Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra

The Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra
Clarence Acox and Michael Brockman,
Artistic Directors

About the SRJO

The Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra (SRJO) is a 16-piece all-star big band founded in 1995. It is made up of the most prominent jazz soloists and band leaders in the greater Seattle area, co-directed by drummer Clarence Acox, nationally recognized director of bands at Seattle’s Garfield High School, and saxophonist/ arranger Michael Brockman, long-time faculty member at the University of Washington School of Music. The band includes trumpeters Jay Thomas and Thomas Marriott, bassist Phil Sparks, saxophonists Bill Ramsay, Hadley Caliman, Travis Ranney and Mark Taylor, and trombonists Scott Brown, David Marriott, Bill Anthony, and Dan Marcus, pianist Randy Halberstadt, and more.

In past years, the SRJO has received Golden Ear awards from Earshot Jazz for "Best Acoustic Jazz Group" and "Concert of the Year" as well as two "Starlight Awards" from the Kirkland Performance Center. The band's recent concerts featuring guest composers Jimmy Heath and Gerald Wilson were named in the "Best Concerts of 2006" and "Best Concerts of 2005" by the Seattle Times. Several members of the all-star group have been named to the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame, with tenor saxophonist Hadley Caliman most recently inducted at the 2005 Golden Ear Awards. The band's first compact disc "SRJO Live" is now in its second pressing after receiving wide acclaim on a national scale, and is one of the best selling titles at local record outlets. Their newest CD, "Sacred Music of Duke Ellington" featuring Dee Daniels was released in 2006, is now also in its second pressing, and was named in "Best Recordings of 2006" by AudiophileAudition.com. It has been featured widely on nation-wide broadcasts, and is included in the "best picks" of PRI's Jazz After Hours radio show with Jim Wilke. For more information about the SRJO, visit www.srjo.org.

The SRJO is currently in its 13th concert season, which features 16 concerts and educational outreach activities. The SRJO’s extensive and growing repertoire is drawn from the 100-year history of jazz, from turn-of-the-20th century ragtime to turn-of-the-21st century avant-garde. This includes works by America’s most famous jazz composers, among them Fletcher Henderson, Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan, Thad Jones, and of course, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. In addition, the SRJO’s repertoire grows each year as the ensemble adds previously unpublished works to its library. Recovering jazz classics for performance by the ensemble is accomplished by co-director Michael Brockman, our region’s outstanding practitioner of the art of transcribing lost-to-print composition and arrangement, note for note, from vintage recordings. The band also fosters the creation of new works for big band by commissioning compositions by living jazz composers.

A Great History

The SRJO has brought internationally known guest soloists to join in its concerts, including trumpeters Clark Terry and Arturo Sandoval, saxophonists Benny Golson, James Moody, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Frank Wess and Kenny Hing, trombonist Slide Hampton, bassist Buddy Catlett, composer Gerald Wilson, and singers Marlena Shaw, Ernie Andrews, Dee Daniels and Ernestine Anderson. The orchestra has also commissioned works and premiered them in concert with composers Jimmy Heath, William O. Smith, and Jovino Santos Neto. In 2001, Quincy Jones conducted the SRJO at the Seattle Opera House in a performance of works he wrote for the Basie band and his own groups. The SRJO has played tribute concerts to Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Billy Strayhorn, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Count Basie, Stan Kenton, Oliver Nelson, Woody Herman, Thelonious Monk, and many other titans of the music.

Jazz4Kids and SRJO Jazz Scholars

The SRJO is dedicated to keeping the art of jazz thriving in the Northwest. The organization undertakes many educational outreach activities during its concert year, including jazz workshops and clinics for local school musicians, in-school visits by SRJO artists, free instruments (and lessons with an SRJO artist) for kids in under-served band programs, and the highly popular Jazz4Kids concerts that are presented free-of-charge to all school age children and youth, plus any parent, teacher, or youth group leader accompanying them.
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