Jazz Band, Jazz Singers to perform on Feb. 22 at the Clarion

The Brazosport College Jazz Band and Jazz Singers will perform a free jazz concert at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, February 22 at The Clarion at Brazosport College.

“We will be showcasing the broad range of jazz by including everything from early New Orleans Dixieland to contemporary settings of jazz classics,” said BC Jazz Band director Richard Birk, “We will also tie in to Black History Month by showing the jazz connection. Jazz history is Black history! We hope folks will come out and help us celebrate the great American art form of jazz.”

Selections to be performed include the following from the BC Jazz Band:

“Groovin’ High” - Charlie Parker’s bebop anthem featuring the saxophone section

“Cool Joe, Mean Joe (Killer Joe)” - Quincy Jones’ updated version of Benny Golson’s “Killer Joe”

“Straight No Chaser” - a quirky blues by Thelonius Monk

“Little Sunflower” – a beautiful bossa nova from jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard

“Fables of Faubus” – Charles Mingus’ musical protest in response to Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus’ resistance to integrating the Little Rock public schools in 1959

“Saint James Infirmary” – a bluesy setting of this 1929 Dixieland standard by Joe Primrose 

Selections from the Jazz Singers will include: 

“Stand By Me” – an a capella version of Ben E. King’s doo wop hit

“Everything” – Michael Buble’s recent hit 

“Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” – Queen Latifah’s funky re-make of the jazz standard by Cannonball Adderly

“The Jody Grind” – a soul jazz classic by NEA Jazz Master Horace Silver

For more information please contact Vorin Dornan, Director of The Clarion at Brazosport College, at (979) 230-3156.