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Jazz critic, author and broadcast journalist Greg Thomas ’85 returned to campus on Feb. 18 to present  “Albert Murray and the Blues Idiom Worldview.” The event was in celebration of Black History Month and the 100th birthday of author and jazz critic Albert Murray.

The Hamilton College Performing Arts Series presents the Robert Glasper Trio on Saturday, Feb. 20, at 7:30 p.m., in Wellin Hall, Schambach Center. Multi-Grammy winner Glasper returns to his acoustic jazz roots in a concert supporting his latest album, Covered.  The album reunites Glasper with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Damion Reid, who will be performing with Glasper on piano and keys at Hamilton.

Greg Thomas ’85,  principal at G&J Productions, will present a lecture titled “Albert Murray and the Blues Idiom Worldview” on Thursday, Feb. 18, at 4:15 p.m., in the Red Pit, KJ. The lecture is sponsored by the Fillius Jazz Archive and is free and open to the public.

The Hamilton College Department of Music presents the Hamilton Jazz Ensemble’s winter concert, “Big Band Bop!” on Monday, Dec. 7, at 7:30 p.m., in Café Opus, McEwen Hall.

Monk Rowe, the Joe Williams Director of the Milt and Nelma Fillius Jazz Archive, presented “The Fillius Jazz Archive at Hamilton College: Preserving Words and Images” on Oct. 16 at the fall meeting of the New York State/Ontario Chapter of the Music Library Association (NYS/O MLA).

Jazz Tales from Jazz Legends – a distillation of more than 325 interviews recorded over two decades with jazz greats, their band members and critics– has just been released by Couper Press. Written by Director of the Fillius Jazz Archive Monk Rowe, the book includes interviews with Dave Brubeck, Steve Allen, Marian McPartland, Joe Williams, Bela Fleck, among many others, as well as with former members of bands led by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman and Stan Kenton. 

The dedication of Morris House as Hamilton’s newest residence hall and a lecture by career diplomat Thomas Pickering about the status of Iran will be among highlights of Hamilton’s Fallcoming Weekend, Oct. 1-4.   Football, men’s and women’s soccer and field hockey will host games on Saturday, a capella groups will perform and the Alumni Association will hold its annual recognition dinner.

Hamilton continues its celebration of April Jazz Appreciation Month with a performance by jazz vocalist Janis Siegel with pianist Rick Montalbano on Sunday, April 12, at 7 p.m., in the Fillius Events Barn.  The event, sponsored by the Fillius Jazz Archive and hosted by Monk Rowe, is free and open to the public.

April will bring us a reprieve from the weather and an annual celebration of an original American art form. In 2001, the Smithsonian Museum of American History designated April as Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM). Schools and cultural institutions across the country host concerts and workshops to highlight our musical gift to the world. Further information about JAM can be found at www.smithsonianjazz.org. Jazz is alive and well at Hamilton College where the Fillius Jazz archive resides. We will join the JAM celebration with a number of campus events listed below.

Hamilton College Performing Arts presents jazz vocalist Gregory Porter on Saturday, Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m., in Wellin Hall, Schambach Center. Porter will perform fan favorites, including selections from his Grammy Award-winning album “Liquid Spirit.”