Northern Michigan University's Jazz Band and jazz combos will perform a free concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20, in Reynolds Recital Hall. The event will feature about 20 student musicians, including music majors and students from other areas of study. Jazz band and high brass director Mark Flaherty will lead the NMU Jazz Band, and music theory, jazz and improvisation professor Patrick Booth will coach two smaller jazz combos.
Performances will feature a variety of music, ranging from straight-ahead swing—a style with roots in the Sixties that features acoustic instruments, walking bass, and ride-based drum patterns—to modern compositions.
The concert will feature music from renowned composers including Sammy Nestico, an American composer known for his compositional attributions to the Count Basie Orchestra; jazz nonet Matrix performer and author of “Changes Over Time: The Evolution of Jazz Arranging” Fred Sturm; and Ellen Rowe, an Ann Arbor-based jazz pianist and current professor of jazz and contemporary improvisation at the University of Michigan, among others.