State of Jazz Composition Features Darcy James Argue, Terence Blanchard, Billy Childs

Berklee’s State of Jazz Composition Symposium and Concert Series returns with four days of panels, workshops, and performances, April 19-22. 

March 28, 2016

Berklee’s State of Jazz Composition Symposium and Concert Series, which brings artists together to assess the current moment in jazz’s ongoing evolution and rethink its role in modern culture, returns with four days of panels, workshops, and performances, April 19-22. Most events are free and open to the public.

Featured panelists and performers include Terence Blanchard, the five-time Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter/composer and Berklee visiting scholar; Darcy James Argue, the acclaimed Secret Society bandleader and two-time Grammy and Juno award nominee; Billy Childs, a four-time Grammy-winning pianist; Samuel Torres, an electrifying Colombian conguero and composer; John Clayton, a Grammy-winning bassist; Andy Milne, a pianist, composer, and educator who was at the center of the influential M-BASE collective; and others.

This year’s theme will focus on jazz’s tradition of cultural commentary. “Without saying a word, music can speak volumes to the questions and challenges of society,” explains Eric Gould, the event’s founder and chair of Berklee’s Harmony and Jazz Composition Department. “Terence Blanchard’s newest recording, Breathless, uses music to underscore police brutality victim Eric Garner’s last words. Samuel Torres's Forced Displacement combines Afro-Latin folk, jazz, and classical music to comment on the strife in his Colombian homeland, while Darcy James Argue comments on modernism through his recontextualization of the big band.”

The event will also spotlight connections between jazz and technology. A concert on Thursday, April 21, Wired for Jazz: an Exploration of Jazz and Electronics, will pair Blanchard and Neil Leonard, a saxophonist and Berklee professor who has pioneered the use of electronics and multimedia in jazz improvisation. The duo will perform with students from Berklee’s Electronic Production and Design and Jazz Composition departments.

Another highlight takes place Friday, April 22, when the Berklee Jazz Composition Orchestra presents works by Blanchard, Torres, and Gould, with Blanchard and Torres performing with the ensemble on their respective compositions.

The Wired for Jazz and Jazz Composition Orchestra concerts take place at 8:00 p.m., at the Berklee Performance Center, located at 136 Massachusetts Avenue, in Boston. Tickets are $8 in advance/$12 day of show and are available at berklee.edu/events or by calling 617-747-2261. All other events on the schedule are free.

View the registration and full schedule at berklee.edu/jazzcompositionsymposium.