NEW DIRECTIONS

I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him ... the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation. And the nation which disdains the mission of art invites the fate of Robert Frost's hired man, the fate of having "nothing to look backward to with pride, and nothing to look forward to with hope".
-- President John F. Kennedy: Remarks at Amherst College, October 26, 1963

Monday Night Jazz in 2008 will present some of today's most progressive and cutting-edge jazz musicians. They are part of the latest wave of artists who are using "the influences of whatever musics they know and adapting them into the broadest possible jazz context.” [1] MNJ in 2008 will stretch the boundaries of jazz.

Of course, jazz has a long and vital history of pushing its own envelope, from as far back as the 20s, when listeners first heard the sounds of Louis Armstrong, and later Charlie Parker, and countless others since. And, lest we forget, that history extends to Hartford. After all, it was Hartford that gave jazz maverick Ornette Coleman the keys to the city in 1985 [2]; and it was Hartford where, throughout the 1940s and 1950s, a vibrant jazz scene flourished in the north end at such places as Club Sundown, the Cotton Club, the Turf Club, the Elks Clubs, and many others; where John Cage performed at South Church in 1966; where on one evening in 1982 HJS presented Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams, Leroy Jenkins, Amina Claudine Meyers, Andrew Cyrille, Leo Smith, Bill Lowe, and others; where HJS presented Anthony Davis in 1977, Sam Rivers in 1979, the Art Ensemble of Chicago in 1980, Jackie McLean in 1989, Archie Shepp in 1993, Joe Morris in 2001, and Andrew Hill, Greg Osby and Dave Douglas in 2004; where the Artists Collective presented Cecil Taylor in 2006; and where Real Art Ways, under the directorship of Joseph Celli, produced the adventurous and memorable "RAW August Jazz" series in the 1970s and 1980s. And the list goes on.

As MNJ charts its new direction in 2008, we are mindful of the trails that so many others have blazed throughout the history of jazz in Hartford.

If the engines of creative improvisation could be started with words, they would be the words that Duke Ellington penned in his poem, What is Music?:

The scope of music is immense and infinite.
It is the ‘esperanto’ of the world.[3]

So let the music begin!

Joe Morris
It is fortuitous that Joe Morris was available and willing to serve as artistic director for this series because he himself is very much in the vanguard of this “wave.” He is also featured as leader, co-leader and sideman on over 50 recordings. He was therefore well-situated to put together this stellar lineup. Apart from his talents as a musician, he has also had considerable experience organizing concerts, festivals and performance series, including the successful Firehouse 12 performance space in New Haven. He has performed workshops and master classes in a wide variety of settings throughout North America and Europe. He has taught improvisation and/or guitar on the faculty at Tufts University Experimental College, Southern Connecticut State University, and New School University. He is currently on the faculty in the Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Department at New England Conservatory and in the Modern American Music Department at Longy School of Music.

The Lineup
The lineup for this year’s Monday Night Jazz features both new and emerging talent as well as seasoned veterans. Their discographies reveal the depth and scope of their experience, their unceasing creative spirit, and their desire to move the music in new directions. We are fortunate to be able to present them in concert over the course of four Monday evenings.

Bill Sullivan, Chair
HJS Program Committee

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1 Gary Giddins. Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of its Second Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Page 309.
2 Jon Pareles. “Hartford Salutes A Jazz Maverick in Ornette Coleman Week,” The New York Times, June 30, 1985.
3 Edward Kennedy Ellington. Music is My Mistress. New York: Da Capo Press, 1973. Page 212.