(Gary
Wittner)
The Centre for Jazz and Popular Music will
present guitarist Gary Wittner (USA) on Wednesday May 15, 2019.
When Wittner began playing the guitar, he
had a deep affinity for the blues and was drawn to the music of Rural Blues
artists such as Lightning Hopkins and Big Bill Broonzy. He studied at the
Berklee College of Music where he began studying and transcribing Thelonious
Monk's music in earnest.
Graduating in 1981, Wittner moved to
Colorado where he began performing all-Monk concerts. After three years as a
freelance guitarist, he began a Master's Degree programme at Washington State
University, where he completed his thesis (a study of Monk's compositional
style) in 1986. From Washington, he was offered a faculty position at the
University of Maine at Augusta. Based there until 1997, he taught and developed
courses in Jazz History, Rock and Roll History, Jazz Theory, Ear Training,
Music Business, Ensembles, and Private Lessons. He was the Jazz and
Contemporary Music Department Coordinator in 1996 and was given the
University's Distinguished Scholar Award the same year. As an original faculty
member of the International Summer Jazz Academy (1994 - present in Krakow,
Poland).
Wittner has performed throughout Poland and
taught students from Poland, Denmark, Ukraine, France, Germany, Iceland,
Austria, and the USA. Since 1997, he has divided his time between New York
City, where he performs and teaches privately, and Maine where he is a part-time
jazz guitar/ensemble instructor at the University of Southern Maine, Bowdoin
College and Lincoln Academy.
Outside of the university, he continued to
develop his presentations on the music and life of Thelonious Monk. To date, he
has presented this programme at clubs and universities throughout the USA and
in Canada, Poland, Russia, England, Wales, Austria, France and South Africa. He
has been featured by many artists in concerts including Christian McBride, Reggie
Workman, Richard Davis, Eddie Gomez, Clark Terry, Art Lande to name a few. He
has performed for the Monk family, and been interviewed on the radio with
Thelonious Monk, Jr. Gary's first book Thelonious
Monk for Guitar, published by the Hal Leonard Corp. was released
internationally in 1999 and has received international acclaim. Additional
articles have been published by Guitar Player, Coda, and the International
Association of Jazz Educators Journal. Wittner (as a member of the New York
based Trio W.A.G.) has twice been chosen as a Kennedy Center/US Department of
State Jazz Ambassador, with performances at the Capital Building, The Kennedy
Center, and tours of Serbia/Montenegro/Slovenia (2001) and Papua New
Guinea/Fiji (2003).
In 2006, Wittner received grants from the
International Association of Jazz Educators and the Maine Arts Commission for
performances/clinics at the South African National Arts Festival and the
University of Cape Town. He has also developed a program that he presents for
lower, middle and high school students called Our American Musical Heritage. This presentation is both
entertaining and informative, and has become very popular with students and
faculty members.
For the concert, Witter will be joined by Dalisu
Ndlanzi on bass, Salim Washington on saxophones and Bruce Baker on drums
The concert takes place on May 15, 2019, at
18h00 (doors open at 17h30) at The Centre for Jazz and Popular music (CJPM),
Level 2, Shepstone Building at UKZN Howard College Campus. General admission
R80 (R50 pensioners, R25 students).
Contact Thuli on 031 2603385 or email
Zamat1@ukzn.ac.za for more details
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