Jazz Articles about Shenandoah University

Shenandoah University Conservatory Jazz Ensemble: Lullaby of the Leaves

by Jack Bowers
November 28, 2006

The Shenandoah University Conservatory Jazz Ensemble, which makes its home in the heart of Virginia's picturesque Shenandoah Valley, continues on its upward path under director Joe Eckert, late of the US Air Force Airmen of Note, with the second in a series of yearly albums whose purpose is to affirm and underscore the ensemble's forward progress.

Despite the inevitable changes in personnel, the '06 ensemble plays with poise and assurance, and it's clear from the outset that Eckert has not ...

Shenandoah University Jazz Ensemble: SU Jazz 2005

by Jack Bowers
May 4, 2006

Back in the days not long ago when Joe Eckert was directing the US Air Force's highest-ranking big band, the Airmen of Note, he spent some of his spare hours in Winchester, Virginia supervising the Shenandoah University Jazz Ensemble, and if the ensemble's debut recording is a valid barometer of its progress, that was time well spent. Eckert is now SU's full-time director of Jazz Studies, and under his astute guidance the ensemble has become a taut and swinging group, ...