Jazz Creative Large Ensemble

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY CREATIVE LARGE ENSEMBLE
Conducted by Darcy James Argue

SPECIAL GUEST
Rufus Reid, bass

WINDS
Evan DeTurk ’23 (soprano sax, alto sax, clarinet)
Milan Sastry ’26 (alto sax)
Konstantin Howard ’24 (tenor sax)
Skywalker Li ’26 (tenor sax)
Adithya Sriram ’24 (baritone sax, bass clarinet)

TRUMPETS
Fareed Simpson *
John Polanco *
John Cureton ’26
Helen Cueyoung Lee ’26

HORN IN F
Spencer Bauman ’25
Daniel Liu ’26

TROMBONES
Thomas Verrill ’25
Pranav Vadapalli ’25
Jack Isaac ’23
Wesley Sanders ’26

VOICE
Jimmy Waltman ’23

GUITAR
Rohit Oomman ’24

PIANO
Shlok Shah ’26

BASS
Laura-Simone Martin *

DRUMS
Ryder Walsh ’26

* Guest Artist

Rufus Reid is one of a handful of true renaissance figures in the Arts.  This bassist and composer has been an active presence in the jazz world since the 1970’s.  He has recorded over 500 albums, 25 under his own name, with Terrestrial Dance and Always In The Moment released in Vinyl by Newvelle Records.  The 2022 CD release, Celebration, features the jazz trio with a string quartet.  Reid can be heard on recordings with Dexter Gordon, Andrew Hill, The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Quartet, Kenny Barron, Stan Getz, J.J. Johnson, Lee Konitz, Jack DeJohnette and many others.

Reid has written for strings, chamber ensembles, solo bass, jazz ensembles of varying sizes and symphony orchestras and has had the privilege of having all of them performed.

His reputation as an educator is equal to that of his musical achievements.  His book The Evolving Bassist (Myriad Limited, 1974) remains the industry standard for double bass methodology.  Reid and Dr. Martin Krivin created the Jazz Studies and Performance Bachelor of Music Program at William Paterson University.  This program offered the first professional academically accredited Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies in the NY, NJ, CT tri-state area.

He has received the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and the MacDowell Colony Grant among others.  His 2014 release, Quiet Pride – The Elizabeth Catlett Project, received two Grammy Nominations; for Best Large Jazz Ensemble and for Best Instrumental Composition.

Rufus Reid continues to be the Evolving Bassist.

“For a wholly original take on big band’s past, present and future, look to Darcy James Argue” — so says Newsweek’s Seth Colter Walls. The Vancouver-born, Brooklyn-based composer and bandleader has toured nationally and internationally with his 18-piece ensemble, Secret Society, garnering countless awards and nominations and reimagining what a 21st-century big band can sound like. “It’s maximalist music of impressive complexity and immense entertainment value, in your face and then in your head” writes Richard Gehr in the Village Voice. READ MORE>

Rudresh Mahanthappa, Program Director
Hailed by Pitchfork as “jaw-dropping… one of the finest saxophonists going,” alto saxophonist, composer, and educator Rudresh Mahanthappa is widely known as one of the premier voices in jazz of the 21st century. He has over a dozen albums to his credit, including the acclaimed Bird Calls, which topped many critics’ best-of-year lists for 2015 and was hailed by PopMatters as “complex, rhythmically vital, free in spirit while still crisscrossed with mutating structures.” His most recent release, Hero Trio, was considered to be one of the best jazz albums of 2020 by critics and fans alike. Rudresh has been named alto saxophonist of the year for nine of the last eleven years running in Downbeat Magazine’s International Critics’ Polls (2011-2013, 2015-2018, 2020-1), and for five consecutive years by the Jazz Journalists’ Association (2009-2013) and again in 2016. He won alto saxophonist of the year in the 2015- 2018 & 2020 JazzTimes Magazine Critics’ Polls and was named The Village Voice’s “Best Jazz Artist” in 2015. He has also received the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, among other honors, and is currently the Anthony H. P. Lee ’79 Director of Jazz at Princeton University.

Born in Trieste, Italy to Indian émigrés in 1971, Mahanthappa was brought up in Boulder, Colorado, and gained proficiency playing everything from current pop to Dixieland. He went on to study at North Texas, Berklee, and DePaul Universities (as well as the Stanford Jazz Workshop) and came to settle in Chicago. Soon after moving to New York in 1997, he formed his own quartet featuring pianist Vijay Iyer. The band recorded an enduring sequence of albums, Black Water, Mother Tongue, and Codebook, each highlighting Mahanthappa’s inventive methodologies and deeply personal approach to composition. He and Iyer also formed the duo Raw Materials.

Coming deeper into contact with the Carnatic music of his parents’ native southern India, Mahanthappa partnered in 2008 with fellow altoist Kadri Gopalnath and the Dakshina Ensemble for Kinsmen, garnering wide acclaim. Apti, the first outing by Mahanthappa’s IndoPak Coalition (with Pakistani born Rez Abbasi on guitar and Dan Weiss on tabla), saw release the same year; Agrima followed nine years later and considerably expanded the trio’s sonic
ambitions. In 2020, Rudresh released Hero Trio, an album of “covers” paying tribute to his musical heroes. He also co-led a project celebrating the centenary of Charlie Parker with the blessing of the Parker estate.

Mahanthappa has also worked with Jack DeJohnette, Mark Dresser, Danilo Pérez, Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, the collaborative trios MSG and Mauger, the co-led quintet Dual Identity with fellow altoist Steve Lehman, and another co-led quintet with fellow altoist and Chicago stalwart Bunky Green (Apex). His exploratory guitar-driven quartets on Samdhi and Gamak featured David Gilmore and Dave “Fuze” Fiuczynski, respectively. In 2015 he was commissioned by Ragamala Dance to create Song of the Jasmine for dancers and a hybrid jazz/South Indian ensemble.

JAZZ AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY serves to promote this uniquely American music as a contemporary and relevant art form. Its goals are to convey the vast musical and social history of jazz, establish a strong theoretical and stylistic foundation with regard to improvisation and composition, and emphasize the development of individual expression and creativity. Offerings of this program include academic course work, performing ensembles, master classes, private study, and independent projects. Jazz at Princeton University thanks you for joining them on this evening’s journey of beauty, exploration, discovery, and hope.