Letter from Lee Barry, Eclipse Jazz to Miles Davis
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Part of Eclipse Letter to Miles Davis
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- Letter from Lee Barry, Eclipse Jazz to Miles Davis
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Universily
Activit:es
Cerm2r
2nd Floor Michigan Union
Ann Arbor. Michigan 48109
313-763-1107Home :
.Dear
9 9 4-12 6 8
Miles,
I am a coordinator
of a group in Ann.Arbor
called
Eclipse
J~zz,
and am writing
at the suggestion
of Teo Macera.
.· We are a
volunteer,
student-run,
non-profit·organization
a~sociated
with
• the Univeisity
of Michigan,
dedicated.to
~he furthe~~nce
of.jazz~
The group was formed some t~ree
years
ago when a groµp of s~udents
who were annoyed by the lack of jazz in Ann Arbor decided
to do
something
about
it.
Since then,
we hav.e been approaching.this
goal
in a number of ways including:
1): a jazz concert
series
with-ticket
prices
held as low as we can manage,
and with the series
arranged
in such a way as to guide the neophyte
from more commercial
forms
of jazz to mainstream
and avant-garde.
jazz
·(for example,.
our fall
series
included,
in order
of appearance,
Jean-Luc
Ponty,
Sonny
Rollins,
Dext~r
Gordon~-Art
Ensemble
of Chicago,·
apd Oscar Peterson);
2) a smaller
scale
concert
series
called
Bright
Moments-wherin
•
jazz enthusiasts
can learn
about lesser
known j_azz artists
in a
more intimate
setting
at even ~ore reasonable
prices
(past
Bright
Moments concerts
have included
Chico Freeman,. _Marion Brown, and
Marcus Belgrave);
3) free public
workshops
with most of_ the artists
from our major series
and all of our Bright
Moments concerts;
4) week-long
residencies
with artists
we bring,
and 5) -weekly.
jazz performance
workshops
and jam sessions
with local
musicians;·
In our concerts
we have been able to present
a wide variety-of_
:,classic
jazz including
·such musicians
as Charles
Mingus,
Barry
Barris,
Archie
Shepp,
and the late
Rahsaan
Roland Kirk (to whom the Bright
Moments series
is dedicated)
. •
We have now been _in operat1on
for three
years,
and the response
to our project
has been tremendous.
In the.past
year,
~e .h~ve
been able to present
to thousands
of people
artists
such .as Woody
Sh~w and Barry Harris
with whom most of the aiia:ience·had
little
or
no familiarity.
These people
come away totally
amazed and m~ch more.
willing
to delve
deeper
into
current
jazz history;
•
Yet, the job is nowhere near completed.
We have come to the
conse~sus
that
the next step irr-the
process·must
be a jazz
festival:·
P~rst
of all,
festivals
tend to generate
a lot of energy
and
enthusiasm
by their
very nature 1 and Ann Arbor has had a history
of Blues and Jazz festivals.
But this
should
be a_special
kind of
festival
to suit
these
purposes.
This September
we will
be presenting
the first
in what will
be a series
of annual
jazz
festivals.
Each festival
will
be dedicated
to, and will
center
around
a major
jazz innovator.
The first
festival
will
take place
September
21-24,
1978, ~nd is dedicated
to Duke Ellington.
Musicians
to appear
.
•
-2include
the Duke Ellington
Orchestra
(with Mercer),
Dexter
Gordon,
and Art Blakey
and Sun Ra. There will
be five concerts
in four
days
(including
a Sunday matinee),
plus a workshop
for musicians
on Friday
afternoon
and a free public
lecture
about the Duke on Saturday afternoon.
We will
also be commissioning
a piece
from Charles
Mingus,
most likely
to be scored
for the George Russell.Big
Band.
I realize
that
you are probably
deluged
with requests
from
music promoters
for performances,
but we would still
likP. to invite
you to perform
at our festival
this
September.
We strongly
feel
the crisis
in the current
jazz scene,
given that
we as vqlunteers
still
feel
the need to produce
concerts
of performers
w~ find
distasteful
(e.g.
Jean Luc-Ponty)
in order
to finance
our series
and draw people
to the truer
jazz we know-and
love.
We feel
that
your presence
in this
festival
would be incredibly
instrumental
in this
attempt
to spread
jazz.
This will be a national
event,
and will
reach
a large
number of people.
Therefore,
we hope that
you can be there.
In the future,
we would like
to discuss
the
possibility
of
a festival
dedicated
to you, but with all due
respect,
we felt
we should
start
with the Duke.
Thank you for your time.
Since you share our concern
for jazz,
we would be grateful
for any ideas
you have·concerning
this
effort.
Any involvement
you wish to have in this will
be extre~ely
helpful.
Since we are now in the midst of booking
the festival,
please
let us
know how you feel as soon as is convenient.
•
Sincerely,
Michael
Ecl~pse
P.S.
better
I am enclosing
idea of what
a brochure
from
we ·are doing.
our
S.
Jazz
last
Coordinator
season
to
give
you
a