Paul Smoker conducts the Cornell University Jazz Band and the Nazareth College Jazz Ensemble March 9, 2008

The concert will consist of Cornell Univ. Jazz Band (Paul Merrill,conductor) & Nazareth College Jazz Ens (Paul Smoker, conductor). Each big band will play by itself, and then we’ll come together to play this new piece that I am writing, called Two-Track Flux . The piece was commissioned by both Cornell Univ. and The Commission Project (Ned Corman, director), and is a result of discussions between Ned, Paul, and myself on ways to include more than one school on a project. (I have written for Cornell in the past: Extensions for wind & jazz ensembles last year, and the year before a piece for 4 combos, all Cornell ensembles.) This time we thought it might be interesting to try and combine two different schools as well as ensembles, and this will be the result. We may do a couple of tunes for small groups, as well, we’ll see how things progress.

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