Jazz festival will draw 500 students, experts

More than 500 area high school and junior high students in 25 jazz ensembles will perform at the 16th annual Clark Terry/Phi Mu Alpha Jazz Festival on Feb. 7 and 8 at the Southeast Missouri State University River Campus.

The students will perform for three experts in the field of jazz. They also will receive written and recorded comments as well as a live clinic session at the end of their performances. The bands will perform from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 7 and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 8 in Bedell Performance Hall. Admission is free.

Bands attending represent junior high and high schools throughout Missouri and Southern Illinois, including Cape Girardeau Central, Dexter and Woodland.

The festival also features the annual gala concert. This year's guest artist is Brad Leali, lead saxophonist for the Harry Connick Jr. Orchestra. Leali will perform alongside the university's jazz ensembles at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 7 in Bedell Performance Hall. The performance will feature music for the big band, which traditionally includes saxophones, trumpets, trombones and rhythm section.

Also performing at the Feb. 7 gala concert will be Southeast's Studio Jazz Ensemble and the Jazz Lab Band.

Led by Robert Conger, professor of music at Southeast, the Studio Jazz Ensemble will take the stage performing selections including "Gellar's Cellar," "Puddin' Time" and the ballad "I'm Old Fashioned," which will feature Leali on saxophone. It will perform a Pat Metheny classic, "First Circle," a tricky piece that has alternating time signatures and a tuneful quality.

The concert will feature Southeast's Jazz Lab Band under the direction of Jay Contrino, adjunct instructor of music at Southeast. Among its program will be "Blues in Hoss Flat" and the Les Hooper tune "Fast Forward." This ensemble will highlight talented students as soloists, and Leali will join them on the jazz standard "I'm Glad There is You," among other charts. The band is comprised of music and nonmusic majors and will play a variety of jazz compositions.

The Southeast chapter of Phi Mu Alpha music fraternity coordinates the event as an annual service project for the fraternity that benefits the university and the community.

More information is available from Conger by calling 651-2398. Tickets may be purchased by contacting the River Campus box office, 518 S. Fountain St., from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays at 651-2265 or at rivercampusevents.com.

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Pertinent address:

518 S. Fountain St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.