 | EARL MACDONALD: Echoes In The Night
"Jazz mainstreamers will find this music delightfully approachable... Avant garde lovers will delight in the subtle way these players stray again and again from dyed-in-the-wool generic sounds." (allaboutjazz.com)
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Earl MacDonald lives jazz, as a performer, composer and educator. Director of jazz studies at the University of Connecticut, the Winnipeg native earned a bachelor of music degree in jazz performance at McGill University and a master of music degree at Rutgers, where he apprenticed with Kenny Barron. He is dedicated to music education, participating as a clinician, guest conductor and teacher at summer camps, in addition to his teaching at the University of Connecticut. The UConn Chapter of the American Association of University Professors honored MacDonald with its 2006 Excellence Award for Teaching Innovation. From 1998 to 2000, MacDonald was the musical director, pianist, and arranger for the Maynard Ferguson Big Bop Nouveau Band. As music director he was responsible for programming and rehearsing this world-renowned ensemble. In 2002, MacDonald won the Sammy Nestico Award, for outstanding big band arranging. In 2007, after his second year of participation in the BMI Jazz Composers’ Workshop, he was selected as a finalist for the BMI / Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Award. He is a member of the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN). His compositions for 17-piece jazz ensemble are featured on the UConn Jazz CD, recorded by the University of Connecticut Jazz Ensemble. His sextet, the Earl MacDonald 6 won first place in the 2004 Hartford Advocate Reader’s Poll for "best jazz group." Their debut recording, Echoes In The Night has received critical acclaim.
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