Nationally acclaimed trumpeter, Jon Faddis featured at Tri-Cities Jazz Fest
Submitted to East Tennessean
Issue date: 4/21/05 Section: LifeStyle
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This year's featured guest artist is trumpeter Jon Faddis, director of the Jazz Orchestra of New York, formerly know as the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band.
Faddis will perform in concert with the ETSU Jazz Ensemble.
Additional artists performing at the Jazz Fest include Dick Davis on saxophone, David Champouillon on trumpet, The Jazz Doctors, the ETSU Jazz Ensemble and the Science Hill Jazz Ensemble.
This year is the third year of the fest with prior featured artists including Maynard Ferguson, Marvin Stamm, and Rich Willey. Faddis has a special connection to ETSU, as he is married to Laurelyn Douglas, daughter of College of Medicine faculty Dr. and Mrs. John Douglas.
Jon Faddis' biography, as provided by Ed Keane Associates reads like a virtual encyclopedia of jazz history. It reads: "A complete and complex musician, conductor, composer and educator, Faddis possesses full command of his instrument, consistently demonstrating a virtually unparalleled range and making the practically impossible seem effortless."
In 2003, Time Out in New York called Faddis 'the world's greatest trumpeter ... the greatest trumpeter on the planet for decades ... brash soloistic logic and breathtaking technical acuity.'
Faddis - of whom his friend and mentor John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie said, 'He's the best ever, including me!' - summons forth and sustains stratospherically high notes in one moment, and in the next, masterfully captures enchantingly thoughtful melodies. He evokes the voices of Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, Miles Davis and of course Gillespie, all the while remaining true to his own.
Born in Oakland, Calif., in 1953, Faddis began playing trumpet at age eight, inspired by Louis Armstrong's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Upon graduating from high school, Faddis joined, at age 17, Lionel Hampton's big band on tour in Texas as a featured soloist and moved to New York. That same year, he became lead trumpeter for the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band; the affiliation lasted for four years and included touring the former Soviet Union for the U.S. State Department.
In his 30-plus years as a professional musician, Faddis has toured and recorded with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and the Count Basie Orchestra, as well as with Gil Evans, Charles Mingus and Dizzy Gillespie, among others.
He has served as music director and conductor for various Jazz bands, including Gillespie's 70th Birthday Big Band and the Grammy-winning United Nation Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Centennial Big Band, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band (1992-2002), and is currently serving as conductor of the CHJB's successor, the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra (the Jazz Orchestra of New York).
Remaining true to the tradition of honoring one's teachers, Faddis continues to champion the music of his primary mentor and close friend, Dizzy Gillespie.
In August 2004, the Chicago Jazz Ensemble named Faddis as its artistic director.
His jazz recording credits include well over 500 albums, ranging from early duets with Oscar Peterson and Eubie Blake to soundtracks for film and television (including The Cosby Show, The Gauntlet and Bird) to the Grammy-nominated recording Remembrances, with original arrangements by Carlos Franzetti, as well as Into the Faddisphere, Hornucopia and Legacy.
Faddis has recorded with Ray Brown, the Heath Brothers, Joe Henderson, Milt Hinton, JJ Johnson and Lalo Schifrin, among others.
His jazz opera, Lulu Noire (with libretto by Lee Breuer), received its premier at the Spoleto USA Festival in 1997 and was performed at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia that same year. USA Today named Faddis' Lulu Noire one of its "Top Ten" picks for all of 1997.
Faddis also headlines regularly as a guest artist with symphonies and orchestras and as a leader of his own combos in clubs and in concert around the world. Faddis possesses an enduring commitment to the accessible and quality education of young musicians, regularly leading master classes nationally and internationally.
In May 2003, Faddis received Manhattan School of Music's first-ever honorary doctorate in Jazz Studies.
Among numerous other awards, Faddis has also received the Milt Jackson Award for Excellence and Accessibility in Jazz.
His vision of jazz encompasses a healthy respect for the history, yet also fully embraces and advances its tradition of innovation and change. His vision is one that combines an intellectual playfulness and curiosity with the rigorous discipline necessary to create exceptional music.
It is a vision honed particularly with Gillespie, exemplified especially by Faddis' work at Carnegie Hall, and applied consistently in all that Faddis does.
Faddis remains committed to his work at Purchase College-SUNY, as artist-in-residence and professor, director of jazz performance at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College-SUNY, directs the Purchase College-SUNY ensemble - Purchase Jazz Endeavor.
Tickets for the Tri-Cities Jazz Fest can be purchased at the door for $10.
For more information call David Champouillion, executive director of the Tri-Cities Jazz Fest at 439-6955 or the ETSU music department at 439-4270.