Multiple generations of UNH Jazz aces, together on one stage. And eggs!
Chris Klaxton – trumpet
Bill Humphrey – alto sax
Mark LaForce – tenor sax
Mark Shilansky – piano
Joshua Davis – bass
Les Harris, Jr – drums
One of the sources of the burgeoning Arts scene in the Seacoast Area is the small but excellent music department at the University of New Hampshire. The jazz department, helmed for 43 years by master educator and multiple wind instrument master David Seiler, and for the past 10 years led by the similarly talented and sagacious Nate Jorgensen, has trained some of today’s finest jazz educators and performers. The members of this band, spanning various generations of UNH musicians, are just such a group of artists.”Inventive, modern mainstream jazz pianist” (Jon Garelick, Boston Globe) Mark Shilansky (Piano) provides melodic improvisation and infectious compositions on his own and to a host of jazz luminaries, as well as to the classroom, as a professor at Berklee College of Music and the University of New Hampshire. Shilansky’s six recordings as a leader include 2007’s “Join the Club,” a mostly Latin Jazz affair featuring David Bowie saxist Donny McCaslin, and 2013’s “Fugue Mill,” the eponymous debut of his Jazz/Bluegrass/Celtic project featuring violin phenom Sara Caswell, and he is featured on over 60 recordings as a keyboardist, vocalist, composer/arranger, or producer, and in performance as band member for such artists as the New York Voices, Luciana Souza, and David Thorne Scott. As an artist he embraces the history of the styles in which he works, while seeking connections between them as a way of expressing a personal musical vision, characterized by lush harmonies, the exploration of the line between composition and improvisation, and an ever-present sense of humor. His works have been recorded by Robin McKelle, Kim Nazarian, and by Jazz All-State and College ensembles around the world. http://www.markshilansky.comDr. Joshua Davis (bass), faculty at Penn State, has devoted his career to performance and composition, and to ensemble, groove, bass, composition, and improvisation coaching. He was an awarded leader of curriculum development at Berklee College of Music and plays bass with Love Salad, Vardan Ovsepian, Tim Miller, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra, the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, the Penns’ Woods Festival Orchestra and others.
Les Harris Jr.(drums) is a 1983 graduate of the Berklee College of Music and is currently a faculty member at the University of New Hampshire, the University of Southern Maine, and Phillips Exeter Academy. Les is the son of retired Berklee College of Music professor and drummer Les Harris Sr. and he began playing the drums at a young age under the tutelage of his father. He was sitting in with jazz greats, Herb Pomeroy, Phil Wilson, John LaPorta, and Teddy Wilson by the time he was 14 and began playing professionally at 15 with Annie Bosteels’ trio. While attending Berklee, Les studied with Joe Hunt and Robert Kaufman and upon graduation studied with legendary drummer and educator Alan Dawson. From 1983-1996, Les was the drummer with the jazz vocal group, “The Ritz”, appearing on seven recordings and performing worldwide including engagements at The Sea Jazz Festival in Finland, The Blue Note Jazz Clubs in Tokyo, Fukuoka, Jakarta and NYC, The New Morning Club in Paris, The Village Vanguard and the Newport Jazz Festival in Japan. Les also toured with the Artie Shaw Orchestra,(under the direction of Dick Johnson), saxophonist Scott Hamilton, (including performances at The Subway Club in Cologne and the Montreal Jazz Festival), and worked with Diana Krall‘s trio in Boston throughout the early 90’s. Les was a longtime member of the Tommy Gallant Trio, the Paul Broadnax Trio and has played with some of the best known artists in jazz, including Clark Terry, Milt Jackson, Phil Woods, Art Farmer, Annie Ross, Hank Jones, Milt Hinton, Ray Brown, Marian McPartland, Jimmy Heath, James Moody, Mark Murphy, Sheila Jordan and Bobby Watson.
Marc LaForce (tenor sax) is a 1990 graduate of the University of New Hampshire where he studied saxophone with Stanley Hettinger and David Seiler, and jazz improvisation with NH Seacoast legend Charlie Jennison. Marc has played saxophone in the Seacoast area since the late 1980’s, performing with such legends as Clark Terry, Bob Mintzer, Peter Erskine, Ed Shaughnessy and Louis Bellson. Marc has also been an active member on the local scene for a long time performing with the Seacoast Big Band, State Street Rhythm and Blues and the Portland Symphony Pops. From 2007-12 he joined forces with Maine’s premiere big band, the Portland Jazz Orchestra where he performed with such jazz greats as the New York Voices, Wayne Bergeron (lead trumpet player for Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band) and Denis DiBlasio. Marc was a faculty member of the University of New Hampshire’s Summer Youth School (SYMS) from 1987-2017, teaching Saxophone, Jazz Band and Jazz Improvisation. Since 1991 he has been the director of music at Oyster River High School in Durham, NH where his jazz ensembles have collected numerous accolades over the years
New England native, Chris Klaxton has developed a reputation as a gifted multi-instrumentalist, an imaginative composer, and an effective educator. With degrees in both classical and jazz trumpet, Klaxton has received a rich and varied education, studying with: Brian Lynch, Terence Blanchard, Jason Carder, Dr. Robert Stibler, Stephen Guerra, Whit Sidener, and Gary Lindsay. Perhaps the most significant musical relationship of Klaxton’s career is that with famed trumpeter, Clark Terry. Years of study, several years as valet / travel manager, and more than a decade of friendship with Clark, has left Chris saturated with lessons and anecdotes (musical and otherwise). Chris is proud to pass on a repertoire unique to Clark, a system of phrasing and rhythmic pronunciation, and a means of conveyance handed down directly from one of the founding fathers of the music. As a performer, Klaxton contributes trumpet, keyboards, guitar, and percussion to a variety of projects running the stylistic gamut. His self-led 8-piece ensemble has recorded two albums of original music (STARCODE and COLLAGE) which display Klaxton’s eclectic palette, a unique approach to the jazz tradition, and a fertile imagination.In 2015 Klaxton founded OURBIGBAND, a New England-based large ensemble dedicated to performing new music. The band’s 2016 collaboration with famed trumpeter / composer, Dave Douglas, featured a program of Douglas’ large ensemble music as well as a premiere of Self Portrait in Four Dimensions (dedicated to Charles Mingus). Equal to Klaxton’s passion for performing is a commitment to education. On faculty at Portsmouth Music and Arts Center (PMAC), and University of New Hampshire, Klaxton teaches jazz and classical trumpet, jazz piano, composition, theory, and coaches ensembles.
We are especially excited to have as our most special guest Dover, NH’s own, by way of Queens, NY, Mr. William “Bill” Humphrey (alto saxophone). Bill’s studies with Dave Seiler and Charlie Jennison at UNH and dozens of performances with jazz legends Clark Terry led him to grad work with Jimmy Heath at Queens College, and a creative career with his own William Humphrey Quartet, along with the group miXed Company, dedicated to gospel-infused soul jazz and which he co-leads with his wife, soprano Jessica Rechner.
