THE ROSE ART MUSEUM OF BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY TO PRESENT: mingus! a jazz happening at the rose Saturday, May 15, 2004

May 4, 2004--In 1957 Brandeis University commissioned jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus to compose a piece for the Brandeis Festival of the Arts. To commemorate that occasion, The Rose Art Museum of Brandeis University will present mingus, a jazz happening at the rose on Saturday, May 15, beginning at 7:00 pm. Hosted by noted jazz writer Gene Santoro (author of Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus) and WGBH FM's Steve Schwartz, with remarks and stories by Celia Mingus Zaentz, the evening will include a private VIP cocktail soirée at 6:00 pm followed by a concert at 7:00 pm at Slosberg Auditorium. The musical program will feature Mingus's big band compositions as performed by The Brandeis Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Artist-In-Residence Bob Nieske, with special guest alto saxophonist and former Mingus band member John Handy.

The concert at Slosberg will be followed at 8:00 pm by a lavish New Orleans buffet-style fête at the Rose Art Museum with live music provided by ten acoustic bassists improvising in various corners of the Museum, in tribute to the great Charles Mingus, while surrounded by the works of graffiti artist Barry McGee! The spotlighted improvising bassists will include Thomas Hebb, Marty Ballou, Bruce Gertz, John Turner, John Lockwood, Ron Mahti, John Voight, Dave Clark, Bob Nieske, and Keala Kaumeheiwa.

The Rose Art Museum and the Slosberg Auditorium are located on the Brandeis University campus at 415 South Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. Both are wheelchair accessible and the campus can be reached by public transportation. For directions go to: http://www.brandeis.edu.

Tickets at $125.00 (includes Private VIP Cocktail Soirée at 6:00 pm, concert, food & drinks) and $75.00 (7:00 pm concert and 8:00 pm food & drinks) can be purchased by calling: 781-736-3434 (major credit cards accepted). Experience and support Brandeis's commitment to the creative and forward-thinking artistic community while having a terrific time at this dynamic event!

About Charles Mingus: Irascible, demanding, bullying, and probably a genius, Charles Mingus cut himself a uniquely iconoclastic path through jazz in the middle of the 20th century, creating a legacy that became universally lauded only after he was no longer around to bug people. As a bassist, he knew few peers, blessed with a powerful tone and pulsating sense of rhythm, capable of elevating the instrument into the front line of a band. But had he been just a string player, few would know his name today. Rather, he was the greatest bass-playing leader/composer jazz has ever known, one who always kept his ears and fingers on the pulse, spirit, spontaneity, and ferocious expressive power of jazz. --Richard Ginell, AllMusicGuide.com.

Brandeis History: Since its founding in 1948, Brandeis University has had a remarkable reputation for embracing contemporary artists and thinkers. It was in that spirit that Charles Mingus's composition "Revelations" was commissioned by and performed at the 4th Brandeis Festival of the Arts, along with works by Gunther Schuller, George Russell, Milton Babbitt, Jimmy Guiffre and Harold Shapiro in 1957. This landmark event marked the first time that a university had commissioned a program of jazz works alongside works of "classical" composers and generated some controversy as to the value of jazz in contrast to the more widely accepted classical music. The compositions were performed by a "Who's Who" of jazz legends including Hal McKusick, John Laporta, Art Farmer, Robert DiDomenica, Bill Evans, Teddy Charles, Barry Galbraith, and others and the composers also participated in a symposium chaired by Reverend Norman O'Connor and moderated by jazz authority Nat Hentoff.

Celia Mingus Zaentz, who accompanied Charles Mingus to the 1957 Brandeis Arts Festival, will recall her experiences at the festival and with Mingus at the May 15 happening at the Rose. Celia was Mingus's second wife, and together they later founded Debut Records along with drummer Max Roach and others. Debut Records was a valiant attempt by jazz musicians to control their own music. Caught in the transition from 78-RPM singles to 10-inch LPs, then 12-inch LPs, and plagued by distribution nightmares, the company lasted only five years, yet managed to record a remarkable body of often boldly experimental music, including albums by Mingus, Miles Davis, Paul Bley, Thad Jones, Oscar Pettiford, Bud Powell, and a "dream" quintet made up of Mingus, Roach, Powell, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker. Charles and Celia Mingus separated in 1958, and she soon settled in San Francisco, where she went to work for (and eventually married) Saul Zaentz of Fantasy Records, which acquired the small-but-mighty Debut catalog. Through Celizan Productions, Celia Zaentz has produced documentaries on the lives of several jazz giants, including "The Howlin' Wolf Story," "The Legend of Teddy Edwards," "Horace Parlan by Horace Parlan," and "Louis Prima: The Wildest."

