Department of Music presents ASU Jazz Band in concert for Black History Month
 
Feb. 19, 2008 -- The Arkansas State University Jazz Band will perform its first concert of the spring semester on Tuesday, Feb. 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Fowler Center’s Riceland Hall, 201 Olympic Drive, Jonesboro. This concert will be a part of ASU’s celebration of Black History Month, “We Wear the Mask.” Admission is free, and the public is invited.

Dr. E. Ron Horton, director of the ASU Jazz Band, explains, “This is a very significant concert, because we will perform, but we will also discuss the vast influence African Americans have had on one of America’s most important artistic and cultural contributions to the world, jazz.”  In celebrating Black History Month with a jazz flair, the Jazz Band will perform music that represents some of the most important eras and figures in the history of jazz.

The concert will start with Bob Mintzer’s “March Majestic.” The piece makes use of the “street beat” or “second line” feel.  It is a fitting piece with which to start the concert, because that second line sound and feel is identified with New Orleans, which many view as the place where jazz began.  After “March Majestic,” the band will perform some classic numbers from the twenties and thirties that would have been heard in the early Ellington and Basie bands. The two pieces that the ASU Jazz Band will perform, “One O’clock Jump” and Ellington’s “Mood Indigo,” in classic arrangements from the same time in history, represent the transition from jazz as a dance music to jazz as an art music. The concert will include songs from jazz legends Horace Silver, Charlie Parker, and many others.

The ASU Jazz Band members are: vocals, Kari Rickman of Jonesboro; alto saxophones, Claire Richardson of Jonesboro and Michael Newson of Memphis, Tenn.; tenor saxophones, Daniel Rickman and Allen Adcock, both of Jonesboro; baritone saxophone, Adam Leslie of Jonesboro; trombones, Matt Strawbridge, Kade Holliday, and Treavor Mitchell, all of Jonesboro, and Jon McAlister of Marion; trumpets, Joseph Curtis of Trumann, Antonio Sparks of Jonesboro, and Lara Spain of Wynne; vibes and piano, Janet Rooney of Trumann; piano, Mauricio Dixon of Wynne; bass, Kevin Cremeens of Jonesboro; drums and vocals, Perry Harper of Paragould and Jamel Alford of East St. Louis, Ill.

For more details, please call the Department of Music at (870) 972-2094.

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