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Bob Lark

Bob Lark is a trumpet and flugelhorn player whose performances are especially notable for his lyrical style and fine tone. His harmonically oriented improvisations shift between aggressive and cool playng. In speaking of Lark, jazz icon Clark Terry says, "He's a very good trumpet player, a very good musician. He's paid his dues.

Recently released on the Jazzed Media label is the CD recording Reunion, by Bob Lark and his Alumni Big Band. The Bob Lark/Phil Woods Quintet, which includes prominent jazz artists Jim McNeely, Steve Gilmore and Bill Goodwin, has released three CD's on the Jazzed Media label.

Bob's playing and writing are also featured on the compact disc recordings Until You (2003) and First Steps (1997) on the Hallway Records label. Bob Lark serves as the Chair of Jazz Studies at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, where he directs the university Jazz Ensemble, teaches jazz trumpet and courses in jazz pedagogy and jazz style. Under his direction, the DePaul University Jazz Ensemble has produced several Outstanding Performance Awards from Down Beat magazine, and has recorded albums with legendary jazz artists Clark Terry, Louie Bellson, Bob Brookmeyer, Tom Harrell, Jim McNeely, Frank Wess, Slide Hampton, Bobby Shew, Phil Woods and Chicago Symphony Orchestra members John Bruce Yeh and Charles Vernon.

Bob is an active clinician and guest conductor, and is the past-president of the Illinois Unit of the IAJE, has chaired the International Trumpet Guild jazz improvisation competition, served as the host for the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition, and throughout the 1990's directed the Midwest GRAMMY High School Jazz Band. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in performance from the University of North Texas, having earlier earned a Master's degree from that school and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from The Ohio State University.

"Bob Lark is an exclusive Yamaha performing artist."

Awards

2010 DownBeat Magazine awarded Bob Lark with an award for his years of achievement in Jazz Education.

Gear

YAMAHA trumpets and flugelhorns


Tags

1
Album Review

Bob Lark-Phil Woods Quintet: Thick As Thieves

Read "Thick As Thieves" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Remember the good old days when jazz groups came out swinging and took no prisoners until the battle had been won? Well, why settle for memories when you can lay your cares aside for an hour or so and groove to Thick as Thieves, the third and last album by the unrivaled and always-aggressive Bob Lark / Phil Woods Quintet, recorded, as were the first two, in concert at Joe Segal's venerable Jazz Showcase in Chicago. This is as close ...

11
Album Review

Bob Lark and His Alumni Big Band: Sweet Return

Read "Sweet Return" reviewed by Jack Bowers


As was the case two years ago (2012) with its first album, Reunion, trumpeter Bob Lark's Alumni Big Band on Sweet Return is comprised of musicians he has supervised in various groups during a long and eminent career that embodies more than twenty years as director of Jazz Studies at DePaul University in Chicago. Even so, this isn't quite the same band as before; while more than a dozen sidemen from Reunion have returned to lend a hand, there's a ...

15
Album Review

Bob Lark and his Alumni Big Band: Sweet Return

Read "Sweet Return" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Trumpeter/educator and big band leader Bob Lark, reunites his Alumni Big Band after their critically acclaimed debut Reunion (Jazzed Media 2012), produced some of the best Jazz orchestrations in the business. Sweet Return is the group's encore performance, their return engagement, their audacious follow up and another masterful stroke by leader Lark. This Alumni band is comprised of eighteen players that the trumpeter has directed throughout his nearly thirty years as a band leader and draws on their talents for ...

67
Album Review

Bob Lark and his Alumni Big Band: Reunion

Read "Reunion" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Veteran jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn master Dr. Bob Lark has directed many big bands in more than 20 years as Director of Jazz Studies at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. With Reunion, Lark reunites 22 musicians from those bands as his Alumni Big Band, debuting the group on a monster collection of powerful orchestrations. While the teacher provides the eleven original pieces, the class assignment was to pen the arrangements, as six of the alumni do so well here.

228
Album Review

Bob Lark and Friends: Cathy's Song

Read "Cathy's Song" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Trumpeter Bob Lark's “friends," on his fourth album for Jazzed Media Records, include alto saxophonist Phil Woods (two tracks), pianist Jim McNeely and bassist Rufus Reid (four apiece). There's a six-member string section on three numbers, on which Lark's flugelhorn is the only horn, while the selections with McNeely and Reid are scored for trio with Lark on flugel for three, and muted trumpet on “Green Dolphin Street," a conspicuous salute to Miles Davis on which Lark briefly bends the ...

260
Album Review

The Bob Lark / Phil Woods Quintet: Live at the Jazz Showcase

Read "Live at the Jazz Showcase" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The order of names on this superb in-concert CD could have gone either way. On the one hand, four-fifths of the quintet is actually the Phil Woods Quartet; on the other, trumpeter Bob Lark, who shares the front line for a second time with alto saxophonist Woods (their 2006 collaboration for Jazzed Media was In Her Eyes), wrote the first three of the album's seven selections, which clearly gives him a leg up. Maybe in the end they flipped a ...

339
Album Review

The Bob Lark/Phil Woods Quintet: Live at the Jazz Showcase

Read "Live at the Jazz Showcase" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Trumpeter and educator Dr. Bob Lark, who directs the DePaul University Jazz ensemble, has had a long musical association with the great alto saxophone master Phil Woods. This resulted in several performances and recordings with both the University Ensemble and their own working quintet. In May of 2006, Woods came to Chicago to celebrate the release of the first Bob Lark/Phil Woods Quintet album In Her Eyes (Jazzed Media 2006). Woods also completed a weekend gig at Chicago's world famous ...

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1

Recording

Bob Lark and Phil Woods

Bob Lark and Phil Woods

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

By my count, trumpeter and flugelhornist Bob Lark and alto saxophonist Phil Woods have recorded six albums together prior to Woods' death in 2015. Their final collaboration, Thick as Thieves, recorded in 2009 at Chicago's Jazz Showcase, was just released. It's a solid swinger, despite my initial trepidation over the predictable song choices. What keeps the album from being predictable is the quintet's ability to breathe fresh fire into bop standards you may not feel you need to hear again. ...

66

Recording

Jazzed Media releases 50th CD: Bob Lark & Friends "Cathy's Song"

Jazzed Media releases 50th CD: Bob Lark & Friends "Cathy's Song"

Source: Graham Carter

Jazzed Media is pleased to announce the release of their 50th CD on September 14, 2010- Bob Lark and Friends Cathy's Song. This is the fourth CD release by jazz trumpeter Lark on the Jazzed Media label. Previous releases include The Bob Lark/Phil Woods Quintet In Her Eyes and The Bob Lark/Phil Woods Quintet Live at the Jazz Showcase. Bob Lark serves as Chair of the Jazz Studies department at DePaul University. Under his direction the DePaul University Jazz Ensemble ...

Primary Instrument

Trumpet

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Credentials/Background

Professor; Director of Jazz Studies at DePaul University, Chicago

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Thick As Thieves

Jazzed Media
2017

buy

Sweet Return

Jazzed Media
2014

buy

Reunion

Jazzed Media
2012

buy

Cathy's Song

Jazzed Media
2010

buy

Live at the Jazz...

Jazzed Media
2009

buy

Suggestions

Jazzed Media
2007

buy

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