The Joe Park Quartet: The Great American Songbook

Few bodies of music have shaped the modern ear as deeply as the Great American Songbook. The Joe Park Quartet presents an evening devoted to four composers who turned the popular song into an art form, and whose work remains the foundation of jazz and American music today. Irving Berlin helped bring ragtime into the mainstream and set the template for the modern popular song. His work defined Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and the early Hollywood musical, and his clear, singable style became the model for generations of American songwriters. Cole Porter raised the musical theater song to a new level of sophistication. His blend of urbane wit and adventurous harmony shaped Broadway, cabaret and the jazz standard, and showed that popular music could be as literate as poetry. George Gershwin erased the line between popular and classical music. He fused jazz and blues with the concert hall, created American opera rooted in Black musical traditions, and wrote harmonies that later became the backbone of bebop. More than anyone, he defined a distinctly American sound. Duke Ellington transformed jazz from dance music into serious composition. He shaped the big band and swing eras, pioneered extended jazz suites and sacred works, and treated the orchestra as a palette of individual voices. He stands among the most important composers of the twentieth century, in any genre. Together, these four tell the story of how American song came of age. Join us for an intimate evening of timeless melodies, reimagined in the spirit of jazz. Joe Park – Guitar Hugh Jones – Saxophone Bob Row – Organ Drew Weiss – Drums