By Lookout Staff
March 17, 2025 -- The Santa Monica College (SMC) Jazz Ensemble this month will perform "cutting-edge" compositions and arrangements by jazz artists who went against the social grain.
Led by conductor Frederick Keith Fiddmont the concert will take place on Monday, March 31, at 7 p.m. in the Music Hall at the SMC Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th Street.
The featured artists -- Oliver Nelson, Mary Lou Williams, Melba Liston and Billy Strayhorn -- were all born before 1935 and "had to fight against convention to have their unique genius recognized," concert organizers said.
When Nelson (1932-1975) moved to Los Angeles in 1967, he had recorded his landmark 1961 album 'Blues and the Abstract Truth" but still "faced an industry holding prejudices that questioned the musicians’ competence and kept them out of more lucrative industry opportunities," Fiddmont said.
Two Black female composers, Williams (1910-1981), a pianist, and Liston (1926-1999), a trombonist, "had to fight the double-edged sword of racism and sexism," Fiddmont said.
"Williams traveled as the only female in Andy Kirk’s territory band out of Kansas City, as did Liston with Dizzy Gillespie’s band," he noted.
Strayhorn (1915-1967), an openly gay Black man, was "one of the preeminent geniuses in jazz history" but "lived much of his public life in the shadow of his mentor and collaborator Duke Ellington," Fiddmont said.
Strayhorn’s compositions, he said, "stand as some of the finest in the American lexicon."
The concert program includes Williams' “Walking and Swinging,” Strayhorn's “Lush Life” and Liston's arrangement of “If You Could See Me Now” by Tadd Dameron and Carl Sigman.
Tickets are $10 general admission (plus a modest service charge), and free for all students with any student I.D. Advance tickets can be purchased online at smc.edu/tickets or by calling 310-434-3005 (Monday-Friday; limited hours).
Tickets can also be purchased -- starting 45 minutes before the performance begins -- at The Broad Stage Box Office at the SMC Performing Arts Center. There is free parking on premises, and seating is strictly on a first-arrival basis.
