University News

After a long hiatus, the University of Memphis Southern Comfort Jazz Orchestra has released a new CD.  Voices, which was recorded at the University of Memphis recording studio and Young Avenue Sound, features works by U of M jazz students.

“We have made recordings with the orchestra every year for the past 10 years, but we haven’t released a CD,” said Jack Cooper, chairman of the University’s jazz studies division and director of the orchestra. “It’s a process. We wanted our best work on this CD. We wanted it to say, ‘This is who we are as jazz students, faculty, and a jazz program.’ You clearly get that message when you listen to Voices.”

The Southern Comfort Orchestra has a tradition of musical excellence at the University. The group consists of 17 full-time student musicians who play a wide range of styles, from Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington to modern composers such as Bob Brookmeyer. Full-time U of M music students perform all tracks on the CD, and most of the pieces are original compositions by the jazz program’s student composers.

“Without a commercially released recording like this, our students don’t know where they stand compared to jazz studies students from other universities,” Cooper said. “It’s very important that the voices of our student players, performers, and composers get heard. It’s important for them, and it’s important for their resume.”

Initiated by Tom Ferguson in the late 1960s, the jazz division has developed one of the most comprehensive programs in the nation. The University offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in jazz performance and composition/arranging. Alumni of the program have performed, recorded, and toured with the Count Basie Orchestra, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Dizzy Gillespie, Mercer Ellington, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and others.

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