The CJE is an internationally known professional jazz orchestra in residence at Columbia College Chicago, where many of its members also teach in the college’s acclaimed music department. Throughout its 46-year existence, the CJE has received glowing reviews from critics in this country and in Europe while maintaining a major presence on the vibrant Chicago jazz scene.
The members of the CJE bring a
wealth of experience to the band; they include noted educators, in-demand
recording artists, and composers whose work is highly prized among jazz
orchestras across the country. Individually, they have performed with artists as diverse as Aretha
Franklin, Sun Ra, Branford Marsalis, and John Mellencamp. The ensemble’s members also take part in a host
of education programs; these range from workshops and master classes to the
Louis Armstrong Legacy Program and Celebration, which mentors student musicians
within the Chicago Public Schools.
In addition to percussionist Dana Hall, named Artistic Director beginning in 2011-12, the CJE has had only two permanent Artistic Directors in its history: composer and conductor William Russo, who founded the band in 1965 and provided its initial concept and direction; and trumpet virtuoso Jon Faddis, who held the position from 2004 (a year after Russo’s death) until 2010, during which time he greatly expanded both the band’s repertoire and its audience.
William Russo made his
name as a jazz trombonist and innovative arranger with the Stan Kenton Orchestra
of the 1950s before turning his attention to classical music, where he soon
earned a widely respected position among American composers of the late 20th
century. In 1965, Russo revisited his
jazz roots by founding the CJE. In the
following decades, and without abandoning his classical career, he built a
reputation for inventive performances that concentrated on the classic jazz
repertoire, with a special emphasis on the works of Duke Ellington and Stan
Kenton. A few years later, the CJE
became the first band (other than Ellington’s own) to perform an Ellington
score: his first Sacred Concert, with the composer himself conducting.
A quarter-century later, Russo was still leading the CJE into uncharted territory when he presented the first concert performance of the entire Sketches Of Spain, a landmark album originally created by Miles Davis and Gil Evans in 1960 (this difficult undertaking, with trumpeter Orbert Davis reprising Davis’s original contribution, was performed as a highlight of the 1996 Chicago Jazz Festival). Subsequent re-creations included a rare performance of Ellington’s complete Black, Brown and Beige, the groundbreaking 1943 suite; and a collaboration with clarinetist Buddy DeFranco to present Benny Goodman’s legendary 1938 “Carnegie Hall Concert” for a capacity audience in Milan, Italy. In 1999, the CJE unveiled its first subscription series, the American Heritage Jazz Series, dedicated to revisiting the works of jazz’s “household names,” from (Louis) Armstrong to Woody (Herman).
It was this series that Jon
Faddis inherited when he became the CJE’s Artistic Director following
Russo’s death in 2003. Widely considered
one of jazz’s true virtuosi, a peerless lead trumpet player, and the stylistic
heir to Dizzy Gillespie, Faddis was still in his teens when he joined the Thad
Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra (the finest big band of its era) in 1972. After a brief stint with Charles Mingus,
Faddis launched a busy multifold career as a jazz soloist and section leader
(on hundreds of recordings); a top-flight studio musician (on literally
thousands of projects, from TV commercials to film scores); a conductor and
bandleader (the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars and the Carnegie Hall Jazz
Band); and a successful and sought-after educator (professor and
artist-in-residence at Purchase College-SUNY in New York).
Taking the reins of the CJE, Faddis quickly established new standards for musicianship. He also greatly broadened the repertoire by adding contemporary works and by commissioning and premiering major compositions and arrangements. Among those who have written for the CJE are recognized giants in the field such as Frank Foster, Slide Hampton, and Bill Holman, as well as younger local composers such as Jim Gailloreto and Edward Wilkerson. Under Faddis’ leadership, the CJE also instituted collaborations with major guest soloists, including Dee Dee Bridgewater, James Moody, and Clark Terry. Jon Faddis completed his tenure as Artistic Director in the summer of 2010.
Dana Hall was named Artistic Director in the 2011-12 season after having also served as Music Director since 2008. Hall, one of the Chicago Tribune’s
2009 “Chicagoans of the Year," has appeared on more than 20 albums, and his
2009 recording debut as a leader, Into the Light, received praise from major
critics across the country. He is presently a Special Trustees Fellow completing his Doctorate in ethnomusicology at the University of Chicago. Hall has worked with the organization’s first full-time Executive Director, Kate
Dumbleton, to develop and expand the CJE’s repertoire and programmatic vision.
