Bands Converge at Alma for Annual Jazz Festival
The Alma College Jazz Ensemble performs its annual spring concert on
Wednesday, April 9 and then hosts the 12th annual Alma College Jazz
Festival on Thursday, April 10.
The Jazz Ensemble, conducted by Carlos Melendez, will present a varied
program of big band music by prominent jazz, blues, swing and third
stream artists, composers and arrangers at 8 p.m. April 9 in the Remick
Heritage Center. Admission is free and open to the public.
The program features Bob Mintzer’s “El Caborrojeno,” which was the name
of a famous club in which Tito Puente used to play with his orchestra,
and “Trinita,” a Brazilian bossa-nova style tune arranged and composed
by Mark Taylor and featuring Lysa Knight on flugelhorn.
The concert also includes Sammy Nestico’s “Basie Straight Ahead,”
originally written for the Count Basie Orchestra, and “Penthouse Dawn,”
a ballad written by Oliver Nelson and featuring Nathan Glitman on alto
saxophone.
On April 10, middle and high school jazz ensembles from around the
state will join the Alma College Jazz Ensemble for performances from
7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Remick Heritage Center. The bands will be
judged, with awards presented at the end of the day.
Admission to the Alma College Jazz Festival is free and open to the public.
Posted: Wed, April 2nd, 2008 at 12:41AM

