Results for "Bill Dobbins"

Bill Dobbins

Bill Dobbins teaches courses in jazz composing and arranging, gives applied lessons to jazz writing majors, and directs the Eastman Jazz Ensemble and the Eastman Studio Orchestra. As a pianist he has performed with classical orchestras and chamber ensembles under the direction of Pierre Boulez, Lukas Foss, and Louis Lane, and has performed and recorded with such jazz artists as Clark Terry, Al Cohn, Red Mitchell, Phil Woods, Bill Goodwin, Dave Liebman, Kevin Mahogany, Paquito D’Rivera, Peter Erskine, and John Goldsby. He was a prizewinner in the 1972 International Gaudeamus Competition for interpreters of contemporary music, and has been the recipient of several jazz composition grants from the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts

Bill Cunliffe: Always Doing It The Right Way

by Jim Worsley
March 18, 2021

Most notably a jazz pianist, it comes as more than a surprise that Bill Cunliffe was not in the same orbit as jazz until he was in college. With the sheer volume of top shelf jazz he has written and recorded since, he would seem to have made up for any lost time. That time, those ...

Take Five with Denin Koch

by AAJ Staff
October 19, 2020

Meet Denin Koch Hailed as possessing “pristine playing, meticulous composing" and “a very personal voice deserving of attention," guitarist and composer Denin Koch has synthesized his wide and varied influences into a unique approach to jazz improvisation. He has performed with Arturo Sandoval, Pat Metheny, Branford Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Dee Daniels, Ryan Keberle, and ...

Enjoy Jazz 2019

by Henning Bolte
December 2, 2019

Alte Feuerwache and other venues Enjoy Jazz And More Mannheim, Heidelberg, Ludwigshafen, Germany October 27--November 1, 15-16, 2019 Enjoy Jazz And More this year lead me through two sections of its seven-week concert-series in October/November, with a great diversity of concerts ranging from seasoned German clarinet master Rolf Kühn to advanced ...

Music Education Monday: Developing a theme into a big band arrangement

May 9, 2016

This week's Music Education Monday is a sort of case study in big band arranging, presented by pianist Bill Dobbins, professor of jazz studies and contemporary media at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. A veteran jazz educator, Dobbins first joined the Eastman faculty in 1973, and played a major role in designing the ...

National Jazz Ensemble: Featuring Gerry Mulligan

by Jack Bowers
February 10, 2016

Any new CD whose cover proclaims “Featuring Gerry Mulligan" is guaranteed to turn heads, raise antennae and whip up interest. This one, on which Mulligan performs with the then-three-year-old National Jazz Ensemble, was recorded February 19, 1977, in a sold-out auditorium at the New School in New York City. In his liner notes, trumpeter David Berger ...

Bill Mays: Inventions, Conventions and Dimensions

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
July 22, 2013

This title is more than a rhyme: it's an attempt to capture some of the legendary versatility of pianist Bill Mays. “Inventions" refers to his unprecedented, working jazz trio of piano, trumpet, and cello. “Conventions" is a nod to his invaluable contribution to the annual meeting of the International Society of Bassists (in 2013, he played ...

Stan Kenton-NOVA Jazz Orchestra / Baker's Dozen Big Band / Danny D'Imperio and the Bloviators

by Jack Bowers
January 10, 2012

Stan Kenton Orchestra / NOVA Jazz OrchestraDouble Feature, Vol. 2Tantara Productions2012 One of the more difficult aspects of reviewing Tantara's series of impressive salutes to Stan Kenton and his music is knowing where to begin. As on Volume 1 of the label's Double Feature (with Volume 3 ...

Erica Seguine / Shannon Baker Jazz Orchestra: New York, October 20, 2011

by Daniel Lehner
November 9, 2011

Erica Seguine/Shannon Baker Jazz OrchestraSomethin' Jazz ClubNew York, NYOctober 20, 2011 Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz postulated that the present becomes the past only when a new present emerges. The existence of the contemporary big band--exemplified by restless creativity but a somewhat limited playing capacity--seems to belong to a handful of ...

BuJazzO: That's German for Swinging Big Band Jazz

by Jack Bowers
September 4, 2011

On August 8, my friend Wes Pfarner and I drove to Santa Fe for a once-in-a lifetime event: a performance by the German Federal Youth Jazz Orchestra, better known to big band enthusiasts by its more condensed and colorful name, BuJazzO. The twenty-piece ensemble, directed by Jiggs Whigham, an American trombonist and educator from Cleveland, Ohio, ...