Jazz Ensembles, high school honors band to perform

  Monday, November 17, 2014 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

The Pittsburg State University Jazz Ensembles will close out the year with a free concert at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20, in Pittsburg’s Memorial Auditorium. PSU’s two jazz ensembles will be joined in the concert by the Southeast Kansas Music Educators Honor Jazz Band, a group of high school musicians selected by audition for the prestigious ensemble.

The PSU Jazz Ensemble 1:00 is under the direction of Bob Kehle. Todd Hastings directs the PSU Jazz Ensemble 2:00. Both are members of the PSU Department of Music faculty. The KMEA Honor Jazz Band will be directed by Jim Mair, a professor of music at Kansas City Kansas Community College. Additionally, Mair serves as the artistic director for the Kansas City Jazz Alliance, the Kansas City High School All Star Jazz Ensemble and the Kansas City Jazz Quintet and is the producer of the Kansas City Jazz Summit.

Students in the Honor Jazz Band represent the jazz programs at Iola, Kan., directed by Matt Kloepfer; Pittsburg, directed by Cooper Neil; Columbus, directed by Gae Phillips; Neodesha, directed by Jan Rogers; and Independence, directed by Erin Shelton.

The concert will feature a variety of pieces and styles from swing like the Basie classic “April In Paris,” to gospel. It also features senior tenor sax player Connor Callahan on a Scott Harris work called “Texas Tenor” and another feature work for Russell Jones entitled “Turkey One.”