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Nashville Jazz Orchestra

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NASHVILLE JAZZ ORCHESTRA (Pictured above, in concert at B.B. King's in Nashville, with guest vocalist, Annie Sellick)

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A Conversation with Jim Williamson, Founder and Director of the Nashville Jazz Orchestra

By Courtenay Shipley

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jim Williamson of the Nashville Jazz Orchestra and a fixture of Nashville this week. We talked about the upcoming concert with Kirk Whalum at Blair School of Music on the 17th and about the NJO's mission for bringing more big band music to the community.

Jim, what's not in your formal bio? Give us a snapshot of you and how you found your way to jazz.

Well, my dad was a band director and I played the trumpet from as far back as I remember ��" I loved the sound so much I would sneak off to play the horn as a child. So when I had a chance to ask my parents for a record, my first one was Miles Davis' 'Round About Midnight.

I grew up in Harriman, TN and went to UT but there was no jazz department at that time. There was The Jazz Giants, teachers and professional in the area, which I played in, but no formalized jazz education. I went into the Air force for awhile and played in a jazz band there. After I came back, I got a job playing with the Knoxville Symphony and finished undergrad studying legit trumpet. I didn't really play any jazz during that time in part because my teacher discouraged it. On into graduate school (also at UT), while I was working on my recital, I thought it might be nice to put some jazz tunes on the program. Luckily my teacher allowed me to do it.

And now we call you responsible for a fantastic group ��" the Nashville Jazz Orchestra. Tell our readers about the group just in case they weren't able to catch you at BB Kings a few years back or at any of the numerous concerts you've put on around town.

The Nashville Jazz Orchestra's mission statement is to preserve, advance, and promote big band jazz appreciation to our children and our communities through live performance, workshops, and quality recordings .

In the last 12 months, we've worked to preserve it by putting on the Frank Sinatra Tribute concert at Blair and Ray Charles Tribute at the Franklin Jazz Festival. Coming up, we'll be playing with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra at the Schermerhorn on March 24th. We'll be performing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. The original score was written for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra which was basically a big band with a string section.

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Album Review

Nashville Jazz Orchestra: It Ain't Necesssarily So

Read "It Ain't Necesssarily So" reviewed by Jack Bowers


This splendid debut recording by the Nashville Jazz Orchestra is subtitled “New Twists on Gershwin Classics." No argument there, starting with the picturesque “Cuban Overture" from 1932 and encompassing a trio of songs from the folk opera Porgy and Bess, which premiered three years later. Also on the bill of fare are the standards “But Not for Me," “Someone to Watch Over Me," “How Long Has This Been Going On" and the ambitious “Prelude No. 2," deftly arranged by Jamie ...

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