Pitt’s Jazz Week culminated with powerful performance

The floors vibrated to the tapping of hundreds of feet, the walls reverberated with the beat… The floors vibrated to the tapping of hundreds of feet, the walls reverberated with the beat of the vibraphone and almost every head in the audience bobbed in time to the percussion — all in the name of jazz.

Such was the scene Saturday night as the 36th annual Pitt Jazz Seminar and Concert series concluded with a concert featuring 10 of the most celebrated musicians in jazz music. Students, faculty and local residents packed the Carnegie Music Hall for the 8 p.m. concert, which marked the end of Pitt’s Jazz Week.

Under the direction of saxophonist Nathan Davis, head of Pitt’s jazz studies program and founder of the annual event, the musicians performed selections to go along with the night’s theme: East Coast meets West Coast.

In addition to Davis, the concert musicians included Pittsburgh native Ron Affif on guitar, trumpet players Oscar Brashear and Jimmy Owens, Winard Harper on drums, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, bassist Abraham Laboriel, Nestor Torres on flute, pianist Patrice Rushen and Dave Pike on the vibraphone.

The most commanding stage presence, by far, was that of Laboriel. It’s quite a sight to see a 59-year-old man jumping around the stage with a giant bass while singing and urging the audience to participate. Just think Keith Richards, but substitute the skin-tight leather pants for a suit.

In the days leading up to the concert, the musicians held various lectures and seminars open to students and the public. Seminar topics ranged from “The History of Jazz Piano” to “Jazz-Latin Fusion.”

The seminars not only allowed the musicians to more closely interact with their audience, but also gave them a chance to tell their personal stories about how and where they learned their musical skills.

“New Orleans is the only city in the world where jazz is part of the culture. You can play it to anyone from the richest to the poorest, the youngest to the oldest, they all know the dances, and they all love it,” saxophonist Donald Harrison said during a seminar entitled “Jazz Explosion: From New Orleans to L.A.”

Jazz Week was founded by Davis in 1970, and it has brought many influential people from the jazz world to Pitt’s campus. Past performers include jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, Grover Washington Jr. and Herbie Mann.

For more information on upcoming seminars and concerts available through Pitt’s jazz program, visit its Web site at http://www.pitt.edu/~pittjazz/index.html.