Jazz Room Series @ William Patterson U., Wayne NJ
Music Roadtrip
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Date: {'content': [{'value': '2026-05-03T15:00:00', 'schema': 'datetime'}, {'value': '2026-05-03T17:00:00', 'schema': 'datetime'}], 'data_type': 'range'}
Description: ALL TICKETS Catherine Russell Sep 28, 2025 @ 3:00 PM Location: Shea Center for Performing Arts A WP audience favorite, singer Catherine Russell has had a career that has spanned numerous decades and musical styles. Early on, she sang background vocals for Steely Dan, Donald Fagen, David Bowie, Madonna, and many more. When she embarked on a solo career, she reached for standards like “Harlem on My Mind” and appeared in a biopic about early jazz leader Buddy Bolden. She has received three Grammy Award nominations and continues to collaborate with performers like Sean Mason and John Pizzarelli, with whom she performed here on the Jazz Room. Her amazingly flexible voice will bring a great message of warmth and blues to the Jazz Room stage again. Tickets: Public: $25 Senior/WP Community: $22 Non-WP Student: $15 Free for WP Students with show of ID All prices include fees. Ted Rosenthal Trio Plays Gershwin Oct 19, 2025 @ 3:00 PM Location: Shea Center for Performing Arts Sponsored by Keith Danish Ted Rosenthal has collaborated, toured, and worked with some of the jazz greats of the past 40 years, including Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer, Jon Faddis, Phil Woods, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and Bob Brookmeyer. Early in his career, he was winner of the 1988 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition, and his appearance on Marian McPartland’s NPR Piano Jazz program is well known. His CDs show his approaches to the American popular song and Broadway classics. Today’s concert will showcase his trio’s versions of the compositions of one of the greatest American composers of any genre, George Gershwin, including Rosenthal’s unique version of Gershwin’s iconic “Rhapsody in Blue.” Tickets: $25 – Public $22 – Senior/WP Community $15 – Non-WP Student Free for WP Students with show of ID All prices include fees. Tyshawn Sorey Quartet Oct 26, 2025 @ 3:00 PM Location: Shea Center for Performing Arts Winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Music and a Macarthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship, Tyshawn Sorey is a jazz alumnus of William Paterson University, and of the famed Newark Arts High School. Althoughhemaybebetter known worldwide for his compositions, he is a virtuosic and imaginative, powerful drummer who is a steady fixture on today’s jazz scene, collaborating with Aaron Diehl, Greg Osby, Marilyn Crispell, Roscoe Mitchell, Vijay Iyer, and many more. He is on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, formerly taught at Wesleyan University, and his doctorate in composition is from Columbia University. We are proud to bring Tyshawn Sorey back to the Jazz Room stage. Tickets: $25 – Public $22 – Senior/WP Community $15 – Non-WP Student Free for WP Students with show of ID All prices include fees. Trumpeter Scott Wendholt with the William Paterson University Jazz Orchestra, directed by Mitch Butler Nov 16, 2025 @ 3:00 PM Location: Shea Center for Performing Arts Sponsored by Thomas Larson This concert brings to the stage one of the main solo voices of the legendary Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, trumpeter Scott Wendholt. He has been the lead soloist on many of the Vanguard Orchestra’s most famous pieces, including “Mean What You Say,” and a newer composition written for him by the great Bob Brookmeyer. Wendholt has also performed or recorded with Bobby McFerrin, Chris Botti, Toshiko Akiyoshi, the Mingus Big Band, Christian McBride, Cyrus Chestnut, and led the house band at the famous Augie’s Jazz Club in New York in the early 1990s. He has been featured on more than 120 CDs. His virtuosity will be paired with the William Paterson Jazz Orchestra, led for the first time by Dr. Mitch Butler, WP’s new coordinator of jazz studies. Tickets: Public: $25 Senior/WP Community: $22 Non-WP Student: $15 Free for WP Students with show of ID All prices include fees. Eliane Elias Nov 23, 2025 @ 3:00 PM Location: Shea Center for Performing Arts The great pianist, singer, and arranger Eliane Elias came to New York from her native Sao Paolo, Brazil to attend Juilliard, but a year later joined the powerful acoustic fusion band Steps Ahead with Michael Brecker, Mike Mainieri, and others. Aside from her long relationship with Steps, she has collaborated with Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. Her main influences are Antonio Carlos Jobim and Bill Evans; she has dedicated albums to both, including one recording that featured unrecorded Evans compositions. Her deep dedication to the tradition of the bossa nova continues to showcase her as a vocalist as well as at the piano. A multiple Grammy Award winner, she continues to create albums at the highest level, including her newest release Time and Again. We welcome her return to the Jazz Room for the finale of our fall season. Tickets: Gold Circle: $50 Rear Orchestra: $45 Front Loge: $40 Rear Loge: $35 Orrin Evans Feb 15, 2026 @ 3:00 PM Location: Shea Center for Perfroming Arts Sponsored by Heart of Jazz Foundation Pianist-composer Orrin Evans is a Trenton native, and a veteran of the Philadelphia and worldwide jazz scenes. He leads his own small groups, as well as the powerful Captain Black Big Band. His most recent recording, Magic of Now, is his 20th, featuring such well-known players as Bill Stewart and Vicente Archer along with young saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins. His previous albums were on Smoke Sessions and Imani Records (his imprint), garnering several Grammy nominations. Evans, who topped the DownBeat “Rising Star” poll in 2018, was a member of the Mingus Big Band for a year and was formerly the pianist in the Bad Plus trio. He is a committed educator and is a board member for the