Archive for the ‘Nova Jazz Performances’ Category
Thursday, August 11th, 2011
During the summer, the Nova Contemporary Jazz Orchestra keeps up its performance schedule admirably, especially considering many of its personnel are busy with — and distracted by — all the other things that people do during the summer. Besides gigging and other work, there’s traveling, vacationing, and seeking out a pleasant area of the Twin Cities that’s not under construction.
The 23rd of August is our next performance at the Shorewood Bar & Grill in Fridley. We’ve been playing at the Shorewood for a little over a year, and both the venue and audience are top-notch. Just a few days after our August Shorewood outing, summer will reach an enormous crescendo in Minnesota. You might think it’s all downhill after that. Well, no — not for Nova it isn’t.
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Monday, July 25th, 2011
Nova’s July performance at the Shorewood Bar & Grill is tomorrow, July 26. As usual, the music starts at 7pm and we’ll play until 11. Food, drinks, music — you can’t do much better.
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Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
The Nova Contemporary Jazz Orchestra has its June, 2011 performance tonight (the 28th) at the Shorewood Bar & Grill in Fridley. Remember, the music starts at 7pm, and we’ll play off and on till 11. Come on out — the Shorewood features great food and drinks, to say nothing of the enhanced musical ambience provided by us. We’ll see you there.
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Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
Although it seems we’re getting most of the showers scheduled for April today, don’t let that stop you from checking out the Nova Contemporary Jazz Orchestra tonight at the Shorewood Bar & Grill. We’ll play lots of good, original jazz. Music starts at 7pm and continues off and on till 10. Come early; stay late. See you there.
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Monday, March 21st, 2011
Nova would like to thank those who’ve augmented the band’s personnel while we performed Bill Mathieu’s music in recent months. Because of Stan Kenton’s predilection for expanded big-band instrumentation, your aid was absolutely necessary and helped give us the big sound everyone noticed at the Shorewood last month. (Of course, the writing might have had something to do with that, too). Thanks especially to Bill Mathieu himself: he paid us a fine visit, rehearsed us, and spoke to us about what he values in music. Thanks to everyone in the band — your rehearsal, performance and general hard work made the project possible and enjoyable. And our sound engineer, Matt? Special thanks to him as well.
Coming up this Tuesday, March 22, at 7pm, Nova is back at the Shorewood. We’ll be delving back into our regular repertoire, but as usual everyone can expect some surprises.
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Monday, February 14th, 2011
For our performance at the Shorewood on February 22, 7pm-10, The Nova Contemporary Jazz Orchestra will be welcoming a very special guest to town: Bill Mathieu. In the late 50s, when Mathieu was a young staff arranger for Stan Kenton, he composed and arranged what turned out to be an entire album’s worth of music for Kenton’s orchestra. The result was Standards In Silhouette
, released in 1959.
W. A. “Bill” Mathieu
Importantly, though, not all of the compositions Mathieu completed for Kenton were recorded by the bandleader. However, The Nova Contemporary Jazz Orchestra will perform these 14 musical works at the Shorewood this month (Remember, it’s February 22, 7pm-10). As we mentioned, Bill Mathieu will be in attendance, so it’s a great reason to come out and enjoy the music with us.
Since his time with Stan Kenton, Bill Mathieu has led an expansive and varied musical career. You can learn more about him at his website, Cold Mountain Music.
Also, a good account of Mathieu’s time with Kenton and Standards In Silhouette is at the Nice and Easy website.
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Tuesday, January 25th, 2011
The Nova Contemporary Jazz Orchestra will be playing the Shorewood Bar & Grill tonight! Although our special guest, Bill Mathieu, couldn’t make it over our way this month, we’ll still be playing a healthy dose of his original music and great arrangements. Join us! The music starts at 7pm, and we’ll play (off and on) until 10. Directions to the Shorewood are here.
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Monday, November 22nd, 2010
Join us at the Shorewood Bar & Grill tomorrow, Tuesday the 23rd at @7pm for another evening of great big-band jazz. Beginning with our November outing, we’ll be putting special emphasis on the charts of Bill Mathieu, whose arranging talents are featured on Stan Kenton’s Capitol Records Standards in Silhouette album of 1959. Kenton, who died in 1979, would have been 100 next year.
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Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
Once again, it’s time for the Nova Contemporary Jazz Orchestra to perform some great music (live!) for your listening pleasure. Sure, it’s a little rainy and blustery outside, but join us tonight inside the Shorewood Bar & Grill in Fridley. The music starts at 7pm.
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Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Join us, won’t you? We’re playing the Shorewood again this month. The performance is tonight, and the music starts at 7pm. It promises to be a lovely evening of Minnesota-grown big-band jazz. See below for how to get there.
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