A Big Band Tribute to Toshiko Akiyoshi featuring The Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra.

Toshiko Akiyoshi is one of the premier composers of contemporary big band music. Her Japanese heritage can be heard along with her love of Bud Powell in her fresh approach that has famously challenged big bands for decades.

The Gift of Jazz is partnering with Denver’s 18-piece Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra in presenting an evening of her unique, always-swinging music.

One of the premier bandleaders and pianists of the second half of the 20th century, 2007 NEA Jazz Master Toshiko Akiyoshi doesn’t look the part. In the hard-driving, male-dominated jazz field at the time, a petite Japanese woman who wrote and arranged her own music was unusual to say the least. But Akiyoshi was a pioneer in bringing an Asian sensibility to the music and follows in Mary Lou Williams’ footsteps as a major female jazz composer and arranger. She composed using Japanese themes, harmonies, and instruments. Yet her music remained planted firmly in jazz, reflecting influences from Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Bud Powell. Moving to New York City in 1982 she assembled the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra featuring husband, tenor saxophonist Lew Tabackin. Although Akiyoshi released several albums in the U.S. featuring her piano in solo and small-combo settings, she is best known for her unique and notoriously challenging big band compositions and recordings. In 1998, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music from Berklee College of Music.

The Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra (MJO) is an exciting 18-piece ensemble comprised of some of the Front Range’s finest jazz artists and educators. Formed in Jan 2002, MJO has garnered a substantial following having performed throughout Colorado and New Mexico. With their extensive contemporary big band repertoire, MJO enjoys performing for jazz concert audiences, as well as dances and parties where they can be heard kicking classic jazz tunes from the swing era, Latin jazz and big band pop arrangements, as well as vocal tunes from the Frank Sinatra and Michael Buble books. They are excited to be partnering with The Gift of Jazz in presenting the music of Toshiko Akiyoshi, a pioneer in the modern jazz orchestra world!

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