Tuesday, September 29, 2009
PRINCESS ANNE, MD-The University of Maryland Eastern Shore Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. John R. Lamkin II, will perform its annual fall concert at the Ella Fitzgerald Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, October 9, at 7 p.m.
The band will be performing several arrangements from a variety of jazz genres including traditional bebop, swing, and contemporary. “The Chicken,” “What Is Hip,” “Ask Me Now” and Stevie Wonder’s “Too High” are several of the pieces that the ensemble will perform.
According to Lamkin, the selections he chose for the band this semester are “historically significant as well as academically sound.” Lamkin said, “Once the students have mastered the musical and technical challenges of the arrangements, such as those found in ‘The Chicken,’ they will become better players.”
Last spring two stellar members of the jazz ensemble, trumpeter Kyle Milles and trombonist Virgil Boysaw, were selected to perform in the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Student All-Star Big Band, which performed at the Schomburg Library in Harlem, New York.
According to Lamkin, this year’s band has grown. There are new members in the trumpet section, trombone section, saxophone section and the rhythm section. The band is slated to perform at numerous venues this semester. On Thursday, October 29, they will be in Ocean City, Md., on October 17, they will be in Easton, Md., and on October 18, they will perform for the Salisbury Wine Festival.
According to Lamkin, this year the band is “focusing on a new more contemporary sound that I m sure our audiences will enjoy.”
The Jazz Ensemble fall concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call 410-651-6571.
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Bruce Moore, student intern, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-651-6669, bmoore@umes.edu.
Gail Stephens, assistant director, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-651-7580, gcstephens@umes.edu.
