William “Prof.” Fielder was a legendary trumpeter/educator who served as a faculty member and Head of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. His former trumpet students included Wynton Marsalis, Terell Stafford, and Terence Blanchard.
It has become a tradition at Rutgers to dedicate an annual concert to Fielder, who spent 30 years at the University. This year’s Fielder concert will be performed by the Rutgers Jazz Ensemble, directed by composer/arranger/bandleader Dr. Anthony D.J. Branker, at 7:30 p.m., Friday October 25. in the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center’s Elizabeth Ross Johnson Theater. Special guest performer will be veteran trumpeter Alex Norris, who has performed with such bands as the Mingus Big Band and Dynasty, the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and the Maria Schneider Orchestra.
Norris (photo above) has also recorded several albums as a leader. Reviewing his 2015 Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records album, Extension Deadline, Dan Bilawsky of AllAboutJazz wrote that, “The quartet cooks right out of the gate with the title track . . In every instance, the music speaks clearly and intelligently, allowing for individual freedom of expression but never overstaying its welcome.” Other members of that quartet were keyboardist George Colligan, saxophonist Gary Thomas, and drummer Rudy Royston.
Norris is a member of the Rutgers jazz faculty and has also taught at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins. He has recorded more than 100 albums as a sideman.
One of his better-known sideman recordings was his performance on the late guitarist Pat Martino’s 2018 HighNote album, Formidable. Michael West of DownBeat, writing about one of the tracks — Joey Calderazzo’s “El Nino” — described “trumpeter Alex Norris and tenor saxophonist Adam Niewood trading adrenaline-fueled, gratifying eights, fours and twos before finishing off in (gloriously ragged) unison.”
Two days earlier, at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 23, the Rutgers Jazz Lab Band, directed by saxophonist/composer Abraham Burton, will present a selection of arrangements from Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band, Count Basie, and Charles Mingus.
In December, the Jazz Lab Big Band and Jazz Ensemble concerts will be held in Mason Gross’ Nicholas Music Center on Wednesday, December 4, and Friday, December 6, respectively. According to a Rutgers spokesperson, those concerts will be livestreamed for free as part of Rutgers’ “Concerts From Your Couch” series.
For information or tickets to the October concerts, log onto http://www.masongross.rutgers.edu/events or call (848) 932-7511. For more information on livestream concerts, log onto: http://go.rutgers.edu/nmcstream.