NEC Jazz Orchestra + Jim McNeely: To You, the Music of Thad Jones

Pianist and composer Jim McNeely joins the NEC Jazz Orchestra in To You: The Music of Thad Jones, a celebration of the legendary trumpeter, composer and arranger born 100 years ago on March 28, 1923. 

Jones is well known for co-leading one of the most influential big bands in jazz history with drummer Mel Lewis. He also taught at New England Conservatory in 1972-1973. The NEC Jazz Orchestra performs McNeely’s own composition, “Thad,” as well as many of Jones’s most enduring works, including “Don’t Git Sassy,” "Kids Are Pretty People," “Fingers,” “Little Pixie” and “To You.”

About Jim McNeely and Thad Jones

Jim McNeely was born in Chicago. In 1975 he received his B.Mus. in composition from the University of Illinois and moved to New York City. He joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra in 1978 and spent six years as a featured soloist with that band and its successor, Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra (now The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra). In 1981 he began a 4- year tenure as pianist/composer with the Stan Getz Quartet, and from 1990-95 he held the piano chair in the Phil Woods Quintet. He currently leads his own tentet, his own trio, and appears as soloist at concerts and festivals worldwide. 
        Jim’s reputation as composer/arranger and conductor for large jazz bands has earned him a Grammy Award and several Grammy nominations. In 1996 he re-joined The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra as pianist and Composer-in Residence. He is the former chief conductor, and now composer-in-residence, with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, where he has collaborated with artists including Dave Holland, John Scofield, Luciana Souza, Branford Marsalis, Dave Douglas and Ambrose Akinmusire. Other work includes projects with the Danish Radio Big Band (where he was chief conductor for five years), the Metropole Orchestra, the Swiss Jazz Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Jazz Orchestra of the Conertgebouw. Jim’s music has been called “exhilarating” (The New York Times) and “eloquent enough to be profound.” (DownBeat). 
        Jim has appeared as sideman on numerous recordings led by major artists such as Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer, and Phil Woods. He has numerous albums under his own name, including the recent Rituals, with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band and Chris Potter, which received five stars from DownBeat.
        Jim is professor emeritus in jazz composition at Manhattan School of Music and has held positions at William Paterson University and New York University. He was involved with the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop for 24 years, including 16 years as musical director. He has done clinics and major residencies at dozens of institutions in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, and Egypt. 

Thad Jones was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader. He was born in Pontiac, Michigan to a musical family of ten (an older brother was pianist Hank Jones and a younger brother was drummer Elvin Jones). Thad Jones was a self taught musician, performing professionally by the age of sixteen. He served in U.S. Army bands during World War II (1943-46).
        After the war, Thad Jones continued his professional music career, eventually winding up with Count Basie in 1954, for whom he arranged, composed, and performed for nine years. But much of Jones's music was stylistically original and didn't always fit in with the Basie group which he left in 1963. In the early sixties he became a freelance arranger and performer in the New York area. In 1965 he and drummer Mel Lewis formed the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band. The group initially began with informal late night jam sessions amongst New York's top studio musicians. The group eventually began performing at the Village Vanguard, to wide acclaim, and continued with Jones in the lead for twelve years. In 1979 they won a Grammy Award for their album Live in Munich. Jones also taught at William Paterson College in New Jersey.
        In 1978 Thad moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, where several other American jazz musicians had gone to live. There, he formed a new band, Eclipse, composed for The Danish Radio Big Band and taught jazz at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen. A year before his death, Jones came back to the U.S. to lead the Count Basie Orchestra but had to step down due to ill health. He returned to his home in Copenhagen for the last few months of his life. Charles Mingus called Jones "...the greatest trumpet player I've heard in this life." In later years his playing ability was overshadowed by his composing and arranging skills. His best known composition is the standard A Child is Born.