Eugene Marlow

Member since 2003
Personal website: http://www.eugenemarlow.com

EUGENE MARLOW’s jazz compositions include charts for big band in various genres, plus ballads, swing tunes, blues, and Latin-jazz flavored compositions for small ensembles. He has also arranged numerous Hebraic melodies in various jazz, Afro-Caribbean, Brazilian, and classical styles.

The quality of Marlow’s compositions was evident from his first album–“A Summer Afternoon With You” (MEII Enterprises 2005). Journalist Len Dobbin, writing in the Montreal Mirror in 2006, put Marlow in the same category as Grammy-winning composer Maria Schneider, calling both “Two composers of the first rank. . . .Both are 10/10.”

Overall, in addition to the jazz (and classical) compositions and arrangements that appear on his 19 indie produced albums (MEII Enterprises), his compositions appear on eight other albums produced by other labels.

For example, three of his big charts appear on Grammy-nominated albums: Marlow’s big band chart “El Aché de Sanabria (en Moderacion)” appears on Bobby Sanabria’s 2007 Grammy-nominated album “Big Band Urban Folktales” (JazzHeads). His reconstruction and orchestration of “Me Acuerdo De Ti,”  recorded by Tito Puente with Celia Cruz, appears on the 2011 Latin-Grammy nominated “Tito Puente Masterworks Live!” (Jazzheads) recorded by the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. Marlow’s big band arrangement of his original “Broken Heart” duet for piano and alto saxophone appears on Bobby Sanabria’s 2012 Grammy-nominated “Multiverse” album (Jazzheads).

His original big band chart of “Let There Be Swing” appears on the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra’s “Que Viva Harlem” album (Jazzheads 2014).

His song “Sweetness” arranged by Joseph C. Phillips, Jr. appears on “Numinous” released in 2003 (Numan Music). A one-minute electronic work appears on “60×60” (Capstone Records 2004). His “Memories & Reflections” appears in a compendium of “blues” entitled “Oasis Blues” (2006) and his quasi-blues/Latin piece “Take-A-Break” can be found on “Jazz” also released on the Oasis label (in 2007).

His jazz compositions have been performed by the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop Big Band, the Primary Colors Trio, the SYOTOS Latin/Jazz Band with Chris Washburne, The Numinous Orchestra, The Andy LaVerne Trio, The Trevor Day Big Band, Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, New School Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra, George Gee Big Band, Bobby Sanabria Big Band, The Louis Armstrong Foundation Summer Camp Big Band, and The Cyrus Chestnut Trio (2011 Montreal Jazz Festival).

Marlow has studied jazz with NEA Jazz Master Dr. Billy Taylor, Andy LaVerne, Harold Danko, and Marty Sheller (jazz composition), Milt Hinton and Laurence Hobgood (jazz performance), multi-Grammy nominees Manny Albam, Michael Abene, and Jim McNeely, and Grammy-winner Maria Schneider. He has studied music scoring for film and television with Paul Chihara (at ASCAP), Scott Smalley, and Jack Smalley.

He is a former member of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop and the International Association for Jazz Education, and current member of the Jazz Journalists Association (former treasurer), the Jazz Education Network, the New York Composers Circle, Chamber Music America, the American Composers Forum, the National Music Publishers Association. He has been a voting member of the National Academy for Recording Arts and Sciences sicne 2006.

Composer: Classical
His classical works include fugues and “chansons” for solo piano, waltzes, lullabies, songs, string quartets, duets for flutes, various strings and piano, several purely electronic works, chamber works for winds and winds and strings, and pieces for brass, e.g., a composition for trombone quartet. His larger classical works include a suite (in progress) for chamber orchestra and an all strings chamber orchestra work based on octatonic scales, entitled “Undminished.”

Classical solo and chamber works have been performed by the Kandinsky and Corigliano String Quartets, the Circadia Woodwind Quintet, the Sylvan Winds, the Alaria Chamber Ensemble, the Damocles Trio, Musica di autori Americana dalla New York University (Italy), the Glass Farm Ensemble, The Bateira Trio, The North/South Chamber Ensemble, and virtuoso pianists Nataliya Medvedovskaya, Natalie Synhaivsky, Nada Loutfi, and Shiau-uen Ding.

An electronic three voice serial fugue–“48 Rows in One Minute”–was featured in the November 2003 performance of 60×60, a concert organized by VoxNovus (New York City). The 60×60 project also received a performance in Bucharest, Romania and at Brooklyn College (New York City), both in March 2004. A second electronic piece (“Arturo’s Reverie”) based on an improvised theme by jazz pianist Arturo O’Farrill for Marlow’s “Wonderful Discovery” album, was choreographed by Jeramy Zimmerman/CatScratch Theatre at Galapolus Performance Space (Brooklyn, NY) in September 2008.

For a time Marlow studied classical composition privately with 2004 Pulitzer-prize winning composer Paul Moravec. He has also studied with Maurice Peress (former Associate Conductor of the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein), and multi award-winning composer George Tsontakis.
In 1998 Dr. Marlow completed a CUNY BA in music composition, followed by a master’s in music composition at Hunter College in 2001. He has since completed doctoral level work in music at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.