William Russo Dies, Chicago Jazz Ensemble To Continue

By I Jan. 14, 2003

One of the most revered and influential composer-bandleaders in America, William Russo died January 11 of pneumonia at the age of 74, at Chicago’s Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center. Russo created the critically acclaimed Chicago Jazz Ensemble, was the founder of Columbia College Chicago’s Music Department, and was Director of Orchestral Studies at Scuola Europea d’Orchestra Jazz in Palermo, Italy.

The Chicago Jazz Ensemble will continue, and the third and final program of its critically and popularly acclaimed “American Heritage Jazz Series,” “The Birth of Jazz,” will go on as scheduled in February and March.

Russo’s career spanned five decades, and included performance, conducting and composition work with talents as diverse as Duke Ellington, Leonard Bernstein, Cannonball Adderley, Yehudi Menuhin, Dizzy Gillespie, Seiji Ozawa, and Billie Holiday. Critics have acknowledged Russo for his pioneering contributions to the big-band jazz canon. He authored groundbreaking jazz scores, rock operas, classical works, film scores, and texts on instrumental arrangement. During his career he composed more than 200 pieces for jazz orchestra with more than 25 recordings of his work. In 1990 Russo received a Lifetime Achievement award from NARAS, the organization that presents the Grammy Awards.

As a young trombonist, Russo studied with Lennie Tristano, the pianist and theorist who became a leader in the progressive jazz movement. During the late ‘40s, Russo led the revolutionary Experiment in Jazz band, and then at the age of 21 became chief composer/arranger with the Stan Kenton Orchestra. In the four years he was with Kenton, Russo penned such classic Kenton works as “23 Degrees North, 82 Degrees West” and “Frank Speaking.”

Russo made several major jazz recordings under his own name before his 1959 “Symphony No. 2 in C (TITANS)” received a Koussevitsky award, and was performed by the New York Philharmonic that same year under Leonard Bernstein (who commissioned the piece), marking Russo’s “official” entry into the world of classical music. Russo continued to write major symphonic works throughout his career, including 1992’s opera in three acts, “Dubrovsky.”

After his tenure with Kenton, Russo went on to lead his own successful bands, The Russo Orchestra in New York, and the London Jazz Orchestra, before returning to Chicago to form the Chicago Jazz Ensemble in 1965. With the Ensemble, he presented Duke Ellington’s ‘First Concert of Sacred Music’ in 1967 (marking one of the few times Ellington allowed one of his own compositions to be performed outside his own orchestra). Shortly thereafter, Russo composed the successful rock cantata, “The Civil War,” which led him into the field of rock opera. In the late ‘70s, he returned his full attention to classical music, and in the late ‘80s began to re-explore the history of jazz through his revived Chicago Jazz Ensemble. In 1995 the Chicago Jazz Ensemble made history with the first-ever complete live performance of Gil Evans/Miles Davis’ “Sketches Of Spain” in its original form. Recent works that premiered in Chicago included “Chicago Suite No. 1” and “Chicago Suite No. 2,” a recording of which is due out this spring.

In June 2002, following a bout with cancer, Russo retired as chair of the Columbia College Music Department. As Columbia’s first full-time faculty member 37 years ago and music department chair, Russo helped build the college from 175 students and 25 part-time faculty into the largest arts college in the nation. With his retirement from the chairmanship of the Music Division, Russo’s focus shifted to the executive direction of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble and its development. The early results were extraordinary critical reviews, the largest audiences in the history of the concert series this season, and record contributions to the Ensemble.

Russo’s last composition, “Jubilatum,” was based on melodies