Warming the Winter Air: The Oberlin Jazz Septet on Tour

OBERLIN, OHIO (December 14, 2007) — In a breath of fresh, if chilly, air, the Oberlin Jazz Septet (OJS) will be energizing audiences on a tour to several major U.S. cities in January. The group’s winter tour is an annual tradition for the ensemble, which represents outstanding student performers, arrangers, and composers who have been handpicked by members of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music’s legendary jazz faculty.

The tour begins in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, January 22, 2008, at Gullifty’s Restaurant, a lively eatery and club and a Squirrel Hill landmark. The OJS then heads to Philadelphia on Wednesday, January 23, for a gig at Chris’ Jazz Café, named one of the “100 Great Venues Around the World to Hear Jazz” by Down Beat magazine. Boston beckons next, as the OJS makes its way to Cambridge for a performance at the Lily Pad — a new club known for its adventurous, avant-garde music — on Wednesday, January 30. The tour winds things up in Washington, D.C., with a performance at the celebrated Twins Jazz club on January 31.

The 2007-08 edition of the OJS includes guitarist Henry Heinitsh ’08 from Brevard, North Carolina, who studies with Associate Professor of Jazz Guitar Robert Ferrazza; drummer Jake Robinson ’08, a native of Whately, Massachusetts, and a student of Billy Hart, Assistant Professor of Jazz Percussion; bassist Christopher Mees ’09 from Cody, Wyoming, and a student of Professor of Jazz Studies and Double Bass Peter Dominguez; trumpeter Truan Savage ’08, a Chappaqua, New York, native and a student of Marcus Belgrave, Visiting Professor of Jazz Trumpet; trombonist Matthew Davis ’08, from the San Francisco Bay area, who studies with Associate Professor of Jazz Trombone Robin Eubanks; saxophonist Tim McKay ’09, another San Francisco-area native who is a student of Visiting Professor of Jazz Saxophone Gary Bartz; and pianist Isaac Sussman ’10 from Larchmont, New York, who studies with Visiting Assistant Professor of Jazz Piano Dan Wall.

Peter Dominguez is director of the Oberlin Jazz Septet.

At each venue, the OJS will perform original compositions and classic arrangements of jazz. In past years, the group has been featured at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Jazz Aspen Snowmass, and the Detroit, Elmhurst, and Notre Dame jazz festivals. The OJS has performed in almost every major U.S. city, and its tours include visits to local high schools and arts programs. Members of the septet prepare the group’s business plan for performing, recording, touring, and teaching throughout the year, learning invaluable business and real-life lessons. Performances by the OJS of original compositions by Oberlin students have also been featured on the compilation CDs produced and distributed each October by JAZZIZ magazine.

About the Oberlin Conservatory of Music
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, founded in 1865 and situated amid the intellectual vitality of Oberlin College since 1867, is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. Renowned internationally as a professional music school of the highest caliber and pronounced a “national treasure” by the Washington Post, its alumni have gone on to achieve illustrious careers in all aspects of the serious music world. Oberlin offers a premier undergraduate jazz studies program, chaired by Professor of African American Music Wendell Logan, that prepares students for careers as professional jazz musicians and for advanced study in jazz. The jazz studies faculty includes composers and performers who, in addition to teaching lessons and coaching ensembles, maintain active performing careers throughout the world. Numerous Oberlin alumni have achieved success in the jazz idiom, among them keyboardist Ted Baker; pianist and composer Stanley Cowell; bassist, composer, and arranger Leon Lee Dorsey; pianist, arranger, and producer Allen Farnham; bassist Ben Jaffe; composer and pianist Jon Jang; writer, composer, and saxophonist James McBride; and trumpeter, trombonist, and composer Michael Mossman. For more information about Oberlin, visit www.oberlin.edu/con.

Oberlin Jazz Septet January 2008 Tour Schedule

Tuesday, January 22:
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Gullifty’s Restaurant
1922 Murray Avenue
Squirrel Hill
Time: 9 p.m.
Tickets: No cover charge.
For more information, call 412-521-8222 or visit
www.gulliftysrestaurant.com

Wednesday, January 23:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Chris’ Jazz Café
1421 Sansom Street
Time: 9 p.m.
Tickets: $8 general public; $5 students and faculty (with ID); $5 per-person minimum at tables.
For more information, call 215-568-3131 or visit www.chrisjazzcafe.com

Wednesday, January 30:
Boston, Massachusetts
The Lily Pad
1353 Cambridge Street
Inman Square
Time: 8 p.m.
Tickets: $5 cover charge.
For more information, call 617-395-1393 or visit www.lily-pad.net

Thursday, January 31:
Washington, D.C.
Twins Jazz
1344 U Street, Northwest
Time: 8 p.m.
Tickets: $10 general public, with a two-drink minimum For more information, call 202-234-0072 or visit www.twinsjazz.com

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Media Contact:

Marci Janas
440-775-8328