Milestones

• March 12, 2006: JEMHC performs the first Big Broadcast! [article]
• September 10, 2006: The Big Band is the musical guest of NPR's "Says You!" [article]

Archives

• Jazz Net Bulletin announcements - Old announcements, listed by semester, since Fall 2006 (birth of the Jazz website as you see it now)
• Past Events - List of past events and concerts in which JEMHC participated or which JEMHC hosted.

Year-by-year summaries:

• 1999-2000
• 2000-2001

Fall 1999- Spring 2000

The Fall Semester of 1999 brought continued expansion to the Ensemble, which became an official Music Department course offering. Auditions were held and ten new instrumentalists were accepted, doubling the group's original size. Five of the new members also sang, so a vocal jazz unit was formed. The Ensemble began a new tradition on campus when it combined with the MHC Concert Choir and Cantamus to perform a joint concert in Blanchard Student Center on Founder's Weekend in November. Another large crowd came to hear the Ensemble in its winter concert in December, which also showcased Sarah Russo making her conducting debut.

Unprecedented growth of the Ensemble continued in the Spring Semester of 2000. The size of the group increased to twenty-one members. [This included six new singers, enlarging the Vocal Jazz unit to twelve members.] Both the Ensemble and the Vocal unit learned very challenging repertoire and displayed impressive technique as well as excellent future potential. David Sanford [Fac] joined the trombone section and wrote several wonderful transcriptions. Ben Swan, a graduate of Hampshire College, joined as the group's first jazz violinist. The Spring Concert had a solid two hours of big band and combo music. With Pratt Auditorium being "standing room only" that evening, it was clearly evident that the group was ready to perform in larger campus venues next fall.
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Fall 2000- Spring 2001

More triumphs awaited the Jazz program at MHC in the 2000-2001 school year. A select group of eight players, the Chamber Jazz Ensemble, was spun off from the larger group in the Fall of 2000 to study and perform even more challenging styles of Jazz [such as Dixieland and Fusion]. The Jazz Ensemble had a full saxophone section for the first time ever, and Vocal Jazz grew to 25 members. Family Weekend Sunday featured the premiere performance of Chamber Jazz, joining the other two ensembles in a tribute to the music of Frank Sinatra. [The concert, originally slated for the Getell Amphitheatre, had to be moved to Chapin Auditorium thanks to a bizarre late October snowstorm!] The three ensembles combined with the Concert Choir [directed by Chris Aspaas] and the talented MHC acapella groups V-8s, M & Cs and Nice Shoes to present the second annual "Founders Friday Fling" in Chapin Auditorium. Mark also provided piano accompaniment for humorist and host of NPRs "A Prarie Home Companion" Garrison Keillor in a concert at Chapin Auditorium- and the two jammed on some jazz tunes to the delight of the standing room only audience. Lastly, the end of the term Winter Concert ["Hot Jazz On A Cold Night"] was presented to great acclaim in a newly renovated Pratt Auditorium.

With barely a semester under their belts, the Chamber Jazz Ensemble chartered a bus and hit the open road on a Sunday in late February after receiving an invitation from the MHC Northern New Jersey Club to perform at a fundraiser. The concert, a "Mardi Gras Celebration", was a huge success- showing everyone, including the jazz students themselves, that the groups were ready to tour. On March 3, 2001, at a special dedication concert commemorating the renovation of Pratt Hall, the Jazz Ensembles of MHC performed to another large crowd. The MHC Music Department and the Jazz Groups played host to visiting Five College Ethnomusicologist-in-Residence Gage Averill, who gave authentic instruction on Afro-Cuban drumming to students Mila Messner and Jessica Liese. "Swing Into Spring!", the end of the term concert, featured a solid two hours and fifteen minutes of music with many impressive arrangements such as In The Mood, Channel One Suite and Sing, Sing, Sing. Another first occurred in May when graduating members of the Jazz Ensembles joined to perform together for the last time as MHC students in the Department's annual Commencement Concert.

As Ensemble Performance Studies in Jazz Music at MHC begin its sixth semester, exciting things are happening. The large ensemble is now known as the "Big Band". Vocal Jazz has spun off from the Big Band to become its own offering. Chamber Jazz is joining up with the MHC Glee Club to embark on a two week tour of Italy in January, 2002. And there's much more to come! Mark and the Ensemble look forward to further expansion of the Jazz curriculum to the Music Department at Mount Holyoke College.
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