2006 West Texas Jazz Party Featured Artist
2006 West Texas Jazz Party Featured Artist
Ed Polcer - Cornet
During the past several years, Ed Polcer has become one of the most sought after performers on the jazz festival circuit. He has appeared in hundreds of concerts, festivals and jazz parties throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, including numerous return appearances at the Newport/Kool/JVC Festival in New York. Ed's musical versatility and leadership have earned him a reputation as a dynamic bandleader, and he is often called upon to organize festivals, concerts, dances and parties.
Ed joined Benny Goodman's Sextet for an American tour in 1973. He also toured the U.S. and Canada with Bob Greene's "World of Jelly Roll Morton" troupe. An expert showman, Ed has led numerous concerts with varied themes, including his most recent extensive U.S. tours for Columbia Artists. In 1992, '93 and '94, "A Night At Eddie Condon's", transported the audience back to the famous nightclub and gave a musical retrospective of American jazz over the last 100 years. Since 1996, "The Magic of Swing Street" has offered classic jazz in its many forms as it was played by the many small groups on New York's fabled W. 52nd Street, Swing Street. In 1993 and '95, Ed toured Germany- as the leader of an international band. He played for the 1994 Congressional Ball in the White House, and in 1995, toured Japan with the World's Greatest Jazz Band.
In 1997, Ed presented "The Magic of Swing Street" at New York's Lincoln Center, as well as with several symphony orchestras. In the Fall, he toured Europe with vocalist Terry Blaine in her concert presentation of "Too Hot For Words - Great Ladies of Swing".
Like many jazzmen, Ed comes from a musical family. His father and uncle were prominent horn players in New Jersey, where Ed grew up. He made his musical debut at the age of six as a xylophonist. At Princeton University in the mid 50's, he joined Stan Rubin's Tigertown Five, perhaps the best-known collegiate Dixieland group of the day. With that band he made several Carnegie Hall appearances and performed at the wedding of Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly in Monaco in 1956.
In 1992, Ed formed his own production company, "Blewz Manor Productions", which has issued several recordings and promoted numerous concerts and festivals throughout the United States and Europe. He has recorded extensively and his playing can be heard on the soundtracks of several movies.
In the 1980's, Ed was honored to serve as President of
the International Art of Jazz, as well as a member of the Advisory Panel
of the Jazz Musicians Foundation of New York. Ed's biography has been included
in the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz and in the Encyclopedia of Jazz in the
70s (and in the '90s), compiled by Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler. In Great
Britain, Ed is listed in The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz, as well as Jazz,
the Essential Companion and Jazz, the Rough Guide. A full chapter is devoted
to Ed in Traditionalists and Revivalists in Jazz, by Chip Deffaa.
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