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News Release EVENT NEWS / January 6, 2009 Boise State University Department of Music Announces Major Changes to Gene Harris Jazz Festival The Boise State University Department of Music will present the 12th annual Gene Harris Jazz Festival April 1-3, 2009. All of this year’s festival events — educational activities, club nights and headliner concerts — will take place on the Boise State campus. Along with great jazz music, student and community participants can take advantage of easy-access parking, the close proximity of all events and two new venues: the Stueckle Sky Center and the new, 1,000-seat Student Union Building ballroom. Turning management over to the Department of Music creates a broader support base from which to produce the event, said new director Mike Samball, allowing more faculty, students and staff to contribute. “Holding all events on campus, mainly in the newly renovated Student Union Building, allows us to better serve the music educators and their students,” Samball said. “But the festival also will attract the community to the campus with new, 21-and-older Club Crawl venues, the Stueckle Sky Center and Taco Bell Club Room.” “With one-stop parking and all the jazz in one central location, the public will feel like they’ve walked right into a festival of jazz,” he said. “It will make the management of the whole event more effective and efficient, as well.” • The 2009 festival will get underway with the Gene Harris Legacy Concert. This fundraising performance, memorializing Harris’ name and his music, will be presented at 7 p.m. April 1 in the Stueckle Sky Center, with social hour beginning at 6 p.m. Pianists Pat Coil, Mark Levine and Chuck Smith will play jazz inspired by Harris’ musical journey and explore its influence on jazz pianists today. Night club seating will be limited to 400 and admission will be $100; the tax-deductible funds raised from this event will support both the operating budget of the festival and the Gene Harris Jazz Festival Endowment, providing scholarships for students demonstrating artistic potential. • Club Night has been renamed the “Campus Jazz-Club Crawl.” Three venues will be open from 5-7:30 p.m. in the Student Union Building on April 1-2. Operating as all-ages nightclubs, the venues will feature Boise’s Frim Fram Four, the Brianne Bower-Gray Quintet and Portland’s Pete Petersen Porkpie Septet. The atmosphere and music in the clubs will play off of a “When Swing Was King” theme, and students, directors, chaperones and the public are encouraged to dress in Swing Era-fashion. Two 21-and-older clubs will be available in the Taco Bell Arena Reception Room and the Stueckle Sky Club, where the music will be provided by Sandon Mayhew and Chuck Smith’s New Trio and saxophonist Jamey Aebersold with pianist, Mark Levine. • The festival will feature evening jazz concerts with headliners the Pat Coil Sextet at 8 p.m. April 2 and the Pete Escovedo Latin Jazz Orchestra, which will perform the finale concert at 8 p.m. April 3. Other participating artists include Pete Petersen’s Porkpie Septet, saxophonist Aebersold, pianist Levine, the New Trio, the Frim Fram Four and the Brianne Bower-Gray Quintet. Coil is an accomplished pianist, composer, producer, arranger, programmer and highly respected studio musician. Coil’s talent spans the musical spectrum — pop, jazz, R&B, gospel and country. Escovedo is a Grammy-nominated artist and legendary percussionist who broke down barriers between smooth jazz, salsa, Latin jazz and contemporary music. • Tickets are available through Select-a-Seat by visiting http://idahotickets.com or through http://geneharris.org. • As in years past, student jazz bands from throughout the Northwest will engage in critiqued performances, jazz clinics and improvisational workshops. Jamey Aebersold, world-renowned jazz teacher, will present “How to Play Jazz and Improvise” at 11 a.m. in the Student Union Barnwell Room April 2-3, while other educational events will take place from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. April 2-3 in the Student Union. For more information about the 2009 Gene Harris Jazz Festival, visit http://geneharris.org or contact Mike Samball at (208) 426-3498 or e-mail msamball@boisestate.edu. -30- Media Contact: Julie Hahn, University Communications, (208) 426-5540, juliehahn@boisestate.edu Boise State University is “The New U Rising” with record student enrollment, new academic buildings, additional degree programs and a growing research agenda. Learn more at www.boisestate.edu.
Last reviewed on Tuesday, January 06, 2009
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