Gustavus Jazz in Concert Sunday

The Gustavus Jazz Lab Band, one of the Midwest’s finest collegiate jazz ensembles, and Director Steve Wright, well-known Minnesota jazz trumpet player and composer, will team up with the Adolphus Jazz Ensemble to present the annual fall jazz concert on Sunday, November 18 in Bjorling Recital Hall. As part of the Jazz Lab Band’s fall concert tour, the two bands will open this concert in Bjorling at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Admission to the concert is free.

For more than 20 years, Steve Wright has directed the trumpet and jazz studies at Gustavus.  He has played professionally in the Twin Cities for over thirty years as a freelance musician, composer/arranger and publisher and as leader of his own big band and is a former lead trumpet with the U.S. Air Force Airmen of Note.  He is a frequent performer at Orchestra Hall and the Ordway Music Theatre and has made numerous national commercials.

Since 1970, the Gustavus Jazz Lab Band has developed a varied repertoire from traditional big band standards to modern compositions.  As its reputation for grown, the Band has received well-deserved attention for musical excellence. It has been invited to compete in the prestigious jazz festivals at Notre Dame and the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire and has performed live on Garrison Kelihor’s A Prairie Home Companion along with jazz festivals sponsored by the Twin Cities Jazz Society and KBEM-FM Jazz Radio. On October 5 of this year, Dr. Wright and the Gustavus Jazz Lab Band were honored to perform for King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden during their royal visit to Minnesota.

For this concert tour, Dr. Wright has chosen works that showcase the variety of jazz styles and compositions for both ensembles.  The program features standards made popular by the Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and Jerome Kern, classics from George and Ira Gershwin, Henry Mancini, Glen Miller and Sammy Nestico, and works by the finest contemporary jazz composers and performers like Thad Jones, Mike Tomaro and Steve Wright.

Sunday’s jazz concert by the Adolphus Jazz Ensemble and the Gustavus Jazz Lab Band, under the direction of Steve Wright, will begin at 2:30 p.m. in Bjorling Recital Hall on the Gustavus campus. The combined Home Concert/Fall Concert is free and open to the public.