The WP Jazz Room Series at Home Begins on Sunday, September 20

The William Paterson University Jazz Room Series is going virtual, beginning on Sunday, September 20, with all performances live-streamed in Shea Center and broadcast on select dates.

Sittin’ In, the series of concert previews, is presented by featured jazz artists and guest speakers. This informal discussion is free to all Jazz Room ticket holders and begins at 3 PM—one hour before each concert. Ticker holders may submit questions in advance to: jazzroom@wpunj.edu

Ticket prices are “pay what you want” -  $25 •  $20  • $15 • $10 public and $8 non-William Paterson students and WP community. WP students are FREE via a weekly code emailed from faculty. Tickets must be purchased in advance. Click here to buy.

The fall schedule for the series is as follows:

Billy Hart Quartet w/Mark Turner, Ethan Iverson, Ben Street
Sep 20, 2020 @ 4:00 PM

This quartet began as a side project for pianist Ethan Iverson, best known as a founder of The Bad Plus.  As gigs and tours progressed, the other three group members (who are all a generation younger than Hart) realized that the iconic drummer should have the leadership role.  Hart’s career has spanned collaborations with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery, Shirley Horn, and countless others on over 600 recordings.  Hart has also been involved at Oberlin Conservatory, Western Michigan University, and was the inaugural artist to open William Paterson’s new Recital Hall with pianist Chris Pattishall six years ago.  Each of the other group members is a leader in his own right: Mark Turner is one of the most influential virtuoso saxophonists on the scene, Iverson’s recordings with Bad Plus have rewritten the jazz repertoire, and bassist Ben Street is a first-call player with Danilo Perez, Sam Rivers, Lage Lund and many others.

Ed Neumeister Quartet with Gary Versace, Drew Gress , Tom Rainey
featuring the great vocalist Jay Clayton
Oct 18, 2020 @ 4:00 PM

Trombonist and arranger/composer Ed Neumeister has recently rejoined the William Paterson jazz staff, having returned to New York from a decade on the full-time faculty of the conservatory in Graz, Austria.  He is a veteran of many major big bands, including 15 years with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and 19 years with the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, which featured him as both an arranger and a major soloist.  His arrangements span many musical worlds and speak in many musical dialects, and he has performed with an equally broad array of artists, including Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra, Gerry Mulligan, Aretha Franklin and Jerry Garcia.  His CD A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square was Grammy-nominated, and he has had long collaborations as resident arranger for Dutch Metropole Orchestra and the jazz orchestra in Budapest, Hungary.

CD Release: Baritone Saxophonist Gary Smulyan Plays Alec Wilder
Oct 25, 2020 @ 4:00 PM

Gary Smulyan’s award as Down Beat 2019 Readers Poll Baritone Saxophonist of the Year is the 19th such award won by this master of the large horn.  A decades-long member of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Joe Lovano’s large group and veteran of big bands led by Woody Herman and Thad Jones-Mel Lewis, Smulyan has become the world’s leading baritone soloist.  He has also recorded with such varied artists as Jimmy Heath, Tom Harrell, Carla Bley, Joe Henderson, B.B. King and Eddie Palmieri.  This concert celebrates the release of Smulyan’s 14th recording as a leader, Night Talk: The Alec Wilder Songbook, including Wilder’s iconic songs “I’ll Be Around” and “Moon and Sand,” and featuring an all-star octet playing the wonderful Mark Masters arrangements from the new CD.

Vibraphonist Steve Nelson
Nov 01, 2020 @ 4:00 PM

Steve Nelson is a veteran of numerous tours and nine recordings with bassist Dave Holland’s acclaimed Quintet, a longtime collaborator with the late Mulgrew Miller as a member of Miller’s Wingspan group, and a virtuosic solo artist who is in constant demand.  Nelson has also performed and collaborated with Kenny Barron, six recordings with David “Fathead” Newman, also with Johnny Griffin, Jackie McLean, Chris Potter, James Spaulding and Houston Person.  A bachelors and masters graduate of Rutgers University, Nelson has also been on the Princeton faculty.

CT100: 100th Birthday Tribute to Clark Terry
Nov 08, 2020 @ 4:00 PM

Clark Terry would have turned 100 years old in December.  In honor of that milestone, The Jazz Room pays tribute to the iconic trumpeter and educator who chose William Paterson as the site of The Clark Terry Archive.  Terry is not only one of the most iconic trumpeters in jazz who influenced his former student Miles Davis and countless others – he is also an American icon, as the first African American on nightly network TV as featured member of the NBC Tonight Show Band from 1960-70.  He is considered to be one of the true founders of jazz education.  An all-star gathering of musicians from Clark Terry’s bands and the WP faculty will perform some of Terry’s original compositions, music from his quintet with Bob Brookmeyer, and jazz and popular standards loved by Terry, including Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington.  Photo images, music manuscripts and other materials from the WP Clark Terry Archive will be showcased in the lobby and in an onstage slideshow on the day of the performance.

Veronica Swift
Nov 22, 2020 @ 4:00 PM

Veronica Swift is rapidly becoming one of the most in-demand vocalists in jazz, after growing up with her parents, pianist Hod O’Brien and vocalist Stephanie Nakasian.  She earned second prize in the 2015 Thelonious Monk Vocal Competition, and began engagements soon after that at such jazz venues as Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola and the Telluride Jazz Festival.  More recently, she has been featured at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Michael Feinstein, The Jazz Standard, the Blue Note, with SF Jazz, and at major jazz festivals internationally.  Her main repertoire is American Popular Song classics and bebop, but she is also deeply connected to 20s and 30s tunes, opera and rock.  She also writes and acts in her own films produced by Darkstone Entertainment.  She regularly tours with the Emmet Cohen Trio.

Inaugurated in the spring of 1978, the Jazz Room Series is the longest-running campus-based jazz concert series in the nation. With a tradition of encompassing the complete spectrum of jazz from New Orleans to the avant-garde, it features world-class professionals and William Paterson student ensembles. There are three series of concerts each year, including the six-concert Fall and Spring Jazz Room Series, and the weeklong Summer Jazz Room held the third week of July.

William Paterson University is home to the Living Jazz Archive, which includes the personal music archive of legendary trumpeter and educator Clark Terry, as well as the archives of Thad Jones, James Williams and Michael Brecker. The Living Jazz Archive provides students, researchers, and visitors with the opportunity to explore original jazz manuscripts and other materials that are an important part of jazz history.