Ben Ferris brings an important piece of music to the public eye

The bassist will be joined by an all-star ensemble for the world premiere of a Sir Roland Hanna composition on November 16.

Sir Roland Hanna was a jazz mainstay for decades, as a pianist and composer, before his death in 2002. Hanna appeared on well over a hundred releases between the late 1950s and the early 2000s. On two of those releases (Muses For Richard Davis and Persia My Dear), Hanna would join his friend, the late, great Richard Davis, as a sideman. Davis and Hanna would collaborate several times over throughout the course of their storied careers. In 1998, Hanna would write a draft of a piece for Davis, titled CHANT For Bass And Small Orchestra. Before his passing, Davis would give the draft—the only copy of the piece known to exist—to one of his many students, bassist Ben Ferris, who has been a fixture in Madison’s jazz landscape for years. Ferris would take the draft and create a lightly altered arrangement, which will be performed in full for the first time this week.

Ferris will be performing CHANT at Collins Recital Hall in UW-Madison’s Hamel Music Center on November 16 at 7:30 p.m. No ticket is required to attend the event, which is free. The performance will be a part of Ferris’ DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) recital series, with five recitals to follow at later dates.

For the performance of CHANT, Ferris will be joined by a truly stellar group of musicians: tenor saxophonist Jon Hoel, trombonist Darren Sterud, bassist Catherine Harris, drummer Mike Koszewski, violist Benjamin Davies Hudson, pianist Jason Kutz, cellist Aaron Fried, and violinists Sahada Buckley and Isabelle Krier. Each of those players is superlative in their own right and provide a supporting cast that should ably live up to the daunting task of honoring the legacy of not just one, but two legendary jazz musicians.

The performance serves in many ways as a tribute to Davis, who passed away two months ago at age 93. Ferris presently serves as the conference coordinator for the Richard Davis Foundation For Young Bassists (of which Harris is the executive director), and spent time under Davis’ tutelage. Now, Ferris will command a live performance of a piece that may have otherwise been lost to time. Ferris seems to have taken great care with the composition, making minimal alterations to preserve the integrity of the score—most notably the transposition of wind parts to piano—while responsibly exercising his own instincts. A press release for the event also notes that the performance is supported by funding from the UW-Madison’s Division of the Arts’ Creative Arts Award, and will be given in partial fulfillment of Ferris’ DMA degree.

Little else is currently known about the piece at the core of the recital, making this an enticing prospect that centers an uncovered sliver of jazz history. Initially shared between two titans of the genre, CHANT‘s unlikely debut should serve as a potent reminder of Hanna’s mastery and the respect he afforded Davis as a contemporary and friend. Given the draw of the piece, the personnel involved, and the unbeatable price of admission, this is a legitimately unmissable opportunity for anyone with even the slightest amount of interest in jazz or Madison’s rich musical history.