Modern Jazz Meets Modern Broadway

Union32 presents three brand-new sets of jazz music, featuring original arrangements highlighting material from upcoming Arizona Musicfest concerts. Each member of the quintet builds new arrangements reflecting a broad range of musical influences – exploring the hybridizations of jazz with a variety of musical genres, including pop/rock, funk, and contemporary classical. Each performance will include discussions of music selection, how the artists organized and wrote their arrangements, and have space for Q&A with the audience about composition, improvisation, and jazz history.  

The last 30 years of Broadway has brought a variety of new musical styles to the stage – including modern rock, hip hop and emo. While either in revue form or in the shape of original compositions, these modern productions have expanded both the kinds of music one might expect on stage and the kinds of audiences interested in attending.  Union32 brings new arrangements of these songs showcasing the same kind of attitude and approaches used by jazz artists in the 1950s and 60s – retooling Broadway hits as vehicles for instrumental jazz improvisation.

2024 concerts:

January 25th  – In My Life: Jazz Re-Imaginings of The Beatles

February 22nd – Modern Jazz Meets Modern Broadway

March 21st – Coat of Many Colors: Country, Blues, and Jazz 

The Union32 concert series is generously sponsored by Bob and Charlotte Otto.