The Reno Jazz Orchestra – Presents!

Published April 7, 2023

The Reno Jazz Orchestra – Presents!

Winter won’t seem to go away, but don’t fret, summer is coming and the Reno Jazz Orchestra (RJO) is preparing concerts to melt away memories of this winter. We start with a performance April 29 at noon at UNR’s Nightingale Hall for the 61st (!) Reno Jazz Festival. It is a forty-five-minute concert featuring original compositions from our soon-to-be-released album.

For Artown we are presenting Hot House: One Night at the Savoy Ballroom July 29 at the new J Resort Amphitheater. During the 30s and 40s the Savoy Ballroom was the place to go in New York City to hear the greatest big bands of the day and see the greatest dancers. A full city block, the Savoy could accommodate an audience of 4,000 and when there was a battle of the bands thousands had to be turned away. The Lindy Hop was all the dance rage with amateurs and professionals alike would take to the floor and “The Home of Happy Feet” became the Savoy’s tagline. In fact, there was a special area reserved for a professional dance group called Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers. Singers Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, and many others got their start at the Savoy. It was also the first ballroom/night club that was integrated. Both black and white audience members were welcome, unlike other famous clubs like the Roseland Ballroom and the Cotton Club where black musicians performed on stage but only a white audience was permitted to attend. Can’t make it July 29? Then join us at the Trepp Amphitheater at Sand Harbor July 31 as a part of the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival’s Monday Night Series.

August 11 we have been invited back to kick off Carson City’s Jazz & Beyond Festival. The festival began in 2004 as “Basie@100,” a one-time tribute to the great Count Basie in celebration of his 100th birthday. Beginning as a three-day event to celebrate Count Basie, the festival was renamed “Jazz & Beyond” and has become an event featuring fifty to sixty performances by over one hundred performers.

We are thrilled to announce that saxophonist Tom Scott will perform with the RJO August 20 at UNR’s Nightingale Hall and August 21 at the Trepp Amphitheater at Sand Harbor. He is a music icon recording with a diverse mix of artists such as Thelonious Monk, Paul McCartney, Frank Sinatra, Steely Dan, and Aretha Franklin to name just a few! He has recorded numerous albums under his own name beginning in 1967 and where I first heard him as the leader of Tom Scott and the L.A. Express. Over thirty albums later he is still going strong. Scott has earned thirteen Grammy nominations and three Grammy awards. You can hear him on the soundtracks to Taxi Driver, Heaven Can Wait, and the latest release of A Star is Born. Scott has composed film scores such as The Sure Thing and Soul Man and television scores such as Barretta, Starsky and Hutch, and The Streets of San Francisco. But wait… there is more. How about being the music director for the Academy Awards, the Emmy Awards, and Comic Relief? This is a concert you don’t want to miss.

A couple of quick updates. The RJO is in the final stages of completing our first album of all original compositions and arrangements. The project kicked off last October with a performance at the Nevada Museum of Art followed by two days of recording the material at UNR. Hans Halt (our bassist and featured composer), Mike Eardley (owner of Tanglewood Productions), and myself have been busy mixing and editing the recordings. The CD will be available at all our summer concerts and I encourage you to check it out. The Reno Youth Jazz Orchestra (RYJO) is rehearsing every Tuesday evening and recently performed at Bartley Ranch. The RJO mentor program is underway where thirteen RJO musicians work with WCSD jazz bands for eight sessions. Eight schools are participating along with RYJO and the newest jazz band, the Jazz Academy of Spanish Springs (JASS) led by Jonathan Phillips. That is a total of 76 sessions servicing approximately two hundred students! We are also offering free private lessons at Desert Skies Middle School. And… the Saturday Jazz Workshop at the Good Luck Macbeth theater where students learn to improvise will be underway soon. Thank you donors and grantors for making this possible and see you this summer!

Some videos about the Savoy Ballroom

Savoy Ballroom excerpt from Ken Burns jazz documentary
https://youtu.be/Nr8MLXDThug

Lindy dancing at the Savoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9OHZtq8CTk

Why was the Savoy Ballroom important (5 minutes)
https://youtu.be/H5DyQfcokFk

To learn more and purchase tickets visit:
https://renojazzorchestra.org/

Reno Jazz Festival
https://www.unr.edu/jazz-festival/events

Tom Scott
https://www.tomscottmusic.com/
https://youtu.be/Cs8mz9g4YFo - with the GRP big band (bonus our last year’s guest artist Ernie Watts is the tenor soloist)

Jazz & Beyond Music Festival
https://jazzcarsoncity.com/

Reno Youth Jazz Orchestra
https://renoyouthjazzorchestra.com/