The Blue Devil Jazz Orchestra will present Jazz in the Great Hall at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 16, at University of Wisconsin-Stout.
Tickets are $5 and are available online, at the Service Center in the Memorial Student Center, 715-232-1122, and at the door. The Great Hall is in the Memorial Student Center.
The Jazz Orchestra is under the direction of Professor Aaron M. Durst. Sharing the stage with a performance after the UW-Stout band will be the Troppo Big Band, a community jazz group from Chippewa Falls composed of veteran musicians of all ages.
The concert will include a wide variety of jazz styles. Selections from the Jazz Orchestra include:
- “Rose Room,” made popular by Artie Shaw, featuring Nicole Seidler on clarinet. Seidler, of Merrill, is a senior in art education.
- “I Mean You,” by Thelonious Monk and Coleman Hawkins, presented in a New Orleans second line style
- Bette Midler’s version of “Mambo Italiano,” sung by Meg Erickson, of Lonsdale, Minn., a junior in studio art
- “Tonight, We Tango,” by Rick Hirsch, with Matt Bentley on tenor saxophone and William Le on accordion. Bentley, of Waukesha, is a senior in industrial design; Le, of Mosinee, is a senior in business administration
- “Cheek to Cheek” as recorded by Frank Sinatra and sung by Sam Poncelet, of Hastings, Minn., a junior in computer networking and information technology
- “West Coast Blues,” a jazz waltz by Wes Montgomery
- Featuring the trumpet section will be “Brass Machine” by Mark Taylor
- A Beatles favorite, “Something,” will feature alto saxophonist Lukas Medin, of St. Paul, a senior in video production
Graduating seniors
The Jazz Orchestra membership includes five students who will graduate in December. All will be soloists during the concert. Along with Bentley and Le, they are:
- Chloe Cochran, of Stockholm, a senior in psychology
- Eric Krause, of Genoa City, a senior in professional communication and emerging media
- Matthew Landin, of Waconia, Minn., a senior in psychology
Bentley and Krause are happy to have been involved in music on campus.
“Participating in band has been one of my favorite parts of my Stout experience because it's taken me places and taught me things I would have never gotten to learn or see otherwise,” Bentley said. “I got to tour China for two weeks performing in multiple cities, and without the band that would have never happened.”
Krause said “being in jazz band has allowed me to relax and enjoy some time every week just for playing music. It has also kept me practicing and playing my saxophone, something I’m sure I would have stopped doing without jazz band.”
Coming up, UW-Stout’s Symphonic Band will hold its annual holiday concert at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, in the Great Hall.
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Photos
Chloe Cochran
Eric Krause
Matthew Landin
