Church to host ‘epic’ jazz performance

Saxophonist and composer Gregory Tardy, a member of the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, will bring together top musicians from the jazz and classical worlds to perform an epic musical journey based on “The Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan in Asheville. Another performance will occur in Knoxville on March 30 at the East Tennessee PBS Studio. That show is sold out.

The Asheville performance will be held at First Baptist Church, located at 5 Oak Street, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 29. Tickets for the concert are available on Eventbrite.

Originally published as “The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come” in 1678, the work is considered one of the most significant religious allegories in the English language.

“This story is important, especially now, during a pandemic,” Tardy said. “I feel that we need compassion for one another as we move through life, and ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ helps illustrate the human struggle. I wanted to capture that in music. I once heard an older musician say, ‘It is better to be felt than to be heard.’ I never forgot that. That is my approach to playing any style of music.”

The assembled group features trombonist Michael Dease; trumpeter Alex Norris; flutist Maria Castillo; clarinetist Tom Johnson; violinists Kimberly Simpkins and Bethany Hankins; pianist Taber Gable; bassist Sean Conly; and drummer Dave Potter. The Knoxville Jazz Orchestra also is involved.

Tardy teaches jazz saxophone at the University of Tennessee. He received a South Arts/Jazz Road Creative Residencies grant to compose and perform this suite. The performances are made possible with the support of Jazz Road, a national initiative of South Arts, which is funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

An open rehearsal will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, March 28, at West Park Baptist Church located at 8833 Middlebrook Pike in Knoxville. The March 20 program will be recorded to be broadcast at a later date on PBS. A recording also will be available online.