Following a 6-day concert tour on the East Coast and preceding an appearance at the Eau Claire Jazz Festival, the Gustavus Adolphus College Jazz Lab Band returns to Gustavus to play a home concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 10 at Jussi Björling Recital Hall.
Saturday’s Home Concert includes works from the tour program written by Billy Strayhorn, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Duke Ellington, Ray Brown, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern and Thad Jones, among others. The performance includes Rick Margitza’s Widow’s Walk, Steve Wright’s Slip ‘n Slide and Besame Mucho by Consuelo Velazquez.
The Band’s recent tour included performances at the Neighborhood Church of Greenwich Village, Tenafly (New Jersey) Middle School, The Fairfax at Fort Belvoir, Virginia and Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Arlington, Virginia. The schedule included music clinics with the students at Tenafly Middle School, attending a performance by the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra at the Village Vanguard and a clinic with the Navy Commodores.
The Gustavus Jazz Lab Band is directed by Steve Wright, a nationally known trumpeter, jazz arranger, and composer. Wright has played lead trumpet for such performers as Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Ray Charles among others and is a member of the Twin Cities Jazz Society, American Composers Forum, International Association of Jazz Educators, and the American Federation of Musicians.
The Gustavus Jazz Lab Band is the official touring jazz ensemble from the College’s Department of Music. The band has performed with such jazz artists as Marvin Stamm, Dick Oatts, Frank Mantooth, the Hornheads, John Fedchock, Denis DiBlasio, and Allen Vizzutti. The band was also featured on a 2003 A Prairie Home Companion radio show broadcast live from Gustavus. It has performed competitively at the Eau Claire Jazz Festival and has been invited to appear at a variety of venues including the KBEM Jazz Fesitval, the American Swedish Institute, and the Lamberton Jazz Festival.
Saturday’s home concert by the Gustavus Jazz Lab Band begins at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
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