Founded in 1973, The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra has been a force in the international jazz scene for more than 50 years - one of the longest-running large jazz ensembles in the world. The band is well known for its wide-ranging shows, from new music by founder/director Mark Harvey to classics and rarities by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Mary Lou Williams, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and other jazz legends. Aardvark has given premieres of 200 works for jazz orchestra, performs widely, and appears on 16 CDs, including 10 discs from Leo Records, one of the world’s leading adventuresome music labels. Guest artists who have appeared with Aardvark include jazz luminaries Jaki Byard, Sheila Jordan, Ricky Ford, Jimmy Giuffre, Geri Allen, Raj Mehta, Dominique Eade, and Lewis Porter, to name a few.
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Composer/trumpeter Mark Harvey, winner of the 2019 Roy Haynes Award, is the founder and music director of the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra. Harvey has performed in major venues including Fenway Park and Symphony Hall, Boston, the Knitting Factory and the Village Gate (NYC), the National Gallery of Art (DC), the Left Bank Jazz Society (MD), the Southern California Institute of Architecture (CA), the Berlin Jazz Festival (Germany), and the Baja State Theater (Mexico). His musical credits also include recordings with George Russell’s Living Time Orchestra (Blue Note), and Baird Hersey & the Year of the Ear (Arista/Novus) and appearances with Gil Evans, Howard McGhee, Sam Rivers, Claudio Roditi, and other notables.
Harvey has received commissions from the Meet the Composer/Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program, the 15th Annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert, FiLmprov, the the MIT Sesquicentennial Celebration, Organization of American Kodaly Educators,and the MIT Festival Jazz and Wind Ensembles, among others. In 2015, Dr. Harvey was named Boston Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association, one of 24 jazz advocates/activists recognized nationally. Dr. Harvey is Senior Lecturer in Music Emeritus at MIT, where he taught jazz studies for 40 years. Members of The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra perform regularly with the stellar FiLmprov ensemble, blending live improvisation with captivating animated films by Kate Matson. Visit FiLmprov. |
" “It’s great music. Aardvark have an eloquence in their improvisation written inside the art of orchestration. A pity
Duke and The Count can’t hear where their great art form has gotten to.” - What’s New Jazz Magazine (United Kingdom) "Aardvark suggests the best and the brashest of Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, George Russell, and even Frank Zappa." - JazzTimes "Awe-inspiring audience fascination" - Downbeat Visit Aardvark's website |
The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra performs Mark Harvey's No Walls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4ytPw7Kwbv |