Jazz week to feature variety

Wayne — The thirteenth annual Summer Jazz Week at William Paterson University will take place from July 23 to 29 in the Shea Center for Performing Arts on the campus in Wayne. The Summer Jazz Week features different jazz bands performing every evening at 7:30 p.m. during the week. The festival opens on Monday, July 24 with a University faculty concert. On Tuesday, July 25, The Trio, a jazz threesome composed of guitarist Lenny Argese, accordionist Eddie Monteiro and drummer Joe Cocuzzo, will perform. Wednesday evening, jazz drummer Bernard Purdie will perform with the William Paterson Summer Big Band directed by Stephen Marcone, professor of music at William Paterson. The John Lindberg-Kevin Norton Quartet takes the stage on Thursday, July 27. Lindberg has performed as a solo bassist, and with the String Trio of New York. Norton has performed with a wide array of musicians from Anthony Braxton to Milt Hinton. The Quartet will also perform at the Newark Museum at noon. The Billy Taylor Trio will bring Summer Jazz Week 2006 to a conclusion on Friday, July 28. Honored at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center for his musical contributions, Taylor has played and recorded with many legendary performers. The concerts are held in conjunction with the University’s Summer Jazz Improvisation Workshop for high school and college students. All students will participate in hands-on, small group sessions with guest artists as well as morning classes, afternoon performance sessions and clinics. On Saturday, July 29, the workshop will conclude with a 1 p.m. concert featuring the workshop’s student ensembles. The festival also includes a workshop for children with the Blackman Brothers at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 26. Their Jazz for Kids program offers an entertaining and interactive look at the world of jazz and is designed to introduce elementary school children to the world of jazz. Summer Jazz Week, which has drawn thousands of jazz fans to the University’s campus during the past 12 summers, is designed to make jazz more accessible to the community. William Paterson has been a flagship of jazz education for more than 25 years and is recognized for its internationally known Jazz Studies Program and nationally acclaimed Jazz Room Series of concerts each fall and spring. A $10 pass for the entire week may be purchased prior to Monday evening’s concert or single tickets may be purchased for $3. William Paterson’s Summer Jazz Week is funded, in part, by a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, and a newly awarded grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. For more information, contact the Shea Center Box Office at 973-720-2371.