LIVE PERFORMANCES:
Click the link above for a recording of Gary Keller performing John William’s Escapades with the Frost Symphony. This recording was made live in concert at UM Frost Gusman concert hall as part of our annual Festival Miami. A great piece, and a great job by the UM Symphony.
In 2009 I had the oportunity to perform the original Villa Lobos Fantasia for Soprano Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra with the UM Frost Symphony. This was one of very few performances of the piece exactly as written by Villa Lobos, meaning in the original key of G which is one step higher than the commonly performed published version. As of the time of this writing this may be the only time the work has been perfromed with orchestra in the US. My thanks to Dale Underwood for his research into this piece and for loaning me his copy of the original score and parts he obtained from the Villa Lobos Museum in Rio de Janiero, and to Thom Sleeper and the Frost Symphony Orchestra for the opportunity to debut the original version with orchestra.
For program notes and a review of the performance click here.
This performance of Ron’s iconic tune based on Giant Steps was recorded at the UMO Jazz Club in Helsinki Finland with the late Jarmo Savolainen, Ufe Krokfors, and Marku Onaskari
Frost Faculty Jazz Sextet:
(Frost Jazz Forum w/Mike Gerber):