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Summit Jazz Consort is back at Ti Amo Ancora

MATT HITT
Summit Daily News

SILVERTHORNE ” Red wine, hot pasta and cool jazz will fill the room tonight at Silverthorne’s Ti Amo Ancora.

The Summit Jazz Consort will play from 6-9 p.m. at the Italian restaurant. The group features a rotating lineup; tonight’s show is a quartet of keyboard, trumpet, drums and bass.

Keyboardist Bill Morse brings with him a wealth of experience in both jazz and classical music.



Morse’s jazz roots reach to pianist Bill Evans, the first of the modern jazz players.

“He was a poet at the keyboard,” Morse added.



Morse said he doesn’t try to emulate Evans, but rather draws on him as a “big influence.”

Morse performs regularly in Summit County and his recent gigs have been primarily private parties.

Morse’s work in the community isn’t limited to jazz though.

As a professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver, Morse conducted the college’s symphony orchestra.

Although Morse is now retired, he still conducts regularly. For the last 23 years, he has conducted the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra. Seven years ago, he added conducting the Evergreen Chamber Orchestra to his musical activities.

Morse also once played with the Queen City Jazz Band, a Denver-based jazz band.

Trumpeter John Bartmann, a current member of the Queen City Jazz Band, joins Morse tonight at Ti Amo. Bartmann’s chops can be heard on all 14 Queen City compact discs. The band plays a variety of shows and jazz festivals and can be heard at Denver’s Mercury Cafe the second Sunday of every month.

Bartmann classifies his playing as “Dixieland Swing,” drawing influences from Louis Armstrong and Bobby Hackett.

Bartmann is a veteran of many shows at Ti Amo. He said the food for the band is a “big perk.”

Morse said he is excited to play and that tonight’s quartet is a “really good group.”

Live jazz continues every Thursday at the restaurant.


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