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The Howard University Jazz Ensemble
The Howard University Jazz Ensemble: HUJE 2003
by Jack Bowers
The Howard University Jazz Enemble has been recording once every year almost since its inception in 1975, invariably producing albums that are sharp and persuasive, and HUJE 2003 is certainly no exception. While the personnel changes from season to season, as it does in any university-level band, the one constant is director Fred Irby III, who founded the ensemble in 1975 and remains at the helm nearly thirty years onward. And as band’s proficiency remains exceptionally high from year to ...
read moreThe Howard University Jazz Ensemble: HUJE '02
by Jack Bowers
For more than two decades the Howard University Jazz Ensemble has affirmed its prowess with an annual recording, but HUJE ’02 is far more earnest and impassioned than the enterprises that preceded it. Recorded a little more than seven months after the world-shaking events of September 11, ’01, the album opens with an homage to the victims and survivors of those horrendous assaults in the form of two poems by Frederick C. Tillis, “Gotham City: 9/11” and “An International Rage,” ...
read moreThe Howard University Jazz Ensemble: HUJE 2001
by Jack Bowers
Another year, another marvelous CD by the Howard University Jazz Ensemble, continuing a tradition that began in 1976, one year after the ensemble was established by Fred Irby III who remains its director. As usual, Irby draws inspiration from a broad variety of sources with compositions by Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter and Billy Strayhorn rubbing shoulders with others by Cole Porter, Victor Young, Jimmy Van Heusen, Al Jarreau, Nzinga Howard and the Rev. James Cleveland. Carrying forward a more recent ...
read moreThe Howard University Jazz Ensemble: HUJE 2000
by Jack Bowers
Another year, another album by Washington, DC’s splendid Howard University Jazz Ensemble, which has been making these annual pilgrimages to the recording studio for more than two decades. It’s a wonderful idea, one that not only gives these young musicians something to look forward to but keeps them on their toes and eager to excel as they prepare for the big day. As a result, director Fred Irby III’s ensemble never fails to deliver a stellar performance. HUJE 2000 opens ...
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The Howard University Jazz Ensemble