Special Guest Artist: saxophonist John Handy was born in Dallas and moved to Oakland in 1948. As a teenager, he played around the San Francisco Bay Area in blues bands led by Roy Hawkins, Pee Wee Crayton, Little Willie Littlefield, Jimmy McCracklin, Wild Willie Moore, and Dell Graham, and jazz artists such as Gerald Wilson, Teddy Edwards, and Frank Morgan. He made his recording debut in 1953 with Lowell Pulson. Although his musical approach changed after he heard Charlie Parker at San Francisco's Say When Club, the influence of such earlier saxophone favorites as Johnny Hodges, Louis Jordan, and Earl Bostic remained strong and contributed greatly to the development of his unique, searing style. Indeed, Handy is one of the few musicians who has come close to rivaling Bostic's awesome command of the instrument's upper registers.

Handy secured a B.A. in Music from San Francisco State University, and has served as a music educator since 1968, teaching history and performance at a number of colleges, universities and special clinics - Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley and San Francisco State University among them.

After a stint in the Army, Handy headed for New York in 1958 and was soon hired by bassist Charles Mingus, who found the saxophonist's highly emotive style ideally suited to his alternately sweet and volatile music. Although Handy was a member of Mingus's band for less than a year, the association brought him a contract with Roulette Records. Because his distinctive approach didn't fit into either the prevailing East Coast or West Coast schools of the period, the company labeled Handy's music "No Coast Jazz."

Handy's album and CD covers include record labels such as Columbia, ABC Impulse, Warner Brothers, Milestone, Roulette, Boulevard, Quartet (Harbor), MPS Records and many others. His most recent recordings are John Handy Live at Yoshi's and John Handy's Musical Dreamland (available only on Boulevard Records, Stuttgart, Germany), Centerpiece, and Excursion in Blue. Some of his earlier works have been reissued on CD - John Handy: Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival, The Second John Handy Album, New View, and Projections.

Bob Nieske was appointed Jazz Artist-In-Residence at Brandeis University in 1997. Nieske was the bassist with the Jimmy Giuffre 4 for 12 years and recorded three albums with Giuffre on Soul Note Records. Nieske has also recorded with Alan Dawson, Dave Grisman, Bucky Pizzarelli, Jay Geils, Stephane Grappelli, George Russell and the Living Time Orchestra, Bevan Manson, Duke Robillard, Gerry Beaudoin, The Either Orchestra, and Herb Pomeroy. In addition, he has performed with Charlie Byrd, Eartha Kitt, Attila Zoller, Ronnie Earl, Tiger Okoshi, Dakota Stayton, John Blake, Jackie and Roy, Richie Cole, and Larry Coryell. Nieske also directed a quintet called Bob Nieske's Wolf Soup and currently leads a trio called the Bob Nieske 3.

Gene Santoro is a columnist at The Nation and Chamber Music; his newest book is Highway 61 Revisited: The Tangled Roots of American Jazz, Blues, Rock,and Country Music. Author of a widely praised biography (Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus) and two essay collections (Dancing In Your Head and Stir It Up), he has published articles and essays in The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Village Voice, New York, Rolling Stone, Spin, People, Double Take, 7 Days, and down beat.

The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University
The Rose Art Museum, founded in 1961, houses an outstanding collection of modern and contemporary art, widely recognized as the finest collection of 20th century art in New England. With major works by the leading artists throughout the century, the collections focus on post WWII American art including de Kooning, Johns, Rauschenberg, Warhol, Mangold, and Taaffe. Portions of the collection are always on display at The Rose.

Brandeis University
Brandeis is the youngest private research university in the United States and the only nonsectarian university in the nation founded by members of the American Jewish community. Named for the late Louis Dembitz Brandeis, the distinguished associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Brandeis was founded in 1948.

Brandeis combines the faculty and facilities of a world-class research university with the intimacy and dedication to teaching of a small liberal arts college. It is consistently ranked among the country's top research institutions.

A culturally diverse student body is drawn from all 50 states and more than 100 countries. Total enrollment is approximately 4,800.




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