North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra
NCJRO Photo courtesy Steve Bromberg
James Ketch, Music Director
The North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra (NCJRO) is the state’s premier jazz orchestra. Founded in 1993, the 18-member ensemble has championed the great American jazz art form by presenting concerts and educational programming across the state. The orchestra has recorded three CDs and appeared on public television broadcasts by UNC-TV. The orchestra has performed with many jazz luminaries including Branford Marsalis, John Pizzarelli, Rene Marie, the Marcus Roberts Trio, Slide Hampton, and Claudio Roditi. Other collaborations have included numerous presentations with the North Carolina Symphony: the choirs of Duke Chapel, UNC-Chapel Hill, and NCCU; the 15-501 Ballet; the NC Youth Tap Ensemble; NYC’s Fiasco Theater; the duo dance team Two Near The Edge, and TV personalities David Hartman and Charlie Gaddy. The orchestra has performed at the Brevard Music Festival in western North Carolina and at the Kitty Hawk and Crystal Cast Jazz Festivals to the east.
The NCJRO maintains a repertory that spans nearly a century. Fans of the orchestra have come to expect concerts featuring music from Jelly Roll Morton, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Benny Goodman right along with contemporary arrangements of the music of Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and John Coltrae.
Comprised of professional musicians and educators from across the state, the NCJRO has presented workshops, clinics, and school programs in many North Carolina locations. The band’s Jazz Express program brings NCJRO members into elementary, middle, and high school classrooms for demonstrations, lectures, and coaching sessions. Grants have allowed the band to present Duke Ellington’s adaptation of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite to hundreds of NC public school children and to co-sponsor the North Carolina School of Science and Math annual Jim Ketch Jazz Festival. Other programs built around music and storytelling elevate literacy among grade-school children.
The NCJRO is directed by James Ketch, who is Professor Emeritus of Music and Director of Jazz Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ketch is a Summit Records artist with highly acclaimed CD recordings. He has served as Associate Director, alongside Director Marcus Roberts, for the Savannah Music Festival’s Swing Central program and is a longstanding member of the faculty of the famed Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshop at the University of Louisville. During his career at UNC, Ketch was the recipient of four university teaching awards.
In 2017 the Jazz Foundation of North Carolina, the not-for-profit organization created to support the NCJRO and sustain jazz and jazz education throughout North Carolina, merged with The Durham Jazz Workshop. The NCJRO is now operated and supported by the not-for-profit Durham Jazz Workshop Inc., located in Durham, NC. The music of the NCJRO is heard monthly on highly popular Tuesday evening concerts at the DJW’s Sharp 9 Gallery. The Board of Directors for the Durham Jazz Workshop and the Sharp 9 Gallery continue the commitment to preserving jazz in all its forms across the Triangle Region of North Carolina and beyond. In the partnership created by the Durham Jazz Workshop and the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra, big band music has been alive on stages and campuses of public schools, colleges, and universities for more than 20 years. With the vision of the Durham Jazz Workshop,a bright future for jazz in North Carolina seems certain.
Here's what they're saying about the NCJRO:
"Repertory is an essential component of any serious art form, and it is a movement that has gradually come to jazz. Jim Ketch and the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra are a vital artery in the perpetuation of the art form. It was a pleasure to play with such high caliber musicians."
- Branford Marsalis
"The NCJRO does not take its swinging lightly. It is a terrific group of musicians that represent everything that is great about jazz. They run the gamut of styles flawlessly and the ensemble playing is tremendous."
- John Pizzarelli
"Move over, Lincoln Center and Smithsonian Jazz Orchestras."
- Owen Cordle, Jazz Critic and Writer
Downbeat Magazine
Raleigh News & Observer
To contact the NCJRO JKetch@email.unc.edu
919-812-2142jketch@email.unc.edu
4608 L Industry Lane , Durham, NC 27713
To contact the NCJRO JKetch@email.unc.edu