Ragtime, jazz and the blues are coming to Brigham Young University for the School of Music’s 32nd Annual Jazz Week celebration Tuesday through Saturday, March 1-5.
Jazz Week will feature the following events:
Tuesday, March 1
Jazz Legacy Dixieland Band Concert: BYU’s Jazz Legacy Dixieland Band will be performing in concert at 7:30 p.m. in the Madsen Recital Hall. Guest artist, Dan Barrett, will be featured on trombone. Tickets are $6 at byuarts.com/tickets.
Selections for the concert include tunes by Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton.
Dan Barrett began playing the trombone at the age of eleven, and the cornet shortly thereafter. In 1999, he was nominated for the Bell Atlantic Jazz Award for “Trombonist of the Year” and came in on top in a 1999 poll as the Mississippi Rag readership’s “favorite living trombonist.” He is mentioned with high praise in the new Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz as well as the Guinness “Who’s Who of Jazz.”
Wednesday, March 2
Jazz Voices Concert: Jazz Voices, a student ensemble that features some of the brightest jazz singers at BYU, will be performing at 7:30 p.m. in the Madsen Recital Hall. The vocal group is known for its tight harmonies, rhythmic accuracy, clever improvisation and “scatting” abilities, sung a cappella and with other instruments such as the piano, guitar, bass and drums. Tickets are available at byuarts.com/tickets for $6. Jazz Voices is directed by Allen Matthews.
Friday, March 4
Jazz Ensemble Concert: Directed by Mark Ammons, BYU’s up-and-coming Jazz Ensemble will perform at 7:30 p.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall for $6 a seat, available at byuarts.com/tickets.
Saturday, March 5
Synthesis Big Band Concert: BYU's premier jazz band Synthesis will perform in its “American Big Band Jazz” concert at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost between $6 and $10 a seat and can be purchased atbyuarts.com/tickets. Synthesis is directed by Ray Smith.
They will perform an audience-pleasing evening of jazz greats and new sets, including "Hello Young Lovers" by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gordon Goodwin's "That's the Way We Roll," "Do Nothin’ til You Hear From Me" by Duke Ellington and "Nossa Vida Infinita" by Synthesis member Kurt Reeder.
For more information about BYU’s celebration of Jazz Week, contact Mark Ammons at (801) 422-4824 or mark_ammons@byu.edu. To learn more about BYU’s varied jazz performance groups, visit http://cfac-old.byu.edu/index.php?id=289.
Writer: Philip Volmar
