Connecticut’s Hartford Symphony Orchestra, along with saxophonist Joel Frahm, will perform a concert tribute to jazz saxophonist Stan Getz at the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz on July 18. The program features an arrangement of Getz’s 1961 recording Focus for saxophone, drummer, and strings; the Hartford Symphony first performed the work during the 2009-10 season as a part of the “Jazz and Strings” series created by Principal Timpanist Gene Bozzi. Previous “Jazz and Strings” concerts featured the music of Charlie Parker and Ella Fitzgerald; Bozzi envisioned the concerts as a way to fuse classical and jazz elements while featuring small ensembles that could perform in small, inexpensive venues. Additional “Jazz and Strings” events planned for the 2010-2011 season will be announced at the July 18th concert. The Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz is a nonprofit organization founded by jazz bassist Paul Brown in 1992. The Hartford Symphony Orchestra performance will be the closing concert of the 2010 festival, which features twelve free outdoor events from July 16 to 18 in Hartford’s Bushnell Park.
July 8, 2010
