Jazz week culminates with concert at Carnegie Music Hall

Jazz Seminar & Concert Series

Carnegie Music Hall

Nov. 7, 8 p.m.

$8 student tickets… Jazz Seminar & Concert Series

Carnegie Music Hall

Nov. 7, 8 p.m.

$8 student tickets

William Pitt Union box office

Pitt’s Jazz Week will end with a syncopated bang.

A concert tomorrow at Carnegie Music Hall will act as a culmination of the lectures and performances of Pitt’s annual jazz seminar. Musicians from an earlier jazz era, as well as more modern musicians, will come together to appreciate a genre that has survived on its ability to grow from its history.

Though the seminar’s setting in Pittsburgh — a city known for its jazz roots — was not coincidental, its specific placement in Oakland buildings like the Carnegie Music Hall was also intentional.

Nathan Davis, the director of jazz studies at Pitt and the seminar’s founder, said the events are held across Pitt’s campus so that students can participate in what the seminar has to offer.

“There’s a tendency because it’s grown so big, people see it as a professional or city thing, but you gotta remember this is a school. It’s about students,” Davis said.

In an attempt to get students involved, Davis gives tickets to student organizations and ensures that displays like the Jazz Hall of Fame are set up in heavily trafficked areas, such as the William Pitt Union.

Since the seminar’s beginning 40 years ago, Davis has developed his own performance skill.

He said his ties to the great jazz names that have graced Pitt’s stages are not the only reason the seminar has succeeded.

“I was the catalyst, but it’s not about me,” he said. “This program was great because all those guys, like Dizzy [Gillespie] and Kenny Clarke, that I brought in here, they toured and when they were interviewed, they’d say, ‘I was just at the University of Pittsburgh,’ and word would spread.”

Davis said booking the big names has become harder because everything is more about money and agents these days, but the appearance of Benny Golson, a world-renowned saxophonist from jazz’s budding days, at this year’s concert means the old ways haven’t been lost.

“Benny and I go way back,” Davis said of his friend and fellow performer. “He comes because I ask him to. He could make more money doing something else.”

Golson will play at Pitt in the same year he was honored with a concert titled “Benny Golson at 80” at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He has gained recognition after composing and performing on movie soundtracks like “Mission Impossible.”

Beyond his connections with Davis, Golson comes to Pitt to share not only his musical talent, but a music that he considers to be a product of our nation.

“It gives people an opportunity to learn more about this music which is our music, which is primarily jazz, not hip-hop, not classical. This music is inherent to our people and our country,” Golson said.

He said that unlike sports players, he is not restricted by age limitations. He will approach Saturday’s concert with the same enthusiasm he has had touring the world for decades.

“I always try to give away vestiges of myself in the symbolic sense,” Golson said. “Because that’s what I put into the music — I put myself into the music and I share that with people. They hear my mind and my heart and my thoughts.”

As part of the concert, one of the performing musicians will receive the University of Pittsburgh Jazz Seminar Committee Award and the Pittsburgh International Academy of Jazz will induct two artists (one living and one deceased) into its Hall of Fame.

William R. Robinson, Allegheny County Council representative and vice chair of CCAC’s Board of Trustees, will act as master of ceremonies for the concert, as he has done for 20 years.

With both educational and political ties to Pittsburgh, Robinson takes pride in the seminars.

He also contributed to the development of Pitt’s jazz department as a former member on the University’s Board of Trustees.

“I consider myself a cheerleader for the seminar and concert because it is unique,” Robinson said. “[The concert] is one attempt to keep jazz alive, not only in Pittsburgh, but in the world.”

Robinson said he feels just as excited to hear the classics at the concert as he is to hear the new direction of jazz that the seminar celebrates through its incorporation of new performers.

“[The audience] is seeing the end result of all the lessons, wisdom, rubbing up against these jazz artists, showing you in a practical way their greatness,” Robinson said.

Davis said he wouldn’t want it any other way.

“We try to get the who’s who in jazz,” Davis said. “But what I try to instill in everybody is that this is y’all’s thing — the students’.”