WARREN REPORTER Monday, July 19, 2010 

PETER HAND BIG BAND CLOSES OUT JAZZ IN JULY SERIES AT CENTENARY STAGE HACKETTSTOWN

HACKETTSTOWN, NJ — The month will come to a swinging conclusion on Saturday, July 31, as the Peter Hand Big Band swings into Hackettstown, featuring the incomparable Houston Person on saxophone as guest artist. With an 8 p.m. performance, this will be the final concert in this year’s popular Jazz in July series at the Centenary Stage.

Veteran jazz-man Hand has been on the New York jazz scene for many years, has written and arranged for the likes of George Coleman, and Lee Konitz, and has assembled a cadre of upper-echelon artists to play dynamic arrangements of the Great American Songbook for this special concert. An All Music Guide review hails musical artist Houston Person as “the gutsiest of the gutbucket saxophonists of the soul- jazz age — with a tenor sound that is as pure as it can be, with some of the most lush, elegant tenor sounds ever heard, played with a legato finesse.” 

Person enjoyed a 30-year musical partnership with vocalist Etta Jones, and has recorded with Lena Horne, Lou Rawls and Horace Silver. He is recognized as one of today’s leading instrumentalists. In addition to Person on sax, the band features Valery Ponomarev, Eddie Allen, Cecil Bridgewater and Brian Paraschi on trumpets and flugelhorns; John Mosca, Sam Burtis, Vincent Gardner on trombones; Bruce Williams, Jay Brandford, Don Braden, Ralph Lalama and Kenny Berger on woodwinds and saxophones; James Weidman on piano; Harvie S on bass; and Steve Johns on drums, with leader Hand also on guitar.

Tickets for The Peter Hand Big Band with Houston Person are $30 in advance and $35 at the door, Centenary Stage box office at 908-979-0900, online at centenarystageco.org.