UA News

The popular duo of Tom Ervin, trombone, and Jeff Haskell, piano, pairs up for a salute to popular music legends Jimmy Van Heusen and Jerry Herman.

Van Heusen penned many Tin Pan Alley hits, movie themes and show tunes in
collaboration with lyricists Sammy Cahn, Johnny Burke and Johnny Mercer, including "Darn That Dream," "Swinging on a Star," "It Could Happen to You," "Personality" and "Nancy with the Laughing Face." Vocalist Jack Neubeck joins Ervin and Haskell for a tribute to Herman, who wrote scores for Broadway hit musicals such as "Hello, Dolly!" and "La Cage aux Folles."

As one of the world's premiere trombonists in both the jazz and classical realms, Ervin is a unique musical commodity. He travels widely as a sought-after clinician and soloist and has performed extensively worldwide. At the University of Arizona, Ervin is professor of trombone and a jazz instructor. A past president of the International Trombone Association, he is a frequent member of the faculty at the International Trombone Workshop, and has appeared as guest artist throughout the country, premiering many compositions, some written especially for him. Ervin is currently principal trombonist with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet. He also plays with the Jazzberry Jam, a virtuoso Dixieland band, with which he has toured Mexico three times under the auspices of the U.S. State Department.

Haskell began his jazz career as a scat-singing boy soprano near Philadelphia. He was singing and playing saxophone professionally by the age of 12, adding organ at the age of 13. For the next two years, he immersed himself in jazz study and at 16 found himself jamming with Lew Tabackin. Haskell, who is professor of music and coordinator of jazz studies at the UA, has arranged and conducted for "The Bell Telephone Hour" (1966); "Let the Desert Be Joyful," a CBS News Special (1966); "Mike Douglas Show"(1968); "Ambassadors in Levis," a PBS film (1968); "In Search of Me," CBS News Special (1973); and produced nine videotape segments for the "Buck Owens Ranch Show." He has produced and conducted over 800 concerts in 49 states, six Canadian provinces, England and Scotland. He is co-founder and musical director of the Tucson Jazz Orchestra and is currently state president of the Arizona Association of Jazz Educators.