INFORMATION FOR
William Paterson University continues its more than three-decade tradition of presenting summer jazz music on campus with the 31st annual Summer Jazz Room, a weeklong series of evening concerts from July 22 to 26, 2024 in the Shea Center for Performing Arts on campus.
This year’s line-up includes the Kelly Green Seems Quartet on July 22, Benny Benack with the Big Beat Big Band on July 23, Brian Lynch and Spheres of Influence on July 24, the Tia Fuller Trio on July 25, and Wycliffe Gordon and Friends on July 26.
Concerts begin every evening at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $18 for each concert or $60 for a weeklong Jazz Pass for all five concerts, on sale through Thursday, July 18. Tickets can be purchased in advance via the online box office ticketing system or in person at the Shea Center Box Office. A $5 fee will be added per ticket on in-person box office sales the night of the event. For tickets, visit wppresents.org or contact the box office at 973.720.2371 or boxoffice@wpunj.edu.
The Summer Jazz Room coincides with the University’s annual weeklong Summer Jazz Workshop for middle and high school jazz students with trombonist Wycliffe Gordon as artist-in-residence. The annual concert series, which has drawn thousands of jazz fans to the University’s campus, is designed to make jazz more accessible to the community.
The Summer Jazz Room opens on Monday, July 22 with New York City-based pianist, vocalist, composer, and educator Kelly Green and her swinging Seems Quartet, named after the latest release of her working group of Evan Hyde, Luca Soul Rosenfeld, and Elijah J. Thomas. Green has headlined at prestigious venues worldwide, including the Kennedy Center, Dizzy’s Jazz Club NYC, and the DC Jazz Festival. Her three critically acclaimed albums include collaborations with Christian McBride, Steve Nelson, and Josh Evans. A 2014 graduate of William Paterson’s master of music program, where she was mentored by jazz greats Harold Mabern and Mulgrew Miller, Green is dedicated to exploring concepts of spirituality and mental well-being.
On Tuesday, July 23, well-known singer and trumpeter Benny Benack III joins the Big Beat Big Band. Formidable as both an instrumentalist and vocalist, Benack is a leading voice in jazz for his generation, headlining clubs and festivals around the world on the heels of his critically acclaimed album Third Time’s the Charm. His global recognition has been bolstered by live-streaming concerts of a weekly residency at Smalls Jazz Club and frequent appearances on Emmet Cohen’s “Emmet’s Place” series. Trombonist, arranger, and band leader Caleb Rumley and singer Allison McKenzie, partners in life, have been making music with the Big Beat Big Band since 2014, and their band has become a regular mainstay of Summer Jazz Room programs.
The midweek performance on Wednesday, July 24 features esteemed trumpeter Brian Lynch and his high-powered Latin jazz ensemble Spheres of Influence, with its mix of Black American, Afro- Caribbean, and other musical traditions featuring Lynch’s original works and arrangements. One of the most accomplished jazz trumpeters anywhere, Lynch is a veteran of stints with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, the Horace Silver Quintet, Eddie Palmieri, and Phil Woods, and collaborations with jazz artists Benny Golson, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Charles McPherson, Latin music icons Hector LaVoe and Lila Downs, and pop luminaries such as Prince. Voted Trumpeter of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2017, Lynch garnered a Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album in 2006.
The Tia Fuller Trio takes to the Shea Center stage on Thursday, July 25. A force in the worlds of jazz, pop, and R&B, Fuller had completed a master’s degree in jazz pedagogy and performance when she was selected to tour with pop star Beyoncé. She was a featured soloist with the pop icon in performances across the globe, and on DVDs and recordings. Fuller has gone on to record five full-length projects with her quartet, including her most recent Grammy-nominated album, Diamond Cut. She has performed and recorded with a who’s who of jazz, including Terri Lyne Carrington, Esperanza Spalding, Dianne Reeves, Ralph Peterson, Rufus Reid, Wycliffe Gordon, T.S. Monk, the late Aretha Franklin, Nancy Wilson, and Geri Allen, among many others. Fuller has received Critic’s Poll awards from JazzTimes for best alto saxophonist, and Downbeat for Rising Star.
The weeklong series concludes on Friday, July 26 with Wycliffe Gordon and Friends. Gordon is one of today’s most outstanding trombonists, as well as a composer and arranger. He has been in the limelight since 1988 when he joined the Wynton Marsalis Septet and subsequently joined the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Currently, Gordon tours the world as a soloist and with his own group; in 2018 he represented the U.S. on a State Department tour to Sri Lanka where he premiered a piece written for the country’s 70th anniversary. He has 21 CDs as a leader, has been named the Jazz Journalist’s Association’s Trombonist of the Year 13 times, and topped Downbeat’s Critic’s Poll six times. Gordon has an extensive catalog of original compositions and his arrangement of the theme music for NPR’s “All Things Considered” is heard daily around the globe. A committed music educator, he serves as director of jazz studies at Augusta University.
William Paterson University has been a flagship of jazz education for more than 50 years and is recognized internationally for its Jazz Studies Program and nationally acclaimed Jazz Room Series of concerts each fall and spring.
William Paterson’s 31st annual Summer Jazz Room series is funded, in part, by a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
For more information, visit wppresents.org or email boxoffice@wpunj.edu.
