Lew Soloff
New York-based trumpet player Lew Soloff takes the stage at Kirkwood Community College on Saturday, November 10. The famed musician and jazz educator will perform in Ballantyne Auditorium at 7:30 p.m., sharing the stage with the Kirkwood Jazz Ensemble and the CR Jazz Big Band.
Soloff was a member of the band Blood, Sweat and Tears for several years. The group sold millions of albums and won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, for the album “Blood, Sweat and Tears 3.”
Soloff performs with both groups as a featured artist, led by Kirkwood Instrumental Jazz Music Director Timothy Feldkamp. A free master class will be conducted as part of the November 10 performance. The public is invited to the free clinic in 375 Cedar Hall from 1-2:30 p.m.
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Soloff started playing piano at an early age and took up the trumpet at age 10. His music has a wide range of style from ragtime to stride, mainstream to bebop, high energy Latin to hard-driving straight-ahead jazz. He has collaborated with musicians and groups such as Ornette Coleman, Maynard Ferguson, Chuck Mangione, the Kronos Quartet, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Gil Evans Group. It was in the popular groundbreaking group Blood, Sweat And Tears that Soloff’s trumpet solos became an indelible part of American culture. He was an integral part of the band from 1968 to 1973, racking up nine gold records, a Grammy for Album of the Year in 1969 and creating those searing horn lines in “Spinning Wheel.”
“Trumpeter Lew Soloff is the very model of a veteran jazz artist — fluent, articulate and imaginative in almost any musical setting,” said Los Angeles Times writer Don Heckman. “His resume, far too long to list, reaches from Blood, Sweat and Tears to Gil Evans.”
Soloff’s latest release is “Sketches Of Spain,” featuring the arrangements of Gil Evans with the Harmonie Ensemble New York, conducted by Steve Richman.
Tickets for this November 10 concert are $10 for adults and $5 for seniors and students with a current ID. Kirkwood students and employees are admitted free. For ticket information, please call (319) 398-5899 ext. 4331.