Wingspan (SBJ 3092) 2010
Guitarist Diego Palma is the host of a weekly jazz radio show – The Sunday Sessions – on the internet radio station Crescent Hill Radio and sponsored by the Louisville Jazz Society. I was honored that he was interested in interviewing me for his first show of 2012. It was an enjoyable time.
…interview
I am fortunate to have had many outstanding students who are helping to spread the work of jazz throughout the world. Anderson Pessoa is one of those incredible students, an excellent educator and performer. Anderson recently accepted a position as director of Jazz and Popular Music at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and invited me to work with his students. My first and hopefully not last visit to Natal.
…View poster …Press Release
Somethin’ Else: This Weeks Featured Artist
April 6 2011
I was recently honored to be featured artist on the Oberlin College and Community Radio (www.wobc.org) Sunday jazz show. Host Aidan Plank interviewed my for his show and later posted on his blog.
… Blog
Jazz Sinfoncio – Loja, Eucador
March 14 – 18, 2011
I was the featured artist with the Loja Symphony Orchestra (LSO) on their first all jazz program – Jazz Sinfoncio. This was a wonderful experience playing arrangements for full string section, harp, one woodwind and jazz rhythm section. My friends Kristina Krit (Russia) and Anderson Pessoa (Brazil) arranged special works for the ensemble. In addition to Jazz Sinfooncio, I visited and worked with the students and faculty from Conservatorio Salvador Bustamante Celi. The Conservatorio administrators and I also made plans to develop a jazz program for their institution.
Performance videos:
You Don’t Know What Love Is – Ray de Paul (arr by K. Krit)
What Is This Thing Called Love – Cole Porter (arr by K. Krit)
Here’s That Rainy Day – Johnny Burke/Jimmy Van Heusen (arr by K. Krit)
On A Clear Day – Burton Lane (arr by K. Krit)
I Love Paris – Cole Porter (arr by K. Krit)
They Say That Falling In Love – Irving Berlin (arr by K. Krit)
The Very Thought Of You – Ray Noble (arr by K. Krit)
Arroio (The Creek) – Victor Assis Brasil (arr by A. Pessoa)
… Concert poster … Symphony flyer … La Hora article … Diario Centinela article 
… Club Jazz Tinku poster
Universidad San Francisco de Quito
March 11 – 12, 2011
I took the opportunity to work with student at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito during my first visit to Ecuador. It was a great time meeting and hearing them play.
La Plata Jazz Festival
November 19 – 21, 2010
The 11th edition of the 2010 La Plata (Argentina) Jazz Festival was an exciting weekend which featured performing group from throughout the world.
… La Plata Jazz Festival …La Plata Jazz Festival – sites …La Plata Jazz Festival – ensembles …UofL Students at EMU
…view Poster …view Jazz Fest Cover …Jazz Fest Bio
The Mike Tracy Jazz Quintet featuring Renato Vasconcellos will perform at a number of fall jazz festival. The Louisville Jazz Society Newsletter contains articles on Big Rock Jazz Fest and Tyler Park – Fall for Jazz events. In addition, a review of newly released CD WINGSPAN (Sea Breeze SBJ-3092).
…view newsletter …Big Rock Jazz Fest …Fall for Jazz in Tyler Park
UofL’s School of Music, home of the Jamey Abersold Jazz Studies Program, hosted the 6th annual Open World program in February. Jazz students from Russia who have never been to the United States came to learn, to experience the culture and most importantly to play jazz.
Here’s the story.
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Brazilian ensemble featuring Renato Vasconcellos – piano, Chris Fitzgerald – bass, Mike Hyman – drums, and Mike Tracy – sax
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Review of Muzenergo International Jazz Festival by Cyril Moshkov, editor of Jazz.ru.
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Performance at the Muzenergo International Jazz Festival – Kimry, Russia – with the Nick Kulikov Quartet – Nick Kulikov (guitar), Ovagem Sultanyan (alto saxophone), Denis Shushkov (bass) and Piotr Talalay (drums). Following are YouTube links:
…”Dyadya Lyosha Iz Garazha” (Uncle Lyosha from the Garage)
…”Dlya Olgi” (For Olga)
…”Vo Imya Lubvi” (In The Name Of Love)
…”Palata Nomer 8″ (Room #8)
Performance at the Muzenergo International Jazz Festival – Kimry, Russia – with ‘Mixolegion’ – Anderson Pessoa (saxophone), Craig Tweddell (trumpet), Alim Nastaev (guitar), Saulo Moura (bass) and Daniel Falter (drums). Following are YouTube links:
…from Dubna-1 …from Dubna-2 …from Dubna-3
…from Moscow
…from Taganrog
Program cover and text for the 2009 International Jazz Festival – Rostov-on-the-Don
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Program cover and text for the 2009 Muzenergo Jazz Festival – Dubna and Kimry, Russia
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For most school bands, hitting the road usually means at best a trip to some school festival or competition or at worst a lousy school bus ride to a neighboring school for a competition. However, select students at the Jamey Aebersold Jazz Studies Program at the University of Louisville are going about as far as possible to perform their music and compete against other groups.
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Overview of Leeds International Jazz Conference.
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Top jazz educators choose the resources they can’t teach without.
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Russia meets Louisville on this two-CD set with the visitors dominating the music. Four Russian combos, all call the Open World All Stars, are featured performing at the University of Louisville on these tracks, recorded from 2004 through 2007.
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As we look forward to receiving another group of Russian jazz students as part of the Open World Program, it seems appropriate to look back on our involvement with the program and highlight its success.
