“Jim’s music ingeniously reveals the magical universe that can be ignited from a single idea.”
— Maria Schneider
Hello friends,
I’m writing to let you know about a special concert I’m helping to organize for one of my biggest heroes, Jim McNeely.
Jim is a lodestar for all of us involved in writing contemporary music for big band. I first discovered his music in the early nineties, with To You: A Tribute to Mel Lewis, which opens with “Paper Spoons,” Jim’s fabulous reinvention of “It’s Only a Paper Moon.” That led me to East Coast Blow Out, which is one of the records that made me want to be a bigband composer, and remains a life-changer for many young musicians today. (This interview with Jim, conducted by Ethan Iverson, concludes with an East Coast Blow Out listening session Ethan and I did back in the day.) When I came to New York in 2003, it was to study with Jim at the BMI Jazz Composers’ Workshop, which he led for 24 years, generously sharing his experience and expertise with generations of composers.
A musician’s musician, Jim’s career spans over five decades, from his earliest days playing with — and writing for — Stan Getz, Phil Woods, and Mel Lewis, through his indispensable recordings with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, to his affiliations with acclaimed European ensembles like the WDR Big Band, the Danish Radio Big Band, and the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, where he held a twelve-year tenure as chief conductor. Jim set an impossibly high standard, one I’m constantly challenging myself to try to uphold.
With Celebrating Jim McNeely, a retrospective concert on Wednesday, September 10 at the DiMenna Center, we pay tribute to McNeely’s singular body of work with performances of some of his most iconic compositions, performed by an 18-piece ensemble stacked with key McNeely associates. The concert includes appearances by special guests John Scofield, Dick Oatts, Ed Neumeister, Martin Wind, Adam Nussbaum, and John Riley. The conductors include Rufus Reid, Mike Holober, Migiwa Miyajima, Daniel Jamieson, and myself. We are also organizing and producing the event, in collaboration with JazzComposersPresent.com.
I hope you’ll join us for this joyful celebration of one of the most inspiring masters of the art of big band.