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Chuck returned to his Alma Mater for an invited appearance as part of UNT’s celebrated Jazz Lecture Series. While there, had an opportunity to speak with Rich DeRosa’s graduate jazz comp students and rehearse with the famed 1:00 Lab Band!
Skylark, a CD featuring jazz vocalist Tom Lellis with the Netherlands’ Metropole Orchestra was released for the first time in the U.S. on the Adventure Music label this May. The CD features two charts of Chuck’s for the renowned orchestra: Taken to Heart (an original by Tom) and Straight Up and Down (Chick Corea). It was originally released by NPS in 1999. John Clayton conducts.
For the first time, some of Chuck’s small group works will be made readily available in addition to those recorded by the Jazz Surge. Charts from two releases by Surge tenor saxophonist & USF Director of Jazz Studies, Jack Wilkins (Ridgelines & Dear Old Stockholm), will be made available exactly as they were recorded. In addition, Chuck has adapted the haunting ballad, “A Ridge Away” for big band. Premiered by the Oregon All-State Jazz Ensemble, this chart is readily playable by most high school ensembles – particularly those with a strong tenor soloists.
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation named Chuck as one of its 2009 Fellows in Music Composition. This prestigious award will provide release time (beginning in January of 2010) for Chuck to pursue the composition of a long-envisioned large-scale work – a Double Concerto for Saxophone, Guitar, & Orchestra.
