Big band bundle
February 9, 2015
WSU is getting jazzed about the Jazz Big Band and One O’clock Jazz Shop’s joint concert.
“It’s always a real treat to play alongside the Big Band,” said Alvin Delos Santos, graduate student and director of the One O’clock Jazz Shop. “We only do these about twice a year.”
The Jazz Big Band, under the direction of Greg Yasinitsky, and the One O’clock Jazz Shop, under the direction of Delos Santos, will be performing “Premieres and Originals” in the Kimbrough Concert Hall tomorrow at 8 p.m.
The concert will feature the premiere of Regents professor of music Greg Yasinitsky’s original composition for the Big Band, “Sideways,” and professor F. David Snider’s arrangement of “Strasbourg-St. Dennis.”
“Every piece of music ever written is an original,” Yasinitsky said. “A jazz original is a composition, which was conceived as a jazz piece of music rather than a popular song, which was adapted to jazz.”
The Jazz Big Band will premier these pieces as well as Sammy Nestico’s “A Pair of Aces,” Clifford Brown’s “Joy Spring,” arranged by Charles Argersinger, and Jeff Coffin’s “Tall and Lanky.”
The One O’clock Jazz Shop will perform Eric Applegate’s “Windmills,” Yasinitsky’s “Stay Tuned,” Charles Argersinger’s “Yo Mambo,” and a surprise piece to conclude their set.
Unlike the Jazz Big Band I and Jazz Big Band II, “The One O’clock Jazz Shop,” is traditionally instructed by a graduate teaching assistant.
“We take a bit of a different direction than the Big Band,” Delos Santos said. “The second ensemble is diverse in the sense that not all students are music majors. We represent a cross section of students from all facets of this university and life.”
Soloists include Brian Ploeger on trumpet, Alberto Ferro on piano, Andrew Dodge on guitar, and Michado Mijiga and Alvin Delos Santos on saxophone.
The concert is free and open to the public.
Reporting by Corin Uchuion