Holidays at Westminster will begin with a performance entitled “Cool Yule Jazz IV” Friday, December 1, 2006 at 8 p.m. in Bristol Chapel on the campus of Westminster Choir College.

Philip Orr, piano; Jerry Rife, clarinet; Sean Dixon, drums and percussion; and Norman Edge, bass, will perform jazz arrangements of holiday favorites. From "Jingle Bells" to the completely different "Good King Wenceslas" ---the audience will be treated to a very Cool Yule. The performance also marks the release of their new CD, "Cool Yule to You."

Orr improvises life around his many activities as composer, arranger, keyboardist, conductor, and teacher. Recognized with a fellowship by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, his compositions and arrangements in a variety of genres integrate his checkered past in classical concert repertoire, traditional sacred music, jazz, pop, gospel and rock styles and have been performed and recorded in the United States and abroad. He has accompanied and worked as an arranger for singers Vic Damone and Sandler & Young, and his keyboard work encompasses a broad array of styles in a variety of solo and ensemble roles in the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas.

Rife is professor of music and chairman of the music area in the fine arts department at Rider University. Conductor and music director of the Blawenburg Band since 1985, he has brought that ensemble to prominence with concert performances at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, the Sousa Centennial Ceremony in 1992, and the White House. He was associate producer of the 90-minute WGBH/PBS The American Experience documentary, “If You Knew Sousa.”

Active as a performer of solo, recital, orchestral, and jazz music on the East Coast, he has served as concert master of the internationally recognized professional Virginia Grand Military Band; as leader of The Rhythm Kings, his traditional jazz band; and as a member of the John Johnson Trio and Blue Skies swing quartet.

Milwaukee native Dixon was raised in a musical family and educated through the system of public arts schools. While attending the Milwaukee High School of the Arts, he was recognized by “Downbeat” magazine as one of the nation's outstanding soloists in the magazine’s annual recorded competition. After brief stints at the Manhattan School of Music and The New School, he co-led his own band, The Chesterfields, for seven years while playing with local singer/songwriters, jazz, blues, pop and R&B artists.

Dixon’s art has also been influenced by studies in Guinea, West Africa with master drummer M'Bemba Bangoura and in Bahia, Brazil with musician/capoeirista Kiki da Bahia and Grupo Ginga. Mr. Dixon was the resident percussion teacher at The Lawrenceville School and The Pennington School from 2003 to 2005. Since the summer of 2005 he has split his time between tours (U.S. South, West Coast) with The Jazz Mandolin Project and teaching privately in New York City.

Edge’s far-ranging career has taken him from his roots as son and grandson of string musicians to studies and collaborations with some of the world’s most renowned musicians, including Hank Jones, Clark Terry, Gene Ammons, and the Manhattan Brass Choir. For the last 50 years he has been a member of the Morris Nanton Trio, and he has recorded four albums with that group.

During the decade of the 1970’s Edge introduced children K-12 to jazz, Renaissance, and string music through Project Moppet/Project Impact in his various roles as producer, director, performer and master of ceremonies. From 1983-2000 he taught strings and conducted both middle and high school orchestras in the Edison, N.J. school system. He is the former principal bassist with the Jersey City State Orchestra, and he currently performs with the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey and the Livingston Orchestra, with which he is principal bassist.

Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 seniors/students. For tickets or to receive Westminster’s 2006-2007 season catalog, call the box office at (609) 921-2663. For updates, visit Westminster’s Web site at http://www.rider.edu/arts.

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