ASU Fowler Center 2004-05 season kicks off with Preservation Hall Jazz Band

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band from the heart of the New Orleans’ French Quarter will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 21, as the first event of the 2004-05 season for the Fowler Center at Arkansas State University.

This performance is one of the four Riceland Distinguished Performance Series events this year.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band is from one of the most popular jazz halls. The band tours around the world more than 150 days a year and has appeared in many famous venues, including Carnegie Hall in New York City, Symphony Hall in Boston, Monterey Jazz Festival in California, and the Red Sea Jazz Festival in Israel.

New Orleans Jazz originated in the early part of the century and is not to be confused with the two-beat Dixieland Style. The tempo is slightly slower than the other jazz forms and the melody is always clearly heard with improvisation at its heart.

New Orleans Jazz is not loaded with complicated arrangements, but rather with simplicity.   The band typically consists of five to seven pieces with the trumpet as the musical leader. Other musical instruments may include the banjo, trombones, bass, clarinet, bass, saxophone, drums and piano.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band has 14 recordings with three of them in the last year including “Shake That Thing,” “Hot 4 Featuring Duke Dejan” and “Best of the Early Years.’

Performances at the Fowler Center will include every type of song from “Bourbon Street Parade” to “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” to “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

Individual tickets to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band performance are $25 and $20 for adults, $18 and $14 for students and senior citizens.  Season tickets to attend all eight Fowler Center Series events are $125 and $100 for adults, $90 and $70 for senior citizens and students. “Build your own Season,” with tickets to any four events for $80 and $65 for adults and $60 and $45 for senior citizens and students.

For more information on seating options or to purchase tickets, call 870-972-2781 or visit http://tickets.astate.edu.

Other Fowler Center performances this year are: the Salzburg Chamber Soloists on Oct. 7, “Celebrating the Blues,” on Nov. 9, “A Hometown Christmas,” with Mr. Jack Daniel’s Silver Cornet Band on Dec. 9, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra on Jan. 29, 2005, Ethos Percussion Group on Feb. 8, Rockapella on March 22, 2005, and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra on April 26, 2005.

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