Aardvark Jazz Orchestra

April 07, 2018 | 05:00 pm

Free and open to the public.
April 07, 2018 | 05:00 pm

The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra continues its historic 45th season on Saturday, April 7th. The orchestra will perform the premiere of director Mark Harvey’s latest work, Faces of Souls, together with other Mark Harvey originals.

Mark Harvey’s Faces of Souls is inspired by the Charles Ives composition Boston Common and the Augustus Saint-Gaudens statue commemorating Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, heroes of the Civil War. The April 7th show will feature other works by Harvey, including The Journey, dedicated to the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the struggle for civil rights, and Blue Butterfly, a blues evoking the later Brother Blue (aka Hugh Morgan Hill), a legendary storyteller famous in Boston and beyond, and a longtime friend of Aardvark. The evening finale will be Harvey’s piece No Walls, Aardvark’s anthem of hope and inclusivity.

Founded in 1973, Aardvark has been a force in the international jazz scene for more than 45years. The orchestra has premiered more than 175 works and appears on 14 CDs, including 8 on the Leo Records label. Guest artists have included jazz luminaries Jaki Byard, Sheila Jordan, Jimmy Giuffre, Geri Allen, and Matt Savage. Founder and music director Mark Harvey has performed as the Knitting Factory, the Village Gate, and National Gallery of Art (DC), Fenway Park, Boston’s Symphony Hall, the Berlin Jazz Festival (Germany), and the Baja State Theater (Mexico), to name a few. He has recorded with George Russell and Baird Hersey, and performed with Gil Evans, Howard McGhee, Sam Rivers, and others. Dr. Harvey teaches jazz studies and composition at MIT.