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The Lafayette Jazz Ensemble will perform its rescheduled winter concert 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 3, at the Williams Center for the Arts.
Sponsored by the music department, the event is free and open to the public.
“The student participation has been the highest since I’ve been at Lafayette, and the students seem ready for the challenge and opportunity that this concert will provide,” says Ken Brader, director of the Jazz Ensemble.
Larry Stockton, professor and head of music, will perform a vibraphone solo on Bob Lowden’s arrangement of “Angel Eyes.” He will also play on “Bag’s Groove” by Milt Jackson. Other featured performers will include trombonist David Mitchell, a sophomore music major from Bear Creek, Pa., who will make his vocal debut with the ensemble on “The Lady is a Tramp.” Lead tenor saxophone player Chris Michaud, a senior double major in art and music from Millerton, N.Y., and pianist Branden Cochenour, an electrical and computer engineering major from Lower Burrell, Pa., will be featured in multiple songs during the evening as well, including an unaccompanied solo by Michaud on “The Channel One Suite.”
Other musicians in the ensemble include:
Saxophones — Jon Glick ’05, a mechanical engineering major from Hamden, Conn., lead alto (and flute); Beth Ponder ‘04, a biochemistry major from Collegeville, Pa., alto (and flute); Ryan Collins ‘03, a chemical engineering major from Whitehouse Station, N.J., tenor; Jack Furlong ’05, a music major from Hopewell, N.J., baritone;
Trombones — Ken Mease, lead; Mike Beatrice ‘04, an A.B. engineering major from Mahwah, N.J.; Jim Daniels, bass; David Glasser ’06 of Saratoga Springs, N.Y.;
Trumpets — John Sutton, lead; Vince Pettinelli, assistant lead; Todd Corona; Rob McEwen ’05, a computer science major from Morgantown, Pa.; Mike Nilson ‘05, a civil engineering major from Wantagh, N.Y.; Steve Bayer ’04, a neuroscience major from Doylestown, Pa.;
Bass — Dan Miller ’03, an electrical and computer engineering major from East Amherst, N.Y.
Considered one of the country’s top trumpet players, Brader also teaches trumpet at Lafayette. He has traveled internationally as assistant musical director, featured soloist, and lead trumpet player with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. He has played with Chuck Mangione, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and many of the world’s leading jazz performers. He is lead trumpet and soloist with the Philadelphia Pops Orchestra. He has been playing principal trumpet on NFL Films’ symphonic recordings for national broadcast this year.
Legendary pianist, conductor, and composer Peter Nero took Brader as his personal lead player to the Grand Teton Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyo., for the Fourth of July this year. He was featured soloist in May at Phillipsburg High School with the Starburst Orchestra, a big band comprised of some of the best musicians in New York City. He has played as a member of the ensemble at Lincoln Center in New York and was featured soloist in Texas in October 2001.
Brader’s experience includes work on CDs that have won Grammy Awards, concerts in 30 countries as well as major symphony halls and jazz clubs in the United States, and continuing performances with the City Rhythm Orchestra. He was a member of the band performing at the most recent Republican National Convention.
“A lot of my professional playing is transferable to what I do at Lafayette,” says Brader, who received his degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he later directed that school’s jazz ensemble. “I tell the jazz band about something that happened on a gig I played that week that can help them with their performance.”
In July 1998, Brader performed at several major international jazz festivals on the 23-day tour of eight European countries as a member of the Phil Woods Big Band. Brader performed as lead trumpet on the CD Live at Carnegie Hall – The 50th Anniversary Concert by Patti Page, which won the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance. He performed as lead trumpet and soloist in the nationally broadcast PBS TV special “Songs of Johnny Mercer” with Johnny Mathis and Melissa Manchester.
Brader’s ability to share his own performance excellence has brought individual achievement for students taking private lessons. The Pennsylvania All-State Jazz Band, which fields only four or five trumpet players, typically includes two of his students. Several years ago, Brader’s students took all four trumpet positions. His students also have taken the lead trumpet position in successive years in the All-State East Jazz Band, which draws from a 12-state area.
Lafayette’s jazz ensemble is led by noted trumpet player and conducter Ken Brader, who has played lead trumpet with Chuck Mangione, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and other top jazz performers.