The Jazz Loft @ Southampton will close its summer concert series with a final performance on Thursday, Aug. 28, at the Avram Theater at Stony Brook Southampton.
The event, titled “Abstract Angularity,” begins at 7 p.m. and features a 17-piece jazz orchestra alongside a visual art presentation. The concert will take place at Stony Brook University’s Southampton campus, 39 Tuckahoe Road.
The performance is part of a series curated by Tom Manuel, president and founder of The Jazz Loft @ Southampton. Manuel is also a Stony Brook University Jazz Department Endowed Artist in Residence Fellow.
The featured artwork is by the late Vincent Quatroche, a Greenport native who opened the village’s first art gallery. Quatroche was associated with American painters Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner.
“It's not often that you hear a 17-piece big band, and The Jazz Loft Orchestra represents some of the greatest jazz artists on the New York City scene,” said Manuel, the orchestra’s music director. “So, just to feel the energy and the excitement and the sound and the power of an orchestra that size is really exciting.”
The program highlights a variety of composers and eras, he said.
“It’s a repertoire that's celebrating women composers and jazz, celebrating African American composers and jazz, celebrating performers and arrangers that really kind of pushed the envelope in the realm of popular music back in the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s. It’s a very cool program, and it's a really cool experience.”
Manuel said the orchestra includes musicians who have worked together for more than two decades. The group includes Grammy Award winners and performers with recording, film, and live performance credits.
“What’s really exciting is how the roster is representative of some of the top jazz artists on the New York scene today, some of which have won Grammy Awards and all sorts of honors and mentions,” he said.
The visual art component reflects the theme of abstract angularity, a concept Manuel said connects the styles of both the music and art on display.
“It's exciting to have an exhibit that is inspiring but also celebrates some of our local history... What's cool about the connection between the music and the art—what we called abstract angularity—is that musicians and especially jazz musicians are always exploring this angularity in music and how we could adorn what we're doing through our improvisation, and these characteristics of expression are really shared in art as well as in music, especially jazz,” Manuel said.
The concert series launched in April and has drawn consistent audiences, according to Manuel.
“This new collaboration has been growing incredibly,” he said. “We're almost sold-out capacity for theater, which is really amazing for a new series, and like I said we extended it now through the end of the year.”
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