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NEW YORK JAZZ REPERTORY ORCHESTRA - is a non-profit organization composed of professional musicians dedicated to the recreation of classic jazz performances as well as the creation of new works in jazz. Founded in 1997 by musical director Bill Warfield, the group made it's debut at the inaugural season of the Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University. The first concert, "Le Jazz Hot" with guest artist Dave Liebman, took place in October of that year in Baker Hall. Since then they have performed the music of Miles Davis ( Sketches of Spain and Porgy and Bess), Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. In July 2000, Warfield and Liebman reprised "Le Jazz Hot" with the Paris Conservatory Jazz Orchestra at the Pierre Boulez concert hall in Paris during the Villette Festival to a sold-out house and standing ovation.

REVIEWS

"Cowboy Jazz"

There was a telling moment between movements of trumpeter Bill Warfield's expansive, four-part serial piece, "Cowboy Jazz," based on a duet Warfield did several years ago with his Lehigh University colleague, pianist Eugene Albulescu. The Baker Hall audience at Lehigh's Zoellner Arts Center, who braved bitter temperatures and snow squalls on a Sunday afternoon, weren't certain whether to clap between movements as they might at a jazz gig, or remain silent, as polite classical concertgoers should. About half decided to clap, but both choices were, in a sense, correct. Such was the ranging musical geography of the Warfield piece: modern classical music flirting with atonality, carefully constructed jazz and a topping of episodic Latin brass at the end. More importantly, Warfield offered a work that transcends the limits of category and genre without sounding overly academic or arcane. As the piece unfolded, there were multiple points of entry for the audience to consider. Albulescu's powerful piano work was center stage. But the pianist didn't dominate the afternoon, and this was clearly Warfield's intent, too. The pianist's solo interlude linking the first and second movements featured the player, but at other times during the piece, while Albulescu executed an especially intricate passage, the nine-piece jazz ensemble, which included a second pianist, created cascading layers of sound that soared above Albulescu's complex line. The piece had a pleasant symmetry as well. It opened with a series of compact, precise note clusters played in numerically based intervals, but evolved into something with slightly more flowing lines and more musical interplay. Eventually, in a subtle roundabout way, it approached the opening passage's sequences. Four slightly more conventional jazz tunes from Warfield's recent recording, "Sambra," which featured jazz faculty from Lehigh's music department, opened the program. Especially appealing was Tim Harrison's composition, "Allegany," which closed the first set.

Tim Blangger, The Morning Call February 17, 2008

"A Faceless Place"

...If you're getting the impression this ensemble has a big, powerful, contemporary sound, you're right. Bill Warfield's band can't wait to hit you right between the eyes and ears and the power doesn't shut down until the final bar of the final track. But the best part is it's not without purpose. There is passion in this music as well, more than enough for two albums...(on)"The Three Marias" Warfield's arrangement highlights the entire band as it deftly moves in and out of different moods. Excellent dynamics and rhythmic sparks help make this arrangement work as a fresh take on a memorable tune..."A Faceless Place" creates the impression of life in the digital age as it moves at an often deafening, always breakneck pace...Bill Warfield's passionate commitment to this contemporary style is balanced by a keen sense of history, an important element of any visionary work.

Steve Jankowski, Jazz Improv Magazine, May, 2006

"Pablos Story"

.... The most impressionistic piece of all, Liebman's "Pablo's Story," arranged by trumpeter Bill Warfield, unfolded like a flamenco suite or folk tale. Juris began it, his nylon-string acoustic guitar evoking a Spanish countryside before taking on a flamenco rhythm. The horns, in fanfares and rising crescendos, conjured up scenes of dancing and bullfights, Liebman riding on top with swirling, skittering soprano sax runs. After a heraldic climax, soprano sax cascaded down over a coda of decrescendos, the horns fading as flamenco guitar arose again in the background. ....

George Kanzler, Newark Star Ledger, September, 2002

"Le Jazz Hot"

Composer/arranger Bill Warfield and I collaborated on a project last year called "Le Jazz Hot" based around celebrating the Parisian scene of the 1920s when the composers of "Les Six" were active. With Bill's regular band, we performed the suite last year several times and recorded it. In February we played it live at the Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, an exciting event for such a small and intimate room. It is very dramatic music with reworkings of Darius Milhaud's "Creation du Monde" and a piano piece by Poulenc, and extensive arrangement of my composition for Picasso called "Pablo's Story" and several arrangements for different instrumentations of Bechet's "La Petite Fleur". We will be doing the European premiere of this piece in Paris during the [11th annual meeting] of the International Association of Schools of Jazz.

Dave Liebman, INTERVALS, Spring 2000