Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble (PJCE) kicks off the 2019-2020 mainstage season, fusing its eight-piece horn section with the iconic Portland band Blue Cranes for a collaborative concert featuring new arrangements by Reed Wallsmith, Joe Cunningham, Kyleen King, and Quinn Walker (who is an alumnus of PJCE’s Grasshoppers Young Composers mentorship program) of Blue Cranes compositions. Blue Cranes will both play on their own and with the PJCE Horns in five original arrangements for two sets at the Holocene (1001 SE Morrison) on Thursday, November 21 at 8pm. Tickets and information at pjce.org/event/cranes.
Among Portland jazz bands, none has a greater sense of itself than Blue Cranes. Where most jazz bands rely on shifting groupings of players, Blue Cranes have forged an ensemble sound, emphasizing the collective over the individual. Their Venn diagram of influences includes indie rock, free improvisation, and jazz, putting at its center "Rich melodies and dynamic interplay,” as the Los Angeles Times put it. Their tight-knit synergistic approach, dramatic musical vision, and compositional originality make them a perfect companion for PJCE, a rapidly growing organization committed to building an inclusive, creative, and verdant present and future around jazz in Portland.
Concert details:
Thursday, November 21 | 8 pm concert, 7 pm doors.
Holocene | 1001 SE Morrison St, Portland, OR 97214 | (503) 239-7639
Tickets on sale at pjce.org/event/cranes
Advanced tickets: $25 seated, $20 Senior seated, $10 Standing, $5 Arts for All.
Day of Show tickets: $30 seated, $25 Senior seated, $15 Standing, $5 Arts for All.
Of the 19-20 season, Executive Director Douglas Detrick says, “After our beginnings ten years ago as an informal workshop band, PJCE is now a rapidly growing arts organization, helping to lead Portland's local jazz scene towards a future as an indispensable part of the city's cultural fabric.
“In our 19-20 season, PJCE's unique, collaborative, and community-oriented concerts by our flagship 12-member jazz ensemble highlight a diverse range of composers and musical practices, revealing the richness of potential that exists here all the time, but needs the conditions that PJCE creates in order to thrive.
“We're helping small ensemble bandleaders in Portland find new audiences with the launch of the PJCE Records Presents concert series at The 1905, sponsored by Bow & Arrow Wines. And we're training the next generation of jazz composers through our Grasshoppers Young Composers Program, bringing students into mentorships with professional composers and giving them the opportunity to hear their music played by members of the PJCE.”
