Jazz Articles about Valley Jazz Orchestra

Valley Jazz Orchestra: Free Food?

by Jack Bowers
October 30, 2006

It's unusual, to say the least, to encounter a big band album whose opening five-movement suite is dedicated to a local park. But such is the case with Free Food?, on which the Pennsylvania-based Valley Jazz Orchestra pays its respects with “Village Green, in Blue," a musical portrait of Bellefonte's Talleyrand Park written and arranged by the orchestra's co-leader, tenor saxophonist Rick Hirsch.

The VJO, a semi-pro ensemble that has been performing weekly for the past six years at the ...