Jazz at the Spring Featuring The Peg Delaney Trio

The Jazz world has always been a tough one for women to navigate, and while that is changing, as evidenced by the high-profile bands led by women coming to Saratoga this June?we at Capital District Jazz are proud to have the privilege of presenting the Peg Delaney Trio. Peg Delaney, a formidable pianist, and Capital Region treasure has been fronting her own ensemble for decades. She has been on the vanguard of women in Jazz working steadily, performing, composing, arranging and teaching in short: Making Amazing Music. She is a true trailblazer, and Capital District Jazz is excited to have the Peg Delaney Trio perform a special Wednesday Jazz at the Spring show on June 27. Pianist Peg Delaney who, plays sophisticated jazz, drawn from American, Latin & Brazilian idioms, has been leading her own combos from the beginning of her career. She started the group Jazz Voices, a vocal group singing harmony parts using her own arrangements and some borrowed from the legendary vocal groups Lambert, Hendricks and Ross and the Hi-Lo's. But she wasn?t content to stop there, in her quest to learn more about jazz improvisation, she transcribed solos by saxophonist Nick Brignola. Delaney notes, ?When I wanted to know what improvisation was all about I started to transcribe Nick's sax solos. How better to learn than from the master and guy who'd been winning all the downbeat polls, plus it was like he was family -you know, him being from Troy. And what I learned from his solos! His time and intonation were perfect. I never had to guess at a note's pitch or time value. He was the living Bach who could spontaneously shoot out notes like bullets and weave lines that had such "hipness" and masculine force. I had never heard anyone play with such clarity in conception and such speed.? Her transcriptions are now a book, Nick Brignola Jazz Solos for B Flat, which is on the New York State Music Teachers Association adjudication list, recognized by the National Jazz Educators Association, sold internationally through Jamey Aebersold and Dorn Publication, and excerpts have appeared in the Saxophone Journal. In addition to accompanying vocal workshops led by Sheila Jordan and Jay Clayton and working with horn players like Nick Brignola, Jim Hines, and Leo Russo Delaney is an accomplished composer. She received her degree in Music Theory and Composition from SUNY Plattsburgh, she is a two-time recipient of the New York State Council for the Arts Meet the Composer Award and has recorded her compositions on the CDs The Island Suite, and Hotline featuring the guitarist Cary DeNigris, bassist Gregg August, and drummer Mike DeMarco. She performs with and arranges for the 20-piece Marlowe Big Band of the Northeast, appears as a side musician with many great local players, and was awarded the Swingtime Jazz Society Lifetime Achievement Award. Delaney brings a lifetime of experience to her compositions, which will comprise most of Wednesday evening?s performance. Her muse is her family (kids, pets and now grandchildren) and her compositions evoke joy and pathos, humor and warmth, in essence she captures the soul of her muse. Join us Wednesday, June 27 to be transported by the Peg Delaney trio with bassist Bill Delaney and percussionist Brian Melick as they create sparkling and inventive music.