Friday, Sept. 6 Big Band Blast
A Place for Jazz often presents a local attraction and a big band; The Tim Olsen Big Band is both, opening the 37th AP4J season with a distinguished roster of area jazz stars.
Many are retired or active teachers, and Olsen-as-teacher is very active as Professor of Music at Union College and director of the College’s Jazz Ensemble. Olsen holds a D.M.A. in composition from Yale University and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen.
He performs on both piano and trombone these days, leading his Quartet and the Big Band that opens the new season of A Place for Jazz on Friday.
While his album “Creature of Habit” (2014) features a six-piece band, “Obsidian,” set for release this month, spotlights his Big Band in ambitious compositions created (or borrowed and arranged) over the past half-century. Olsen’s “Obsidian” album and Friday’s A Place for Jazz opener both feature his wife, singer Susie Olsen.
Tim Olsen, left, conducts his Big Band in a recording session for his “Obsidian” album. Rudy Lu photo
His performing and teaching worlds collide Friday at A Place For Jazz where his Union College Jazz Ensemble guests in “Two O’Clock Jump.”
“I’ve been featuring the Tim Olsen Big Band in conjunction with my History of Jazz course at Union, next offered in Spring 2025,” said Olsen. “It’s nice to be able to take the band to a new venue and a new audience.”
Olsen knows well both the original home of AP4J and its post-COVID venue at SUNY Schenectady. “For several years I was music director at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady, the original home of the A Place for Jazz series, and I played their beautiful grand piano on a weekly basis,” said Olsen. “The new location offers a larger audience capacity and a more advanced tech setup.”
He’s also familiar with his fellow artists in the 2024 AO4J season, hailing its diverse programming in a recent emailed conversation. He cited pianists Renee Rosnes (of Artemis, Oct. 4) and Bill O’Connell (Oct. 18) and the trumpeters Ingrid Jensen (with Artemis Oct. 4) and Bria Skonberg (leading her quintet Nov. 1). Skonberg is a repeat AP4J performer.
“We had Bill O’Connell up at Union a couple years ago,” said Olsen, “as a follow up to his smoking appearance with flutist Dave Valentin a few years ago in a performance sponsored by Jazz/Latino, inc.”
The Tim Olsen Big Band recording at Union College; Tim Olsen conducts, at right. Rudy Lu photo
The Tim Olsen Big Band comprises:
Saxophones: Dave Fisk, Kristina Johnson, Eric Walentowicz, Matt Steckler, Tom Gerbino
Trumpets: Jon Bronk, Dylan Canterbury, Steve Lambert, Mike Banewicz
Trombones: Rick Rosoff, Elias Assimakopoulos, Ken Olsen, Dan Cordell
Bass: Lou Smaldone
Drums: Pete Sweeney
Percussion: Brian Melick
Olsen conducts and mainly plays piano.
Many of these players are familiar to area jazz fans from many gigs hereabouts. Sweeney, for example, played Jazz on Jay so much this season he should get his own permanent parking space.
Olsen said his Big Band will play mostly originals, including those on “Obsidian,” and selected standards.
2024 Season at A Place for Jazz
Sept. 6: The Tim Olsen Big Band
Sept. 20: Warren Wolfe/Joe Locke Quartet
Oct. 4: Artemis
Oct. 18: Bill O’Connell Quartet featuring Craig Handy
Nov. 1: Bria Skonberg Quintet
Venue and Ticket Information
A Place for Jazz presents its 2024 season concerts on alternating Fridays at 7:30 p.m. in the Carl B. Taylor Auditorium of the Begley Building at SUNY Schenectady Community College. Tickets are $25, $10 for students with ID. Cash and checks accepted.
A membership – $125 and up – offers tickets for all seven concerts for the price of five; additional premiums at higher membership levels.
Bonus Preview
The Union College Jazz Ensemble presents its fall concert Wednesday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. in the Emerson Auditorium in the Taylor Music Center on the Union campus. Professor Tim Olsen will conduct the student ensemble.
“We’ve got a full complement of saxes, trumpets, trombones, and rhythm players,” says Olsen, “and have been lucky to welcome lots of vocalists into the group, who perform everything from classic singers Ella Fitzgerald and the Andrews Sisters to more modern artists like Billy Joel and Laufey.” Billy Joel played the Aerodrome with his Long Island band the Hassles in the late 1960s and has since played everywhere hereabouts including the Union College hockey rink. Laufey played at the Saratoga Jazz Festival in late June.
EXTRA EXTRA
When I checked Olsen’s song list for the upcoming show, I appreciated “Fur Ellis” as a pun on Beethoven’s “Fur Elise.” I also thought it referenced the late, great composer and big-band leader Don Ellis, and this recalled a fond memory of a long-ago Union College show.
I emailed Tim: “Say, could the song title “Fur Ellis” refer to the late, great Don Ellis?”
Years and years and years ago, I was headed to see a film on campus when I spotted a hand-crayoned sign taped to a pillar on the Memorial Chapel:
Tonight Only
Don Ellis Orchestra
$6
Forget the movie!
I parked my motorcycle beside the Chapel, paid $12 for myself and friend Nancy and went inside.
The band was around 20 pieces and their “French Connection” soundtrack was hot then.
It was a blast deluxe onstage.
Off-stage, too.
I didn’t think too much of it when I saw two trumpets and two trombones ease out the side door.
But my hair stood up when they roared their parts from behind us, standing on the pews a few rows back after sneaking into the place.
When I asked Tim Olsen about this, he wrote back:
I can’t imagine how awesome it would have been to have seen Don Ellis live [‘m also a huge fan of his French Connection soundtrack].
“Fur Ellis” refers to Ellis Marsalis, Tim wrote, and directed me to his “Obsidian” album liner notes that beautifully describe the songs.
Among those lost during the early days of COVID in 2020, I was especially dismayed to learn about the passing of jazz pianist and patriarch Ellis Marsalis, whose understated musical stylings were an important influence on my own piano playing. FUR ELLIS is a brooding elegy cast in the mold of Billy Strayhorn’s “Blood Count,” and features Kristina Johnson on alto.
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