This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
The Grammy Award-winning Vanguard Jazz Orchestra will perform Friday, Sept. 11 in the Williams Center for the Arts. This will be the first performance in this year’s Jazz Masters series.
Tickets are free for Lafayette students, $6 for students at LVAIC schools, $4 for faculty and staff, and $20 for the public. They can be obtained by calling the Williams Center box office at (610) 330-5009.
Other performances in the 2009-10 Jazz Masters series will be the Overtone Quartet, featuring Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Jason Moran, and Eric Harland, Oct. 8, $22; Paquito D’Rivera, Feb. 13, $20; and Anat Cohen, March, $18. A $70 subscription package for the four events, a savings of 13 percent off the single ticket price, is available through Sept. 11.
Originally formed as the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra in 1966, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, as it is currently known, has performed with different line-ups for more than four decades. The group began by being booked for three Monday night shows at the famous Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City. The performances turned into a permanent gig for the band, which still performs at the club most Monday nights throughout the year.
During its more than 40-year existence, the orchestra has played at locations across the U.S. and around the globe, and has produced more than 30 albums. The group received Grammy Awards for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance in 2009 and Best Jazz Instrumental Performance – Big Band in 1978 and was nominated for six other Grammy Awards.
This performance is part of the 23rd annual Easton Jazz Festival, presented in partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Easton.
The 2009–2010 Performance Series at Lafayette College is supported in part by gifts from Friends of the Williams Center for the Arts; by provisions of the Josephine Chidsey Williams Endowment, the J. Mahlon and Grace Buck Fund, the Croasdale Fund, the Class of ’73 Fund, the Alan and Wendy Pesky Artist-in-Residence Program, the James Bradley Fund, and the Ed Brunswick Jazz Fund; and by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Dexter and Dorothy Baker Foundation, and New England Foundation for the Arts. Special thanks to the F.M. Kirby Foundation for its extraordinary support.