HOUSTON (Jan. 2, 2024) – The University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024. One of the many milestones in its illustrious history is the founding of the UHD Civic Jazz Orchestra in August 1991 by UHD Jazz Artist in Residence Robert Wilson.
Now the public will get a chance to hear this famed, classical jazz orchestra when it comes home to UHD to perform “An Evening of Jazz” at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024, in the Wilhelmina Cullen Roberston Auditorium, One Main Building. The concert is free and open to the public with a 5:30 p.m. reception.
“This year we will celebrate all the milestones throughout our five decades, including the founding of the UHD Civic Jazz Orchestra,” said UHD President Loren J. Blanchard. “In fact, we will begin our yearlong celebrations with that concert and close the year with a concert by jazz great Terence Blanchard.”
The history of the UHD Civic Jazz Orchestra itself is a storied one. A professional jazz trumpet player and band leader from the age of 12, Wilson, a UHD Professor of English, dreamt of creating a civic jazz orchestra to give a home to the many excellent players who loved jazz and playing but had put their musical pursuits aside for more-lucrative day jobs.
The orchestra recruited professionals and excellent amateurs, and hosted such jazz greats as Milt Larkin, whose 81st birthday was the occasion for the launching of the band; Clark Terry, who performed with the orchestra five years in a row; trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker; saxophonists Joe Henderson and Arnett Cobb; and trumpeter Dennis Dotson, among others.
The orchestra played concerts at UHD and the University of Houston Clear Lake, all 15 years of the Kemah Jazz Festival, and many local arts fairs and events. The orchestra also held the annual Women in Jazz concert as part of UHD’s Women’s History Month observation honoring national and local women jazz musicians such as pianists Marsha Frazer and Pamela York, trumpeter Carol Morgan, and saxophonist Sharel Cassity.
Wilson also founded the UHD Houston Professional Musicians Association (HPMA) Young Sounds of Houston Jazz Orchestra a few years later to ensure that young musicians in the Houston area had an opportunity to learn America’s art form, eventually sparking a national interest in starting youth jazz bands in other cities. Young Sounds paralleled the Civic Jazz Orchestra and played many UHD concerts, the Kemah Jazz Festival, Miller Outdoor Theatre, the Texas Jazz Festival, and the French Quarter Jazz Festival, among many others. Young Sounds nurtured the talents of such national jazz musicians as trumpeter Brandon Lee and pianist Jason Moran.
For more information, visit uhd.edu/50years.
