Williams Jazz Ensemble
Fri, November 14th, 2014
8:00 pm
- This event has passed.
The Williams College Department of Music presents the Williams Jazz Ensemble, giving their first performance of the season in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall at 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 14. This free event is open to the public.
In a concert titled New Music for ‘Little Big Band,’ the Williams Jazz Ensemble explores new compositions and arrangements for an increasingly popular 11-piece instrumentation. This performance includes several world premieres and features music by Nathan Parker-Smith, Dan Pugach, Michael Webster, Earl MacDonald, Kris Allen, and Nathaniel Vilas ’17. The Williams Jazz Ensemble, led by Kris Allen, will be augmented by a woodwind quintet for Webster’s Horizons.
About Kris Allen
Allen is the Lyell B. Clay Artist in Residence in Jazz and Lecturer in Music at Williams and the director of the Williams Jazz Ensemble. He has performed with many living legends of jazz music, including Illinois Jacquet, Gerald Wilson, Curtis Fuller, Andy Gonzales, and Curtis Fuller, as well as with modern stars such as Helen Sung, Winard Harper, Jeremy Pelt, Andy Laverne, the Mingus Dynasty, and Mario Pavone. He co-led the innovative Panamerican Trio with percussionist Rogerio Boccato and the late bassist Charles Flores. Allen has enjoyed a long-term musical association across several projects with the Curtis Brothers and has been a member of Kendick Oliver’s New Life Jazz Orchestra for over a decade. He can also be found frequently appearing in groups led by pianists Noah Baerman, Earl Macdonald, or his wife, Jen Allen. He serves as the Artistic Director of the Hartford Jazz Society New Directions Ensemble, and he is a founding member of the collaborative Jazz Samaritan Alliance. He has taught at Trinity College, the Hartt School, Southern Connecticut State University, and the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts. He has been a senior teaching artist in the many educational programs of Litchfield Performing Arts since 2001.