Ben-Hur (1925)

Thursday, April 30 at 8pm

$10, $5 for students
For tickets please call 597-2425

Pre-concert lecture at 7pm
free with ticket for the film

Initially trained both in the classical and jazz fields, composer JC Sanford has worked in several cross-genre musical situations, especially as a part of his association with the composers’ federation Pulse. His jazz orchestra, Sound Assembly, already stretches the boundaries of what is considered “jazz big band music” by using many unconventional techniques such as simultaneous multiple tempi and the shifting of traditional instrumental roles.

Sanford’s original score for the 1925 silent film Ben-Hur commissioned by the 2009 Syracuse Film Festival is a continuation of this practice. It contains aspects of jazz, but also other world musics and modern “classical” flavors. Much of the melodic and harmonic pitch material has been derived from the text in the intertitles (the projected text between and during scenes in a silent film). There will also be moments of guided improvisation specifically meant to depict and re-enforce the spontaneity and aggression of the dramatic pirate attack and chariot race. Performing live with the film, the JC Sanford Octet employs the fine talents of members of the Central New York Jazz Orchestra.