Called “stunningly beautiful” (New York City Jazz Record), “spellbinding” (The Boston Globe) and “one of the best jazz ensembles in the world” (Jazz Podium, Germany), The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, led by founder and music director Mark Harvey, celebrates its 53rd Annual Christmas Concert with jazz-infused carols, spirituals, and joyful music by American composers from Revolutionary-era William Billings to Mark Harvey. Proceeds will benefit The Greater Boston Food Bank, the largest hunger-relief organization in New England and one of the largest food banks in the country. Tickets are $20 at the door. For information: 617-947-5548 or rhd@amwks.com
Aardvark will remember jazz great Sheila Jordan who performed and recorded Mark Harvey’s piece The Prophet on the band’s 25th Annual Christmas Concert. The Prophet is a tonal portrait of long-time activist Kip Tiernan, founder of the Greater Boston Food Bank, beneficiary of the evening’s concert. Other highlights will include the African-American spiritual Go Tell It on the Mountain, and the lovely Cradle in Bethlehem, made famous by Nat King Cole. Aardvark will give the premiere of The Work of Christmas, a new gospel-inflected piece by Aardvark founder and music director Mark Harvey. In honor of America’s 250th Anniversary, Aardvark will perform Shepherd’s Carol by Revolutionary War-era Boston composer William Billings. Rounding out the program will be a high-energy arrangement of the 17th-century Advent hymn, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, performed on Aardvark’s inaugural Christmas Concert in 1973 in the Church of the Covenant.