"A fantastic mixture of influences...
rooted equally in jazz past and present"
                             Chicago Tribune

NEA Award winning musician Jeff Newell and his group, the New-Trad Octet will bring their special brand of uniquely American music to the Centenary Performing Arts Guild in Hackettstown, Saturday, Feb 1, 2003 at 8PM.

An energetic eight-piece ensemble, the New Trad Octet has been described as a New Orleans marching band infused with modem harmonies and skittering bebop lines, all over a danceable second line beat.

The New-Trad projects are modern musical vehicles for the roots of American music. Combining instruments and elements of traditional New Orleans brass bands with those of modem jazz groups, the ensemble explores the early sources of our nation's musical heritage (church music, band music, and folk music, such as blues, etc.) and combines those influences in ways that speak to and excite modem audiences. Formed in 1994, Jeff Newell's New-Trad Octet has performed in clubs, theaters, festivals, and churches from the Atlantic to the Rockies.

"What do we mean by 'New Trad'?" asks Newell. "Trad is the musicians' slang term for the 'traditional' early New Orleans jazz music of Buddy Bolden, Joseph "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, and others. And by "New" we mean that it is beginning afresh, changing essence, different and up-to-date. It's a swinging combination."

Tickets for the New-Trad Octet are $15 for adults and $12.50 for children under 12, and are available through the CPAG box office on the campus of Centenary College, at 908-979-0900, and on the Web using oursecure server Online Order Form. Locally, tickets can be purchased at the Baron's Hallmark at the Hackettstown Mall.