Jabbo Ware's Orchestra live @ Gillespie Auditorium, NY, tomorrow, Feb 23

Help us welcome bandleader/composer Jabbo Ware (pictured above by Scott Friedlander) this coming Tuesday evening, February 23rd to the John Birks Gillespie Auditorium in the New York City Baha'i Center at 53 East 11th Street (between University Place & Broadway). There will be 2 shows at 8:00 and 9:30 p.m.

The John Birks Gillespie Auditorium, dedicated to the late jazz great Dizzy Gillespie, who was a Bahá'í, is located within the New York City Bahá'í Center. Beginning on January 6, 2004, the anniversary of Dizzy’s death, his former pianist and musical director, Mike Longo, began presenting weekly jazz concerts every Tuesday evening at 8:00 and 9:30 PM.

The "Me, We and Them Orchestra" was founded in 1973 by James Jabbo Ware. Brought up in the south with the influence of the church and the black community, Mr. Ware creates music built around life experiences. His vision of the family as an ongoing historical unit to which we all belong is symbolized by his concept of the big band as a family.

This performance at the New York City Bahá'í Center is made possible by Y’all of New York and The Phaedrus Foundation. Y’all of New York, Inc., is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the composition, development, promotion and preservation of creative music. Its mission is to extend the musical vocabulary grounded in the roots and traditions of American Jazz music. It seeks to develop the next generation of musicians by sponsoring educational classes and forums, producing concerts, and promoting the work of established and emerging composers.

Admission is 15.00, $10.00 for students.
Tickets will be sold at the door, or call 212-222-5159 for advance tickets and information.
The John Birks Gillespie Auditorium is located in the heart of Greenwich Village within the NYC Baha'i Center:
53 E. 11th St. (Between B'way and University Place)
New York, NY 10003

Call (212) 222-5159 with any questions.
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The founder of the ME, WE AND THEM ORCHESTRA, composer/arranger/ saxophonist James “Jabbo” Ware was born in Rome, Georgia in 1942. He began his musical training on alto saxophone in St. Louis, Mo. in 1960, under the guidance of Mr. Harry Winn, a tenor saxophonist who had travelled throughout the South playing in swing bands during the 1920s and ’30s. In the middle through late 1960s, Mr. Ware played in various rhythm and blues bands, and composed for and performed with BAG (the Black Artists Group of St. Louis), among whose members were Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill, J.D. Parran and Hamiett Bluiett. It was after he first “heard” Mr. Bluiett’s sound on baritone saxophone that Mr. Ware switched to that instrument, and it was Mr. Bluiett who convinced him to move to New York in 1970.

Once in New York, Mr. Ware studied improvisation and composition with George Coleman. While a member of the CBA Band (Collective Black Artists), and of bands led by Frank Foster and Sam Rivers, Mr. Ware met many of the musicians who now make up the ME, WE AND THEM ORCHESTRA. Through his association with Archie Shepp, Mr. Ware met the late Cal Massey, who premiered two of Mr. Ware’s early compositions at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

As a result of the encouragement he received from colleagues such as Mr. Massey, and in realization of a dream he had nurtured since playing in George Hudson’s big band in St. Louis, Mr. Ware formed the ME, WE AND THEM ORCHESTRA in 1973.

Mr. Ware’s music is concerned with telling stories based on his favorite themes: “Where do we come from?” and “Where are we going?”. The titles of Mr. Ware’s compositions mean what they say, and the order in which they are presented in concert is always carefully planned. As Mr. Ware explains;
“At first, the audience may not understand where I’m trying to take them, but by the time they get there, they’ll know...”

Mr. Ware’s vision of the family as an ongoing unit to which we all belong is symbolized by his concept of the big band as a family: “ME” represents the Creator; “WE” represents the mother and father; “THEM” represents the children.