Yale Jazz Ensemble

Featuring Paul Lieberman '78, saxophone/flute

Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director

An evening of big band and combo jazz: Azul and I Tried To Tell You, composed by and featuring Paul Lieberman ’78, saxophone/flute; Spaces (F. Bennett’69/arr. B. Dechter’78/’79); Nica’s Dream (H. Silver/arr. B. Dechter); Lulu’s Back in Town (A. Dubin/H. Warren); Tom Yam Kung (H. Hantrakul ’15), and more.

Composer and saxophonist Paul Lieberman was a member of the 1970s Yale student jazz scene. He has toured with Brazilian jazz legends Airto and Flora Purim and has performed around the world as Music Director of Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band and as featured guest soloist with Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. He has performed or recorded with Pat Metheny, George Benson, Jaco Pastorius, David Sanborn, The Allman Brothers, Paquito D’Rivera, Hermeto Pascoal, Milton Nascimento, Djavan, and many others. A former University of Massachusetts faculty member, he currently lectures on Brazilian music, gives clinics and master classes on jazz improvisation, and is a member of the Deerfield Academy faculty.

The Yale Jazz Ensemble (YJE) is a seventeen-piece big band that performs a wide variety of music, from Yale’s Benny Goodman archive to the newest and most progressive jazz compositions. The Ensemble has performed extensively in the United States and internationally at such noted venues as New York’s Village Vanguard and Iridium jazz clubs, and London’s Ronnie Scott’s. The YJE has performed with or opened for The Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, the Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin Big Band, the World Saxophone Quartet, Jane Ira Bloom, Jimmy Owens, and Branford Marsalis.