Aardvark Jazz Orchestra at Amazing Things Arts Center

Hailed by JazzTimes for “lush sonorities and a saxophonic blend worthy of Ellington’s finest reed sections,” the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra will continue its historic 40th season with a show called Jazz Panorama: Basie, Ellington, Mingus and More at the Amazing Things Arts Center, 160 Hollis Street, Framingham, MA 01701, on Sunday, January 20, 2013 at 2:00 pm. The legendary band will perform classics such as Come Sunday and Pork Pie Hat, counterpointed by music director Mark Harvey's fresh arrangements of the Latin-jazz Una Mas by Kenny Dorham and Miles Mode by John Coltrane. The Boston Globe called Aardvark “a genuine musical treasure,” while CultureJazz.Fr (France) praised the band’s “expansive harmony, brilliant music...discipline, openness, and freedom.”...

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Hailed by JazzTimes for “lush sonorities and a saxophonic blend worthy of Ellington’s finest reed sections,” the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra will continue its historic 40th season with a show called Jazz Panorama: Basie, Ellington, Mingus and More at the Amazing Things Arts Center, 160 Hollis Street, Framingham, MA 01701, on Sunday, January 20, 2013 at 2:00 pm. The legendary band will perform classics such as Come Sunday and Pork Pie Hat, counterpointed by music director Mark Harvey's fresh arrangements of the Latin-jazz Una Mas by Kenny Dorham and Miles Mode by John Coltrane. The Boston Globe called Aardvark “a genuine musical treasure,” while CultureJazz.Fr (France) praised the band’s “expansive harmony, brilliant music...discipline, openness, and freedom.”

Tickets are $20, $19 seniors & students, $17 Amazing Things members, and $10 for children under 12. For information call 508-405-2787.

A major force in the international jazz scene for 40 years, the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra is one of the longest running large jazz ensembles in North America. Winner of the 2000 Independent Music Awards, the band has premiered more than 150 works for jazz orchestra. Guest artists who have appeared with Aardvark include jazz luminaries Jaki Byard, Sheila Jordan, Jimmy Giuffre, Geri Allen, Lewis Porter, Vinny Golia, Dominique Eade, Jay Clayton, Paul Lovens, Rajesh Mehta, Matt Savage and Walter Thompson.

Aardvark's 40th season features the international release of Evocations, the band's 11th CD and its 6th recording on Leo Records, a leading independent label whose catalogue includes such notables as Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton and The Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Founder and music director Mark Harvey has performed as trumpeter in the U.S., Mexico and Europe; has recorded with George Russell (Blue Note) and Baird Hersey (Arista/Novus); and performed with Gil Evans, Claudio Roditi, Howard McGhee, Sam Rivers, Joe Carroll, Kenny Dorham and others. He has received awards and commissions from ASCAP, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the 15th Annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert, and Meet-the-Composer-Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program, among others. Commissions have featured such revered artists as Joe Lovano, Steve Turre, Herb Pomeroy and Ran Blake. Dr. Harvey teaches jazz studies and composition at MIT.

Aardvark is: Arni Cheatham, Peter Bloom, Tom Hall, Chris Rakowski, Dan Zupan/saxes & woodwinds; K.C. Dunbar, Jeanne Snodgrass; Bob Pilkington, Jay Keyser/trombones; Jeff Marsanskis, Bill Lowe/bass trombones, tuba; Richard Nelson/guitar; John Funkhouser/string bass; Harry Wellott/drums; Jerry Edwards and Grace Hughes, vocalists; Mark Harvey/trumpet, music director.

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