TRUCK FIRE – Firefighters knock down a fire in a Ford Explorer truck in Arrowhead Trailer Park in the 1200 block of Sawmill Creek Road Saturday evening. One person received fire-related injuries and was taken to the hospital, Sitka Fire Department Chief Craig Warren said, and the truck was considered a total loss. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Warren said. The fire hall received the call about the fire at 5:33 p.m., and one fire engine with eight firefighters and an ambulance were dispatched, he said. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

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Jazz on Waterfront Salutes Duke Ellington

By SHANNON HAUGLAND

Sentinel Staff Writer

The annual Jazz on the Waterfront offers Sitka audiences a chance to hear a huge variety of jazz styles, arrangements and compositions performed by a top talent pool from around the U.S.

That will be the case again Saturday, with a program celebrating the work of band leader-arranger- composer Duke Ellington.

But Roger Schmidt, director of the Sitka Fine Arts Camp which sponsors the program, says the audience should expect the same variety of jazz as in past years.

“If you listen to Ellington’s work over 50 years, you can hear his huge range,” said Schmidt, who will play in the band’s trombone section. “He never stagnated creatively.”

Jazz on the Waterfront will be presented Saturday at Odess Theater on the SFAC campus. Doors open at 6:30, with dinner starting at 7 p.m. Music instructors from the camp will be joined by other top-flight musicians who come in from major cities to make up the band for the arts camp fundraiser. One is a veteran of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Schmidt said.

“It’ll be an all-Ellington show, celebrating the more than 50-year career of one of the most extraordinary if not the most important composers of the 20th century,” he said.

Ellington wrote more than 1,000 compositions for his band, and received 14 Grammy Awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He and his artistic partner, Billy Strayhorn, created some of the most important sounds influencing music today, Schmidt said.

“It was an incredible artistic partnership,” he said.

It wasn’t just the number of memorable tunes the band is known for, but the variety, that led Schmidt to an Ellington-based program.

“We have a huge library of Ellington charts,” said Schmidt, who always designs the program and invites the artists. “In the last few months I listened to them all.” 

The biggest challenge? Narrowing down the program into a tight evening of music.

“I just want to do them all. I want to play them all,” Schmidt said. “I didn’t realize that the entire night of Duke Ellington would be as varied and interesting a program as if we had five different composers.”

Brian Neal, a member of the SFAC music faculty, said Ellington’s compositions are known for their “balance, and blend and harmonies,” rather than high and loud solos, which sets them apart.

Neal will be featured as first trumpet in “Concerto for Cootie,” written in honor of one of Ellington’s star trumpeters, Cootie Williams. Neal’s wife, vocal teacher and performer Karen Neal, will perform “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got that Swing)” with the band, and their son Aidan, a counselor, teacher and performer, will sing “Take the A Train.”

The evening features jazz combos, vocal numbers and the big band, featuring 20 artists. Sitkan Andrew Hames is the third featured vocalist.

The dinner is a Tuscan feast by chef Ted Gassman from the fine arts camp. Paired wine will be available for sale.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for drinks and mingling, with dinner starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are available online and at Old Harbor Books for $75.

 

 

 

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20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Businesses using the Centennial Hall parking lot testified Tuesday against a proposal to charge them rent in addition to the $200 annual permit fee. City Administrator Hugh Bevan made the proposal in response to the Assembly’s direction to Centennial Hall manager Don Kluting to try to close the $340,000 gap between building revenues and operational costs.


50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand President William S. Paul Sr. will be special guest and speaker at the local ANB, Alaska Native Sisterhood Founders Day program Monday at the ANB Hall.

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