Jazz ensembles gear up for a fresh performance
Robert Garner
Issue date: 3/4/09 Section: Lifestyles
For their first concert of the new year, the UA Jazz Ensembles will perform a double feature tonight in the Arkansas Union Theater.
Under the direction of James Greeson and Gerald Sloan, the two groups will each perform an exciting collection of jazz arrangements.
Each group consists of 17 members selected by an audition, according to a press release.
In addition to his regular duties as a UA professor, Sloan joined Greeson in leading the bands this semester, according to the music department's Web site.
"[Sloan] is extremely knowledgeable about jazz and is doing an excellent job with the students," Greeson said.
Tonight's performance will feature exciting big band sounds like all good jazz gigs should, and it will also showcase the bands' diverse stylistic talent.
"Jazz music is a 'big tent' with a lot of different sub-categories and we try to poke around in all of them," Greeson said.
Some of the elements taken from under the big tent tonight will include traditional, Latin and modern jazz, he said.
The music was selected through a criteria that Greeson and Sloan set.
"I try to choose pieces for the jazz bands that are, firstly, strong compositions that are worth the students spending time to prepare them," Greeson said.
"I [also] want the music to be challenging to them, but not beyond their reach as musicians," he said. "As good as this year's bands are, they can play pretty much anything.
If all previous concerts serve as any indicator, then tonight's concert will certainly feature a vast array of sounds that will leave the audience begging for more at night's end.
The pieces on tonight's program will certainly be entertaining for both the audience and the musicians.
Exciting Latin jazz will move the audience to their feet as one of the groups performs "Ran Kan Kan" by Tito Puente.
The work of Thad Jones, a legendary big band leader of the '60s and '70s, will be featured when one of the groups performs songs, "Kids Are Pretty People."
Under the direction of James Greeson and Gerald Sloan, the two groups will each perform an exciting collection of jazz arrangements.
Each group consists of 17 members selected by an audition, according to a press release.
In addition to his regular duties as a UA professor, Sloan joined Greeson in leading the bands this semester, according to the music department's Web site.
"[Sloan] is extremely knowledgeable about jazz and is doing an excellent job with the students," Greeson said.
Tonight's performance will feature exciting big band sounds like all good jazz gigs should, and it will also showcase the bands' diverse stylistic talent.
"Jazz music is a 'big tent' with a lot of different sub-categories and we try to poke around in all of them," Greeson said.
Some of the elements taken from under the big tent tonight will include traditional, Latin and modern jazz, he said.
The music was selected through a criteria that Greeson and Sloan set.
"I try to choose pieces for the jazz bands that are, firstly, strong compositions that are worth the students spending time to prepare them," Greeson said.
"I [also] want the music to be challenging to them, but not beyond their reach as musicians," he said. "As good as this year's bands are, they can play pretty much anything.
If all previous concerts serve as any indicator, then tonight's concert will certainly feature a vast array of sounds that will leave the audience begging for more at night's end.
The pieces on tonight's program will certainly be entertaining for both the audience and the musicians.
Exciting Latin jazz will move the audience to their feet as one of the groups performs "Ran Kan Kan" by Tito Puente.
The work of Thad Jones, a legendary big band leader of the '60s and '70s, will be featured when one of the groups performs songs, "Kids Are Pretty People."
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