Marty Ehrlich + Maryland Saxtet /Steppin': The Music of Julius Hemphill

Julius Hemphill (1938-1995) was an African American composer and saxophonist who not only wrote for his own small and large jazz ensembles, but also for such renowned classical music artists as Kronos Quartet and pianist Ursula Oppens, and for collaborations with renowned artists like Lester Bowie. He is best known as the principal composer for the pioneering World Saxophone Quartet, “the first supergroup to emerge from the loft jazz of the 1970s” (The Penguin Guide to Jazz). Mixing blues, R&B, and jazz vernaculars with structures and methods used in contemporary classical music, Hemphill’s compositions blurred the boundaries between genres and presented a panoramic view of American music. The first major retrospective of Hemphill’s music in the more than 30 years since his death, Steppin’: The Music of Julius Hemphill is a two-concert series celebrating a great American composer on the 250th anniversary of the nation.

For the first concert, FEMA has commissioned saxophonist and composer Marty Ehrlich to create a program of Hemphill’s music for WSQ with three Maryland resident saxophonists. A member of The Julius Hemphill Sextet, formed in the late 1980s as an outgrowth of Hemphill’s magnum opus, Long Tongues: A Saxophone Opera, Ehrlich assumed the musical directorship of the Sextet for a decade after Hemphill’s passing. Ehrlich is also the archivist of The Julius Hemphill Papers at New York University.

FEMA has also enlisted the considerable talents of three Maryland resident saxophonists to create Maryland Saxtet. Although Howard Burns has performed with a long list of jazz luminaries, beginning with Clark Terry, Jimmy Heath, and NEA Jazz Master Gary Bartz, he is best known in Frederick for his 30+ years as the Jazz Band Director at Frederick Community College. Currently a Professor of Jazz Arranging and Jazz Theory at Shenandoah University, Frederick resident Darryl Brenzel has led performances at Kennedy Center, Blues Alley and the East Coast Jazz Festival, and has performed with everyone from The Nelson Riddle Orchestra to The Beach Boys. Gregory Thompkins is a longtime stalwart of the Baltimore jazz scene, leading his own groups, directing the Baltimore Jazz Education Project, and teaching jazz history at the Renaissance Institute Notre Dame of Maryland University.

Steppin’: The Music of Julius Hemphill is underwritten by The Delaplaine Foundation and Maryland State Arts Council, with additional support from the Plamondon Hospitality Group.

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