The Litchfield Jazz Orchestra makes its 6th appearance this summer. It sprang from the creative imagination of guitarist Doug Munro, long-time Litchfield Jazz Camp instructor and emeritus professor and founder of the jazz program at SUNY Purchase College. Doug proposed we fashion a band of jazz faculty members, and perhaps include a top student or two, for whom he would score in the jazz tradition the music of the revered Gypsy-style guitar master Django Reinhardt. Now the orchestra is an annual Litchfield Jazz tradition.
Joining the LJO this year is vocalist Alexis Cole. Her “how I got into jazz singing” story is one for the books. Alexis spent her formative years, seven of them, with the U. S. Army Big Band. You could say she cut her jazz-teeth on k-rations, and she might just be the most talented singer ever to hold a top-secret clearance. While in the Army she shared the stage with ensembles from the New York Philharmonic to Kool and the Gang.
When Alexis mustered out in 2016 she was ready to trade her uniform for chic cocktail dresses and adorable hats and began appearing at top New York nightspots and touring the world.
She won the Montreux Jazz Vocal Competition and now has more than a dozen CDs to her credit with some of the proceeds from this work going to benefit World Bicycle Relief an organization that donates bicycles around the world to different populations in need. Alexis has guested with the Boston Pops, Detroit Symphony, and artists like Harold Mabern, Eric Alexander, Bucky Pizzarelli, and Gregory Porter. She now heads the vocal program at SUNY Purchase College and teaches at Prins Claus Conservatory in Holland. This is her first appearance at Litchfield.
Litchfield Jazz Orchestra members include Albert Rivera, tenor sax, Kris Allen, alto sax, Andrew Hadro, baritone sax, Julian Shore, piano, Peter McEachern, trombone, Avery Sharpe, bass, Ian Carroll, drums, and Dave Ballou, trumpet.
Opening for the LJO will be several talented “top” Litchfield Jazz Camp Combos. Many of these students are prize-winners in their own right already. Enjoy them!