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Russia has a long, complicated history with jazz, reaching back to the 1920s. Viewed as decadent and forced mostly underground during the Stalin era, jazz has proven remarkably hardy, especially since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Russian jazz scene is now undergoing a healthy period of revitalization.
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Moscow television station arts news broadcast.
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The first open-air jazz festival “Jazz in the Hermitage Garden” took place in August 1998. Since then, about 150 soloists and bands from Russia and 22 other countries have played at the festival…
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Every jazz fan knows that the last weekend in August is the best time to hear favorite music performed live by top musicians. As the summer draws to a close, the 11th annual, three-day international jazz festival gets under way in the Hermitage Garden on Friday.
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Raffinato ed elegante il suono di Mike Tracy e del Davide Logiri Trio a Villa Cabella
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In March 2008, seven faculty members from the University of Louisville Jamey Aebersold Jazz Studies Program traveled to Brazil to lead workshops and perform in Brasília, the capital of Brazil, and São Paulo, it?s largest city.
…view article …view sao paulo poster …view brasilia festival poster …view brasilia festival brochure
Imagine the following improbable story line: four young Russian jazz musicians depart from Moscow for their first-ever trip to the United States. They land in a city in Middle America near midnight on a Saturday – then on Monday, still jet-lagged and a little culture-shocked, they perform for one of the living legends of jazz: Chick Corea.
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Performance at the La Plata (Argentina) Jazz Festival in November with Renato Vasconcellos (piano), David Becker (guitar), Bruce Becker (drums) and Alejandro Herrera (bass).
…listen to performance …view poster
When Michael Tracy was a teenager, he wanted to be a lawyer. “I was intrigued by the show Perry Mason,” said Tracy. So when his father was called for jury duty, Tracy went with him. “It was boring, dry. There was nothing happening, so I said ‘forget this.’”
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At first sight, Yaroslavl doesn’t appear to be a jazz hotbed. This Russian industrial town of 600,000 largely eschews the European influence that…
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LA PLATA.- La octava edición de La Plata Jazz Festival fue ambiciosa en sus contenidos y rica en material docente,
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Ocurre a menudo que una propuesta interesante no tiene el suficiente respaldo en términos de público. En el jazz, especialmente, sucede…
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For the past decade, the profile of the University of Louisville’s School of Music has risen steadily among jazz educators, and its Jamey Aebersold Jazz Studies program is now considered…
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As someone who has actively been involved in the jazz education movement for more than 30 years, I have witnessed firsthand the acceptance and growth…
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For the 16th meeting of the International Association of Schools of Jazz, we were in the States for the third time…
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With an itinerary that rivals the most intensive world tour, five Russian jazz musicians have come to the United States for 15 days to play and hear jazz in the land…
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Early in their lives, five Russians heard John Coltrane or Dave Brubeck or Count Basie and got turned on to jazz. Now professional musicians, they recently came to the United States to play and…
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Imagine standing under a swaying palm tree, shading yourself from the blazing tropical sun; a welcome breeze off the ocean, helping to cool the 90+ degree heat; viewing some of the most spectacular land and seascapes anywhere…
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A music professor from Louisville, Kentucky will team up with Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music (CQCM) students on Hamilton Island and in Mackay this week.
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Jamming with one of the greats in a tropical paradise – it sounds like every musician’s dream.
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Music professor Mike Tracy was looking forward to having some extra time at home to practice during his sabbatical from the University of Louisville this past year…
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Mike Tracy really doesn’t fit the jazz player stereotype: shrouded in mystery, behind a veil of cigarette smoke, smooth talking and brooding, a man (or woman) whose life is so taken with his art that he has no time for worldly concerns.
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Friends and colleagues gave me the oddest looks when I told them that I was going to Tallinn, Estonia, for ten weeks. Why? To help build a jazz education program for the Estonian Music Academy (EMA). How did it all come about?
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Jazzman Mike Tracy is no doubt the only Open World host who has ever shared a stage with Ella Fitzgerald and Buddy Rich. March 17 found the saxophone recording artist and University of Louisville professor on stage in the jazz-crazy city of Yaroslavl, Russia, performing with the all-alumni Open World Band. The group — which included five alumni hosted by Tracy in Louisville last fall — was among the headlining acts at “Jazz Over the Volga River,” one of Russia’s premier jazz festivals, and one of the few dating from Soviet times.
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Say jazz and most Americans immediately think of New Orleans or Chicago — not Russia, Poland or Estonia.
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New cats negating notions of insider nods and secret handshakes.
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One often hears that music is the universal language. I have been very fortunate to experience that universality many times during my professional career. At no time has the power of music been more apparent than during a recent tour in Poland. I will attempt to share in words what occurred in sound.
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The Jamey Aebersold Jazz Studies Program at U of L has risen like an exhilarating jazz jam. The talented faculty and students try different things. They keep what works and throw out what doesn’t. This collective creative energy draws such notable students as Delfeayo Marsalis, Jim Lewis, Renalto Vasconcellos and many more.
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I went crazy. You can quote me on that. And you won’t get any arguments from anyone who knows me.”
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Those who have known Mike Tracy since he was the first student to major in saxophone at the University of Louisville School of Music in the early 1970s feel a sense of poetic justice in the fact that Tracy now heads the Jamey Aebersold Jazz Studies Program and teaches saxophone at his former alma mater. During Tracy’s student years, saxophone was not considered a legitimate instrument by many U of L faculty members—especially if one were using it to play jazz.
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While rehearsing his student jazz band for an upcoming concert, Mike Tracy looked like a man waiting for a bus. He walked to the edge of the stage, stuck his hands in his pockets, paced in front of the saxophones, chatted with members of the band, sat on a chair, and shuffled pages in his score.
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