Master Saxophonist Tom Walsh to Guest with USU Big Bands

Indiana saxophonist Tom Walsh joins the big bands of Utah State University for a night of red hot and cool jazz at the Performance Hall (approximately 1090 E. 675 North, Logan) Wednesday, Oct. 15, at 7:30 p.m. The concert is coordinated by USU’s Director of Jazz Studies Jon Gudmundson and is presented by the Department of Music and the Caine School of the Arts. USU bands performing on the opening bill are the USU Jazz Ensemble and the USU Jazz Orchestra.

Tickets are available at the Caine School of the Arts Box Office online, by phone, (435) 797-8022, or in person at the Tippetts Gallery in the Chase Fine Arts Center on campus. Tickets will also be available at the door performance evening. Tickets are $8. USU students are admitted free.

 

“We are really looking forward to Tom’s visit,” Gudmundson said. “Tom and I got to play together a number of times back in the early- to mid-1990s when I lived in Indiana, and a few times since those days. He has always impressed me with his pristine technique on the saxophone, and his ability to play masterfully in jazz and classical styles.”

 

In recent years, Walsh has released several CD recordings in jazz and classical styles, including his 2006 recording of David Baker’s Concerto for Jazz Alto Saxophone with Orchestra with the Czech National Symphony on Albany Recordings under the title Paul Freeman Introduces David Baker, Volume XII. Walsh is featured on two other recordings released in 2006: Basically Baker with the Buselli/Wallarab Jazz Orchestra (GM Recordings) and“Sky Scrapings: Saxophone Music of Don Freund (AUR Recordings). In 2002, Walsh released his first jazz CD, New Life, on the RIAX label. His first classical saxophone disc, Shaking the Pumpkin, was released in 1998 on RIAX.

 

USU’s first student group to hit the stage for the fall concert with guest artist Walsh is the Jazz Ensemble, directed by music department faculty member Todd Fallis, who has led the group for 16 years and continues to introduce budding jazz musicians to the standard repertoire for the big band. This year’s initial offering is no different, as Fallis has themed his concert set with what he calls “Standards.”

 

“Many tunes become standards because they become very popular among jazz musicians and listeners alike,” Fallis said. “I have decided that for this first concert, we would concentrate on some great standards.”

 

The band leads things off with Miles Davis’s Nardis, featuring Eric Bennion on alto sax and Brad Henrie on trumpet. Next up is Jimmy Van Heusen’s Like Someone in Love, featuring Richard Perkins on trombone and Kristen Muir on trumpet, followed by Well You Needn’t by Thelonious Monk featuring the sax section and Tyer Curtis on tenor.

 

Guest artist Walsh is featured on the saxophone on Just Friends and Round Midnight. Finally, the jazz ensemble will close its portion of the evening with Nelson Riddle’s arrangement of Stella by Starlight and the Latin barn burner Mambo Swing, recorded by Big Bad Vodoo Daddy. The work features the rhythm section.

 

The USU Jazz Orchestra, directed by Gudmundson, takes the stage for the second half of the concert with a mix of old favorites and new compositions. The classic Don Menza composition Groovin’ Hard features the saxophone section. Trombonist Paul McKee’s contemporary composition Just Like That introduces a nice Coltrane turnaround to an otherwise bluesy chord progression, Gundmundson said.

 

“Other highlights include a lovely feature for lead saxophonist Tyler Whittaker on My One and Only Love, a blues vehicle by bassist John Clayton called Nice To Meet You and a set of three Tom Walsh arrangements that are, by turns, bebop, Disney and funky.”

 

 

Contact: Jon Gudmundson (435) 797-3003
Contact: Todd Fallis (435) 797-3005
Source: Music Department