Jazz Articles

The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra: Bethlehem Counterpoint

by Jack Bowers
March 2, 2003

Christmas concerts have been an Aardvark Jazz Orchestra tradition for thirty years, and Bethlehem Counterpoint is the second album of music gleaned from those performances. AJO’s hallmark is the unexpected, and the ensemble frames uncommon settings of every song and carol from “Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella” to music director Steve Harvey’s closing “Benedictus.”

The centerpiece is Harvey’s seven-section “Counterpoint,” a thirty-seven-minute cantata written for the AJO’s twenty-fifth annual Christmas concert in 1997 and inspired by Rosie’s ...