Special Guest, Jerome Kitzke: spoken word
Seneca Black, Dave Smith, Matt Holman: Trumpets
Marshal Sealy: French Horn
Alan Ferber, Jacob Garchik, Andy Clausen, Ben Staap: Trombones + Tuba
Ben Kono, John O’Gallagher, Stacy Dillard, Jason Rigby, Lisa Parrot: Woodwinds
James Shipp: Percussion
Joel Harrison: Guitar
Jesse Stacken: Piano
Kermit Driscoll: Electric and Acoustic Bass
Jeremy Clemons: Drums
JC Sanford: Conductor

This new work expands upon Harrison’s first large ensemble CD (Infinite Possibility, 2013), a mixture of jazz, funk, new music, gospel, keening ballads, and corkscrew meters. The centerpiece of the evening is a suite entitled “America at War.” This three movement composition was inspired (in Harrison’s words) by “the realization that for almost half my life the U.S. has been engaged in foreign wars, ones that to me have been terribly pointless and tragic. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all the smaller battles between, add up to a sorrowful legacy that’s affected us all in countless ways. The music is not so much motivated by political implications, rather by the countless invisible individuals who have been drawn into these conflicts and suffered the myriad consequences. The music does not just protest our losses, though, it celebrates the gift of life.”

This concert is made possible, in part, with public funds from the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, administered in Kings County by Brooklyn Arts Council. In addition, New York State Council on the Arts provided support from its individual artist fund.