Nazareth College Department of Music presents "Drums & Bugle II," featuring Paul Smoker and Phil Haynes

Duo to present new compositions and improvisations on trumpet and drums!

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Paul Smoker (trumpet) and Phil Haynes (drums) will present "Drums & Bugle II" at Nazareth College on September 22

ROCHESTER, NY (09/09/2013)(readMedia)-- The Nazareth College Department of Music is pleased to present the first concert of its 2013-2014 Faculty Recital Series, Drums & Bugle II, featuring Paul Smoker (trumpet) and Phil Haynes (percussion) on Sunday, September 22, 2013, at 3 p.m. in the Wilmot Recital Hall. The performance will feature original compositions and improvisations for trumpet and drum set from the duo's new CD, It Might Be Spring, and works from the Great American Songbook. This event is free and open to the public.

The duo will perform a second – and different – set at 8 p.m. at Bop Shop Records; there is a $10 requested donation for the Bop Shop concert.

Smoker, who directs the Jazz Studies program in the Nazareth College Department of Music, and Haynes have been performing together for 34 years, having met when Haynes was one of Smoker's students at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1979. Originally from Oregon, Haynes was "a masterful drummer," Smoker says. "I could tell right away that he had a lot of talent."

While at Coe, Smoker formed the Paul Smoker Trio with Haynes and bassist Ron Rohovit. Smoker and Haynes teamed up again when the Paul Smoker Notet debuted in 2003 with Haynes, guitarist Steve Salerno, and bassist Drew Gress. Having performed together for as long as they have, the two have a comfortable musical rapport.

"We trust each other; we can react instantaneously to each other," Smoker explains. "We finish each other's musical phrasing."

Smoker began playing at age 10, after hearing trumpeter Harry James on the radio, and credits the school music program in his native Iowa for excellent early instruction. His high school band regularly won competitions throughout the country, and it was at the same time that Smoker began performing jazz at clubs on both sides of the Mississippi River in Iowa and Illinois. After decades of playing his trumpet almost daily, Smoker – who has also performed with symphonies, ballets, popular entertainers, and the circus, and was the musical director of the Miss Iowa Pageant for 13 years – is still in love with the sound of his instrument, and prefers performing live jazz above all else.

"Jazz improv has been at the core of everything I've done," he says. "You play some jazz, some something else, and you never really know what's going to happen. I love that jazz feeling. It's very infectious and it has that thing they call 'swing,' which you can't really define but is all about the relationship between the rhythm and the beat and the way you reach the audience."

About Paul Smoker

PAUL SMOKER (b. 1941) - trumpet, composer, educator. "What Paul Smoker produced on his horn was unheard of in these latitudes; his complete command of his instrument allowed him to play whatever extravaganza he would think of, harmonically as well as in terms of dynamics. Styles, modes and techniques of every era of the history of music -- Baroque and Bebop, Structuralism and Storyville, Blues and Berio...To the widely discussed question about the future development of the jazz trumpet, Paul Smoker's musical concept could definitely constitute a far-reaching answer." -- Jazz Podium

Paul Smoker studied and performed both jazz and classical music while growing up in Davenport, Iowa. He attended the University of Iowa (eventually receiving a D.M.A. in trumpet) where one of his fellow students was David Sanborn. While in high school and college he played in the clubs across the Mississippi River in Rock Island and Moline, as well as Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, getting to work with Dodo Marmarosa, Buddy DeFranco, and Al Jarreau, among others. He was also a member of the Iowa Brass Quintet, touring throughout the United States, and the University of Iowa Center for New Music.

As a trumpeter, his influences include avant-garde classical sources as well as the jazz trumpet tradition, and also the saxophonists John Coltrane and Anthony Braxton. For more than 20 years taught trumpet, jazz, and 20th-century 'classical' music at the Universities of Iowa, Northern Iowa, Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and Coe College. During his tenure at Coe he founded the Paul Smoker Trio with Ron Rohovit and Phil Haynes, and they began to receive international attention, recording five albums and playing jazz festivals in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In late 1990 he moved to upstate New York and now concentrates on teaching, composing, and performing.

Since the mid-80's he has made more than 50 recordings as a leader of his own groups and with Anthony Braxton, Joint Venture, Vinny Golia, Lou Grassi, Herb Robertson, Jay Rosen, Adam Lane, Burton Greene, Dom Minasi, et al. He has also worked with David Liebman, Evan Parker, Don Byron, John Tchicai, Art Pepper, Frank Rosolino, Barry Altschul, Gerry Hemingway, Ellery Eskelin, Borah Bergman, Mark Dresser, and others.

Smoker presently directs the jazz studies program at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY, and has been composer-in-residence at Rochester's School of the Arts and Cornell University. The Paul Smoker Notet debuted in 2003 at Tonic in New York City, and includes Smoker, guitarist Steve Salerno, bassist Drew Gress, and drummer Phil Haynes. Notet recordings include Live At the Bop Shop, Cool Lives, and the new Landings.

Smoker was first elected to the annual Downbeat Critics' Poll in 1986, and has been the subject of features and reviews in Downbeat Magazine, Jazziz Magazine, CODA Magazine, Cadence Magazine, and many other sources, including discographies, encyclopedias, and texts.

About Phil Haynes

A New York-based artist for 20 years, Phil Haynes is featured on more nearly 60 LP and CD releases by numerous American and European record labels. His recording credentials include many of the seminal musicians of this generation: saxophonists Anthony Braxton, Ellery Eskelin, and David Liebman; trumpeters Dave Douglas, Herb Robertson, and Paul Smoker; bassists Mark Dresser, Ken Filiano, and Drew Gress; keyboard artists David Kikoski, Denman Maroney, and Michelle Rosewoman; vocalists Theo Bleckman, Nick Horner, and Hank Roberts; violinist Mark Feldman; and the composers collective, Joint Venture.

Current Haynes touring ensembles include his romantic "Jazz-Grass" string band, Free Country, featuring vocalist/cellist Hank Roberts; the "tough tenor trio," No Fast Food, with David Liebman and Drew Gress; his "power organ trio," The Hammond Brothers; and the "classic piano trio," a collective called Day Dream, with Steve Rudolph and Drew Gress.

About Nazareth College

Nazareth is a coeducational, independent college on a suburban campus just outside Rochester, N.Y. The College challenges students to rise to their potential with a liberal arts and sciences foundation, professional programs, experiential learning, and an innovative curriculum that addresses the current and emerging needs of the world - ranging from economics to physical therapy to environmental science. With more than 40 undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs, a vibrant arts center and a variety of athletics, clubs and organizations, Nazareth prepares students to be successful professionals and engaged citizens. For more information, visit www.naz.edu.

About the Nazareth College Department of Music

The Department of Music at Nazareth College integrates intensive studies in music (musicianship and performance), with professional programs and the liberal arts, for a truly unique experience that prepares students for careers in music and equips them with the skills to share the art of music in a variety of capacities.

Each degree program is designed to prepare students not only for careers within the various degree areas, but also for exciting endeavors that will perpetuate and sustain the art of music in local and global communities.

The department is a vibrant community of musicians focused on the art of music, the professional domains of knowledge within the musical career areas, and the relationship of these areas to the liberal arts. For more information, visit: www.naz.edu/music.

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