UK Jazz Ensemble at 50: Then and Now

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 15, 2019) — The University of Kentucky Jazz Ensemble is one of the country’s most critically acclaimed award-winning college jazz groups. However, the band wasn’t an immediately welcomed addition to campus.

Much like another American music genre, rock and roll, jazz music and its musicians often were considered to have a less than angelic image. And at UK in the 1950s, jazz was already getting a bad rap when a couple of students allegedly were caught playing a less than reputable establishment — stifling any growth of jazz studies and performance at the university for years.

Jazz wouldn’t get its foot in the door at UK until more than a decade later, when a new band director, Harry Clarke, would be ready to try something new.

“When he (Harry Clarke) came on, he thought why is there not a jazz band here at UK in 1969. He found out the whole history, but he kept going on with it — thank goodness,” said Miles Osland, who was the fourth conductor to inherit the ensemble and is currently celebrating 30 years as its director.

This year, the UK Jazz Ensemble will celebrate those milestones — the 50 years of performing by the ensemble and 30 years of Osland’s direction — with a season of special concerts including its UK Jazz 30/50 Celebration scheduled to take the stage 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18, at Singletary Center for the Arts.

“Jazz is America's art form, so we really have to have jazz on all campuses of America,” Osland said. Today, UK School of Music is not only home to the Jazz Ensemble, but also a Jazz Lab Band, Rep Band, Mega-Sax and several jazz combos. 

The UK Jazz Ensemble has been led by some of the School of Music’s most storied faculty. Harry Clarke, a former UK School of Music chair, is credited for building the ensemble’s strong foundation. The program would then attract celebrated trumpet professor Vince DiMartino to campus. DiMartino would continue to elevate the UK Jazz Ensemble’s profile as conductor for 17 years before leaving for Centre College.

As DiMartino grew the ensemble, he noted the need for more jazz studies on campus and approached Osland.

“Vince DiMartino twisted my arm and got me to the UK in 1989. I was hired to boost up the saxophone program and to start some different aspects of a jazz studies program,” Osland said.

Since Osland joined UK School of Music, the program has added different combos, classes in improvisation, and new faculty including a drum set instructor, a bass instructor and Raleigh Dailey, associate professor of jazz piano, who teaches the Lab Band.

With the growth of the program came invitations, recognition and awards. His first year, Osland took the ensemble to the country’s oldest collegiate jazz festival at Notre Dame and won its division. 

Since then, the UK Jazz Ensemble has played several different festivals, including Elmhurst and four invitations to perform at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic. The group has also toured China and Europe with performances at Montreux and the North Sea Jazz Festivals.

In addition, UK’s Jazz Ensemble and individual students have garnered multiple awards from DownBeat magazine including Best Jazz Ensemble, Best Jazz Orchestra, and various soloist awards, as well as released almost a dozen CDs, cassettes and LPs in 40 years of commercial recordings. Two more commemorative "best of" CDs were released this year — "UKJE The Early Years … 1979-1999" and "UKJE …Till Now 1999-2019." Both of these new CDs will be available for purchase at the UK Jazz 30/50 Celebration.

This record of excellence keeps attracting the best and brightest musicians to UK. "UK and Miles and the jazz program have a great reputation in our area. I talked to a lot of people who went to a bunch of different schools and people who went here, and the tradition and the quality of musicians here is so high," said saxophone performance senior Kirby Davis, of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.

And Davis, who took second at the North American Saxophone Alliance Collegiate Jazz Solo Competition and published an analysis article on UK guest artist Rudresh Mahanthappa for DownBeat as an undergraduate, says the opportunities he has received at UK leave him no doubts about his college education selection. "I think that experience is important because it imitates a real professional experience. In the real world, you’re going to have all kinds of different jobs come at you, and you need to be prepared to do any kind of job that somebody asks you to do. This school really trains you for that."

In recognition of this storied history, the UK Jazz 30/50 Celebration will showcase the UK Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Osland, and include appearances by former conductors Harry Clarke and Vince DiMartino, as well as several alumni. It will also feature a performance of one of the first songs the ensemble played under Osland and a newly commissioned work by Matt Catingub titled "Elvis is Still in the Building."

Tickets for the UK Jazz 30/50 Celebration are $12 for the general public and $5 for students. Free tickets are available for UK students in advance up to the day before the show when picked up at the Singletary Center box office. Tickets can be purchased through the Singletary Center ticket office by phone at 859-257-4929, online at www.scfatickets.com/ or in person.

The School of Music at UK College of Fine Arts has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, music therapy, composition, and theory and music history.