HCC Jazz Festival
Guest artist Earl MacDonald "a magical, musical alchemist of hip hybrids"
The annual Holyoke Community College Jazz Festival returns for its 26th year on Friday, March 28, with pianist, composer and educator Earl MacDonald joining the Amherst Jazz Orchestra and members of the HCC jazz faculty for a big band concert.
The Friday show begins at 8 p.m. in HCC’s Leslie Phillips Theater in the Fine & Performing Arts building on the main HCC campus, 303 Homestead Ave.
The concert is free for HCC students, faculty and staff, and $10 for the general public.
Led by trombonist David Sporny, the Amherst Jazz Orchestra has been a mainstay of the HCC Jazz Festival since the first in 1998.
On Saturday, March 29, starting at 10 a.m., MacDonald and members of the HCC Jazz Festival faculty will lead improvisation clinics, demonstrations, and jam sessions for area high school and college musicians.
Saturday events are free and open to the public.
“I met Earl MacDonald at the Jazz in July program at UMass and worked with him there in the summertime,” said HCC jazz professor Bob Ferrier, the jazz festival organizer. “He's a great educator, great piano player, and on top of it, a great guy.”
MacDonald, the former musical director and pianist for trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, is director of Jazz Studies at the University of Connecticut and teaches annually at the Jazz in July program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
With seven albums released as a bandleader, MacDonald’s accolades include a 2022 Covenant Award from GMA Canada, the Connecticut Office of the Arts’ 2020 Artistic Excellence Award, the Sammy Nestico Award for big band arranging, and two “jazz album of the year” JUNO Award nominations.
The Winnipeg, Canada, native earned degrees from McGill University and Rutgers, where he apprenticed with jazz master Kenny Barron.
He has been called “a magical, musical alchemist of hip hybrids” by the Hartford Courant and “a major force in the world of jazz composition” by Dan Bilawsky on AllAboutJazz.com.
The Amherst Jazz Orchestra, led by trombonist David Sporny, has been a mainstay of the HCC Jazz Festival since the first one in 1998.
For more information, please contact Bob Ferrier at 413-552-2480 or rferrier@hcc.edu or Mary Starzyk at 413-552-2485 or mstarzyk@hcc.edu.
To learn more about guest artist Earl MacDonald, please go to: earlmacdonald.com
PHOTO: Earl MacDonald
