U-M Jazz Festival features Count Basie Orchestra

ANN ARBOR—Put the Count Basie Orchestra together with jazz master pianist Hank Jones, add some combo workshops and top it off with a performance by The Manhattan Transfer and there’s a celebration fit for royalty.

The University of Michigan School of Music’s 2004 Jazz Festival will celebrate the centennial anniversary of Count Basie Feb. 14-15 at various locations on the U-M campus and in Ann Arbor.

Featured events include a concert at 8 p.m. Feb. 14 in the Power Center for the Performing Arts on U-M’s Central Campus. Appearing with the orchestra will be Hank Jones, The Manhattan Transfer, the U-M Jazz Ensemble and U-M School of music faculty guest soloists Amy Porter (flute), Anthony Elliott (cello), Donald Walden (saxophone) and a selected outstanding high school student soloist.

This will be the first time Jones has appeared with the Basie Orchestra. He will be performing Basie classics as well as new arrangements by U-M music professors Ellen Rowe and Dennis Wilson. Tickets for the concert are available at the Michigan League’s ticket office or by calling (734) 764-2538.

A Festival Jazz Vespers Service will be held at 6 p.m. Feb.15 at Saint Luke Lutheran Church, 4205 Washtenaw Ave. in Ann Arbor. Admission is free. Created in the tradition of the Jazz Vespers at St. Peters Lutheran Church in New York City, the service is open to all faiths and will feature the music of the U-M Festival Jazz Combo.

Educational activities will take place throughout the U-M campus from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Feb. 14. Those include the adjudication of high school and collegiate jazz big bands, a jazz combo workshop, trumpet, drum, trombone, saxophone, guitar, vocal, piano and bass master classes and a lecture series titled "Count Basie at the Piano."

For more information about Basie and the performers, go to: http://www.umich.edu/news/index.html?Releases/2004/Jan04/jazzside

Detailed festival information >