News Article

A-State Jazz Bands to Present Fall Concert, Thursday, Oct. 10

JONESBORO – The A-State Jazz Bands will present their fall concert Thursday, Oct. 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Fowler Center, Riceland Hall, at Arkansas State University.

The Jazz Bands are under the direction of Dr. Ken Carroll. The concert is free and open to the public.

The 10 o’ clock Big Band will open the show with Don Menza’s famous “Groovin’ Hard.”  An important voice in the bands of Buddy Rich, Stan Kenton, and Maynard Ferguson, Don Menza’s arrangements are performed the world over. 

The second work performed, “I Always Get the Blues From You,” is a great new blues written for the band by Michael Medrick, a graduate of Jerry Coker’s program at the University of Tennessee, and an exciting new voice in jazz band arranging.  

Next, the band will play a new work by Tom O’Connor.  Familiar to all Jonesboro jazz fans, Dr. O’Connor is a former member of the Jonesboro Jazz Society, director of the Tribe Big Band, and chair of the Music Department.  Now enjoying a very busy retirement, he “loaned” “No Better Blues Dan Dis” to the band for the show.  Members of the band believe it is certain to become a classic. 

10 O’Clock closes their portion of the show with a very cool Latin composition “Fortissimo” by Don Bowyer.  Dr. Bowyer, the dean of the College of Fine Arts at A-State, is another amazing writer and a significant voice on trombone.

The 11 o’ clock Big Band will open the second half with a staple of all jazz bands, Thad Jones’ “Big Dipper.”  This classic will be followed by Eric Richard’s arrangement of Freddie Hubbard’s standard “The Intrepid Fox.” 

Jazz icon Wayne Shorter, a composer of the highest order, created a tune for Miles Davis entitled “Footprints.”  The band will perform Tom O’Connor’s creative interpretation of the classic.  Written for his boss, Stan Kenton, Bill Holman’s classic “Boop Boo Be Doop” is a dance-era classic that easily stands the test of time.  Audience members will be invited to dance along as the band swings through this Holman masterpiece. 

The show closes with Mike Crotty’s complicated tapestry of Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine.”  As the staff arranger for the “Airmen of Note,” Crotty assembled the difficult arrangement for the Air Force big band.

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11:00 Jazz Band

10:00 Jazz Band