Big Bands Kick Off Season with Jazz Concert at USU's Performance Hall

Utah State University’s two premier jazz bands — the USU Jazz Orchestra and the Jazz Ensemble — open the school year with the first concert of the 2007-08 season Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in the Manon Caine Russell Kathryn Caine Wanlass Performance Hall (approximately 1090 E. 675 North) on campus.

Tickets are available at the door the night of the performance. General admission tickets are $5, and USU students with current ID are admitted free.

“As usual, there are a few changes in personnel as compared with the previous spring,” said Jon Gudmundson, Jazz Orchestra director and director of jazz studies in the Department of Music at USU. “We always look forward to getting the new band in sync with a nice mix of swing, funk, Latin and ballad arrangements.”

The first concert of the year is a “shakedown cruise to get us running on all eight cylinders, so to speak,” said the metaphor-wielding Gudmundson.

Gudmundson said it is customary for the USU Jazz Orchestra to include something “Ellingtonian” in the opening concert each year, and this year is no exception. The Jazz Orchestra includes Cottontail on the set list, featuring saxophonists Eric Bennion and Mark Priddis in the roles of Ben Webster and Harry Carney, respectively.

Elsewhere on the set are two Bob Mintzer compositions, Computer, from his big band album “Incredible Journey,” and Acha, from his recent “Latin From Manhattan” CD. Rounding out the set is Tone Poem, originally written for the North Texas State University 1:00 Lab Band, and Fred Strum’s mysterious treatment of the Steely Dan hit Home at Last.

Equally excited to kick off the year are members of the USU Jazz Ensemble, said director Todd Fallis. The ensemble’s set includes concert standards that most jazz lovers will quickly recognize.

Leading off the set is Cole Porter’s toe-tapping, upbeat favorite Just One of Those Things followed by Nat Adderly’s Work Song.

“A wonderful arrangement of Gershwin’s I Got Plenty ‘O Nuttin’ switches between a hip-hop triplet pattern and traditional swing,” Fallis said.

Neil Hefti’s Lil’ Darlin’ showcases the band’s smooth sound in ballad mode and quickly gives way to the Latin barn-burner Rhythm of Our World, made famous by the composer-trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, Fallis said. Solo improvisation abounds in Greasy Sack Blues, and the set is rounded out with the Gershwin standard But Not For Me.

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