Jazz Institute offers exciting lineup of guest artists

The Skidmore Summer Jazz Institute returns this year with a line-up of special concerts designed to appeal to the region?s jazz fans.

Scheduled June 28 to July 12 on the Saratoga Springs campus, the program provides two weeks of serious jazz for students of all ages. Don McCormack, who launched the Summer Jazz Institute in 1987 when he was dean of special programs at Skidmore, is the newly named director of the program, replacing J. Gerald Zaffuts, who retired as director last year.

This year?s faculty includes Mark Beaubriand, saxophonist who also serves as academic coordinator; Todd Coolman, bass; Bill Cunliffe, piano; Jack Fragomeni, guitar; Curtis Fuller, trombone, Bob Halek, Dennis Mackrel, and Clayton Cameron, drums; Hall Miller, jazz history; John LaBarbera, trumpet; Pat LaBarbera, saxophone, Bobby Shew, trumpet; and Zaffuts, who is teaching for the first time.

	Arturo O'Farrill

From the start, the Skidmore Summer Jazz Institute has offered a free concert series featuring established and rising jazz artists, including students in the program. This summer?s schedule includes the following, all of which begin at 8 p.m. in the Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater (except where noted).

? July 1, Terence Blanchard, the Grammy Award-winning trumpeter, and will lead a quintet that includes Brice Winston, Fabian Almazan, Derrick Hodge, and Kendrick Scott. Blanchard?s third recording for Blue Note, ?A Tale of God?s Will (A Requiem for Katrina),? a haunting and impassioned song-cycle about the destruction of New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina, was featured in director Spike Lee?s HBO documentary When the Levees Broke. Blanchard won a Grammy Award (for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album) for the recording.

During academic year 2008-09, Blanchard will return to Skidmore as the college?s McCormack Visiting Artist-Scholar, in residence on campus for a brief period each semester.

? July 3, Skidmore Faculty Sextet, featuring Cunliffe, Coolman, Cameron, Pat LaBarbera, Shew, and Fuller.

? July 5, Arturo O?Farrill and his quartet. Born in Mexico and raised in New York City, pianist O?Farrill collaborated with Wynton Marsalis to create the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra for Jazz at Lincoln Center. O?Farrill has since 1995 directed the band that preserves much of his father?s music: Chico O?Farrill?s Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, which has performed throughout the world and is in residence at Birdland, New York City?s famed nightclub. O?Farrill won the 2003 Latin Jazz USA Outstanding Achievement Award. He will perform at Skidmore with Ruben Rodriguez and Vince Cherico.

? July 8, Aaron Parks Quartet. A pianist since age 10, Parks will celebrate the release of his first recording for Blue Note Records in August. Titled ?Invisible Cinema,? the recording also features guitarist Mike Moreno, who will join Parks at Skidmore, along with Ben Street and Tommy Crane. Parks collaborated with Terence Blanchard on all three of the trumpeter?s Blue Note recordings.

? July 10, Skidmore Faculty Sextet, featuring Cunliffe, Todd Coolman, Mackrel, Pat LaBarbera, Shew, and Fuller.

? At 1 p.m. July 4 and July 11, Summer Jazz Institute students will perform in concert at Skidmore?s Filene Recital Hall.

All events are free and open to the public.