Clark Terry Jazz Fest returns next month to River Campus

The 23rd annual Clark Terry/Phi Mu Alpha Jazz Festival will return Friday, Feb. 3, and Saturday, Feb. 4, to Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus.

Joseph Jefferson, director of Jazz Studies at SEMO, said 26 visiting middle and high school jazz bands from around the state will perform during the event. He said it will be a noncompetitive festival geared toward growth and development of the bands.

"This is a way for the students to gain an appreciation of the art form," Jefferson said. "So, they're going to be getting feedback as well as the opportunity to attend clinics from these fantastic jazz educators."

Jefferson said a gala concert Feb. 3 evening will be celebrating Women in Jazz and will feature Sharel Cassidy, a professional jazz saxophonist and professor of saxophone and piano at Elgin Community College in Elgin, Illinois, and Columbia College and DePaul University in Chicago. Also performing at the gala will be the Southeast Missouri State University Jazz Ensembles. The concert will feature all women composers and arrangers.

Fraternity Phi Mu Alpha started the annual festival in 1998, which was later renamed after Clark Terry, a St. Louis native and swing and bebop trumpeter, who performed with jazz greats such as Quincy Jones , Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis .

This would have been the 25th year of the festival, but it was on hiatus in 2021 because of COVID-19 and canceled in 2022 because of severe winter storms.

"We're excited to be back since last year was canceled because of the storm," Jefferson said. "We're also excited to host all of these wonderful band programs. It's one of our biggest recruitment events on the River Campus, and so we're really excited to host all those students and band directors, everybody coming together to celebrate this art form we call jazz."

Tickets for the Women in Jazz Gala Concert at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 3 at Bedell Performance Hall may be purchased online at www.rivercampus.org or by calling (573) 651-2265.