Jason Moran and the Bandwagon Pushes Boundaries of Jazz, Hip-Hop Genres

04-01-2008

 

Concert April 19 part of FSU’s CES Jazz Club Sponsored by Kauffman Music

 

CUMBERLAND, Md.—See how far the sounds of jazz, hip-hop and other art forms can take a musician’s imagination when Jason Moran and the Bandwagon performs at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 19, at Windsor Hall at Town Centre. The concert, part of Frostburg State University’s Cultural Events Series Jazz Club sponsored by Kauffman Music, is preceded by a free, educational jazz session with the ensemble at 4:30 p.m. in Windsor Hall, where audience members can learn more about the group’s sound prior to the later ticketed performance.

 

“Jazziz” magazine says Moran is “blessed with the courage of his own convictions—part scavenger and part seer, fluent in the cut/paste/splice devices of hip-hop production.” Moran takes musical inspiration from 20th-century painters like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Egon Shiele and Robert Rauschenberg, as well as jazz legends and musicians like Thelonious Monk, Jaki Byard, Muhal Richard Abrams and Andrew Hill. Moran has been commissioned by art institutions including the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, New York’s Dia Art Foundation and Jazz at Lincoln Center to create new music. He has recorded seven albums, created evening-length works and multi-media events and explored the world of video and performance art. He is composing an ongoing series of what he calls “Gangsterism” pieces. The Bandwagon, featuring Tarus Mateen on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums, has been hailed as “the best new rhythm section in jazz” by the “New York Times.”

 

Jason Moran and The Bandwagon promises to be a thought-provoking, innovative evening of musical fusions and explorations. To learn more about the group, visit www.jasonmoran.com.

 

Tickets to the evening concert are $22 for the general public, $20 for children 17 and younger, $20 for FSU faculty and staff and $5 for FSU students, and may be purchased by calling  the FSU Cultural Events Box Office at 301-687-3137 or toll free at 1-866-TIXX-CES, or visit online at ces.frostburg.edu.

 

The Jason Moran and the Bandwagon performance is made possible by a grant from Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation in partnership with National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program. The event is sponsored by Marc Dinola DDS.

 

The CES Jazz Club is supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council and is funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art; and in part by the Allegany Arts Council with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council.

 

The Cultural Events Series is supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive. The Cultural Event Series is supported in part by the FSU Foundation, Inc. and the FSU Annual Fund.

 

FSU is committed to making all of its programs, services and activities accessible to persons with disabilities. To request accommodations through the ADA Compliance Office, call 301-687-4102 or use a Voice Relay Operator at 1-800-735-2258.

 

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