Jazz concert benefits victims

Musical worlds are about to collide. \nThe world of bebop and boogie and the classical world meet for "A Benefit for New Orleans: The Cradle of Jazz" at 8 p.m. tonight in the Musical Arts Center. IU jazz legend David Baker will direct the IU Jazz Ensemble and welcome special guest soloists Sylvia McNair and distinguished professor of music Timothy Noble. \n"Two worlds will meet in an effort to help another part of the world," Baker said. \nAll proceeds from the concert will benefit the American Red Cross of New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina refugees. All proceeds benefiting victims, roughly $20,000 with a capacity crowd, is an idea that Baker said had its beginning with Gwyn Richards, dean of the IU School of Music.\n"Gywn's heart is just so big, man," said Baker with gratitude, thumping his heart with a closed fist. \nThe two soloists illustrate the combination of the jazz and classical genres the concert will feature. For McNair, an IU alumna and two-time Grammy award-winning soloist, and Noble, an internationally renowned baritone, it will be a chance to showcase their talents in a different style. \n"There's something titillating about that," Baker said. "It's like in New Orleans and putting all the stuff in the mixture for the gumbo."\nThe concert will mark Baker's working debut with both McNair and Noble, although he pointed out that he's known them for more years than he can count.\nBaker's accomplishments in jazz, composition and education are numbered and prominent. Having received his master's in 1954, he now chairs the jazz department in the School of Music and has composed more than 2,000 concertos, sonatas and film scores. His induction plaque to the International Jazz Hall of Fame sat nonchalantly on his desk among scores of musical arrangements and papers.\nBaker also finds time to serve as conductor and artistic director for the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, something he said gives him access to "lots of music." Through this organization, Baker has worked with many New Orleans musicians. He recalled his friend Wynton Marsalis, a nine-time Grammy Award-winning trumpeter. He spoke of Louis Ford, a famed clarinetist whose album liner notes he was writing when the hurricane struck.\nDespite of all his jazz achievements, Baker strived not to take attention away from the students in the ensemble and the message they were sending to victims through the benefit. \nBoth IU President Adam Herbert and Richards were excited IU was able to help victims through an event so ingrained in the culture of New Orleans: jazz. There have been numerous concerts of late where proceeds have gone to Katrina victims, notably one Sept. 17 at the Lincoln Center in New York City starring Marsalis. It only seemed logical that IU's world-renowned music school would follow suit. \n"This benefit concert is a way for the Indiana University community and our neighbors to lend support to those in need as a result of this disaster," Herbert said in a released statement.\nRichards concurred in the same statement, "We look forward to joining with the Bloomington community in an event that celebrates the origins and legacy of jazz, a uniquely American musical art form that is synonymous with New Orleans." \nThe title of the benefit, "The Cradle of Jazz," signifies New Orleans as the reputed birthplace of the art. Jazz origins can be traced back to the French colonial days and founding of the city in 1718, according to the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. It embraced African drumming, good food, wine and dancing. The music of the time, drumming and singing, was the precursor of modern jazz. \n New Orleans has had its share of modern jazz greats -- Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and Joe "King" Oliver, to name a few. The city still holds an annual jazz festival each spring for two weeks. In numbers, spirit, and certainly music, it rivals Mardi Gras.\nVarying opinions exist on the birthplace of jazz. Baker claimed Richmond, Ind., was one cradle of jazz. It is safe to say that New Orleans must be strongly considered as a candidate. \n"I think you could make a very real case for New Orleans as the birthplace of jazz because of that wonderful mixture of culture, food and music," Baker said.\n"A Benefit for New Orleans: The Cradle of Jazz" offers listeners the chance to see a jazz legend and his pupils in action and to hear two world-class singers, all for the benefit of Katrina victims. \nIn spite of the concert's philanthropic goals, Baker still emphasized the musical side of it.\n"We're going to play a jazz concert," he said.