Manny About Town
Jazz on the Green Community Concert

By Manny Meland

	Pete McGuinness leads the band at UM

Trombonist Pete McGuinness, and the UM Concert Jazz Band blew up a storm on the sunny Florida Sunday afternoon of April 1. We brought our lawn chairs and beers and settled down on the lawn along with a great crowd next to the pond at the University of Miami Gusman Concert Hall to enjoy the music. And enjoy the music we did.

Music director/conductor Dante Lucianni introduced Pete McGuinness. He informed us that Pete had attended U of M. in 1986 where he earned his Bachelor of Music degree. He subsequently received a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music in 1987. McGuinness was thrilled to be playing at his old alma matter. “Time flies,” he said. And so did I as he did “Fly Me to the Moon”.

McGuinness  is a accomplished trombonist/composer/arranger. He has performed in the past with such groups as the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, the Woody Herman Big Band, the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and the Jimmy Heath Band, and he appears on numerous jazz CDs.  McGuinness leads or co-leads several of his own jazz groups, including the NewYorkestra big band, the New York Trombone Conspiracy and the Pete McGuinness Quintet. On this particular afternoon, McGuinness soloed with the know-how only a composer has for his own music thrilling us with his rendition of  “Sliding In”, “Blues for AG”, “Joansong” and “Bigelownia”. These tunes can be heard on his CD  Sliding In, released nationally on Kokopelli Records and has been aired by several jazz radio programs throughout the country.

	The crowd enjoys the music at the UM concert

In the past, McGuinness has been awarded several commission grants to compose original works including an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Furthermore, he is a master of scat and a past semi-finalist of the Thelonius Monk International Jazz Competition for vocalists. At the UM concert, he laid down his axe and vocalized that old Tommy Dorsey tune, “I’m Growing Sentimental Over You”. That was Dorsey’s signature song and a big hit record during the time of the big bands in the 1940s.