Heart of Jazz Foundation, which is sponsoring this exciting performance. Tickets: $25 – Public $22 – Senior/WP Community $15 – Non-WP Student Free for WP Students with show of ID All prices include fees WP Presents and Jazz Room | The Branford Marsalis Quartet Feb 26, 2026 @ 8:00 PM Location: Shea Center for Performing Arts Branford Marsalis continues to thrill audiences around the world while racking up achievements across diverse musical platforms, even after four decades in the international spotlight. From his initial recognition as a young jazz lion, landing his first major jobs with trumpet legend Clark Terry and alongside his brother Wynton in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, he has expanded his vision as an instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, and educator, crossing stylistic boundaries while maintaining an unwavering creative integrity. Branford went on to form his own quartet and it remains his primary performance vehicle. Known for the telepathic communication among its uncommonly consistent personnel, its deep book of original music replete with expressive melodies and provocative forms, and an unrivaled spirit in both live and recorded performances. The Branford Marsalis Quartet has long been recognized as the standard to which other ensembles of its kind must be measured. Along Branford’s musical journey, he has become an avatar of contemporary artistic excellence winning three Grammy Awards, a Tony nomination for his work as a composer on Broadway, a citation by the National Endowment for the Arts as Jazz Master, and a 2021 Primetime EMMY nomination for the score he composed for the Tulsa Burning documentary. As for other public stages, Branford spent a period touring with Sting, collaborated with the Grateful Dead and Bruce Hornsby, served as Musical Director of The Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno and hosted National Public Radio’s widely syndicated Jazz Set. The range and quality of these diverse activities established Branford as a familiar presence beyond the worlds of jazz, classical, and beyond. Tickets: Gold Circle $75 Rear Orchestra $67 Front Loge $57 Rear Loge/Accessible $47 Discounts: 10% off for senior citizens and William Paterson employees and students. 15% off for groups of ten or more. Steve Wilson with the William Paterson University Jazz Orchestra Mar 08, 2026 @ 3:00 PM Location: Shea Center for Performing Arts Virtuoso saxophonist/flutist Steve Wilson first gained recognition in the Smithsonian Jazz Orchestra and the Mingus Big Band. Since then, he has become widely recognized as one of the most respected jazz performers on the scene. He has been a member of ensembles led by Dave Holland, Helen Sung, and Rufus Reid; Chick Corea’s Origins Quintet; and an all-star ensemble formed to celebrate the 70thanniversary of Blue Note Records. Primarily an alto player, he is also recognized as one of the leading performers on the challenging soprano saxophone. This concert will feature the premiere performances of several arrangements created for Wilson by William Paterson graduate student arrangers. He has been on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music, City College of New York, SUNY Purchase, and William Paterson University. Tickets: $25 – Public $22 – Senior/WP Community $15 – Non-WP Student Free for WP Students with show of ID All prices include fees. John Pizzarelli Mar 29, 2026 @ 3:00 PM Location: Shea Center for Performing Arts Sponsored by the Woody Shapiro Foundation The Pizzarelli jazz family has had a long connection to William Paterson: John’s father, the legendary guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, was one of the first WP jazz faculty members, taught for many years here, and appeared many times on the Jazz Room series, often accompanied by his equally virtuosic son. John Pizzarelli is equally known as a guitarist and vocalist, dedicating many of his performances to the diverse elements of the Great American Songbook and the recordings of Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Zoot Sims, Tony Bennett, and Paul McCartney, among many others, often with his wife, singer Jessica Molasky. He proudly carries on his father’s humor and Jersey sensibility, as well as his amazing command of the guitar. He performs with his sparkling new trio, including pianist Isaiah J. Thompson and bassist Mike Carn. Tickets (includes fees): $53 – Gold Circle $48 – Rear Orchestra $43 – Front Loge $33 – Rear Loge/ Accessible WP Student are admitted free with show of I.D. Discounts: Senior citizens and William Paterson employees and students are eligible for 10% discount. Groups of ten or more get 15% off. Paquito D’Rivera with the William Paterson Latin Jazz Ensemble May 03, 2026 @ 3:00 PM Location: Shea Center for Performing Arts The career of the brilliant saxophonist and clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera began in his native Cuba, where he first earned worldwide recognition as a member of the all-star group Irakere. Since coming to the U.S. in the early 1980s, he has released more than 40 albums, earning numerous Grammy Awards. Equally recognized as a jazz and classical soloist and composer, he was the first artist to win Grammys in both the Latin Music and Best Classical Composition categories. He became an NEA American Jazz Master and was awarded the National Medal of the Arts in 2005, has been awarded several honorary doctorates, and is artistic director of jazz programming of the New Jersey Chamber Music Society. He brings his passion and energy to the Jazz Room stage to collaborate with the William Paterson Latin Jazz Ensemble in this memorable concert. Tickets: $25 – Public $22 – Senior/WP Community $15 – Non-WP Student Free for WP Students with show of ID All prices include fees.
Website: https://hearitthere.com/event/jazz-room-series-william-patterson-u-wayne-nj/2026-05-03/
Address: Shea Center William Patterson University ~ Wayne NJ, 300 Pompton Road, Wayne, NJ, United States
Music category: Classical