Arts
This year's concert will feature The Yellowjackets, one of jazz’s most influential and loved groups, as the headline act that wraps up the daylong festival.
The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Auditorium in Downtown Pittsburg, opening with a performance by the PSU Jazz Band under the direction of Professor Todd Hastings.
A limited number of public tickets for floor seating can be purchased at the PSU Ticket Office, 107 Weede, or online at pittstate.edu/tickets. The balcony will be filled with an audience of several hundred musicians from school jazz bands.
Maintaining a distinct group identity for 40 years is an exceedingly rare achievement, but what sets the Yellowjackets apart isn’t their longevity so much as the consistently inspired quality of their music.
The Yellowjackets formed in the late 1970s and recorded their first album together in 1980. Born in the age of fusion, the group has thrived by steadily seeking out new sounds and approaches. Their latest album, “Parallel Motion,” was released in 2023.
Throughout their storied history, the Yellowjackets have recorded 25 albums, earned 17 Grammy nominations, performed countless sold-out tours, and enjoyed worldwide critical acclaim and commercial success.
Members include pianist/keyboardist Russell Ferrante, drummer Will Kennedy, saxophonist Bob Mintzer, and electric bassist Dane Alderson.
The Yellowjackets appear by arrangement with Unlimited Myles, Inc.
The festival, started in 1974 with just 14 bands, has once again reached capacity with more than 70 school bands from throughout the region on tap to come to Pittsburg to perform and be critiqued.
Beginning at 8 a.m. and continuing throughout the day, student bands will take turns playing for a group of judges who are experienced educators and musicians.
Those performances will take place at the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts, 1711 S. Homer, and at Memorial Auditorium, 503 N. Pine. They are open to the public at no charge.
