintaining space for vocal and instrumental improvisation.

Music, Performance, Recital