MARK MASTERS ENSEMBLE
Genres: Progressive Big Band, Big Band • United States

Back in 1999, The American Jazz Institute embarked on a journey that has somehow lasted and continues to thrive at a small private college located in Southern California. The jazz program at Claremont McKenna College has three components. The first of which is a series of concerts that brings prominent jazz artists to the campus. Second, these artists - while they are on campus - sit with students (and me) to participate in our oral history program which documents their life story and is housed in the research library on campus. And last but not least, the artist(s) spends time with the jazz history class and engages students during a question-and-answer session. The most remarkable thing to come out of this is the fact that there is now another performance venue for jazz musicians in Southern California and since the concerts are free we are able to program music that which read more...