By Megan Bailey
College of Fine Arts and Communication Media Office
The University of Central Arkansas Jazz Ensembles will be in concert Oct. 7 at Snow Fine Arts Center Recital Hall.
The UCA Jazz Ensembles — Jazz I, Top-Hatters and Jazz Combo — will perform in the 7:30 p.m. concert, which is free and open to the public.
New UCA faculty member Dr. Matthew Taylor leads the Top-Hatters, formerly the Dixieland Band. The band specializes in traditional jazz styles and will delight with a set of toe-tapping, traditional tunes in original arrangements inspired by the streets of New Orleans.
Their program will include favorites from Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five like “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue” and “Basin Street Blues.”
The Jazz Combo ensemble is “a smaller version of the larger jazz band, which plays standard jazz, with most of their music improvised,” said Dr. Gail Robertson, professor of tuba and euphonium at UCA.
“We are going to do ‘Summer Time, ‘It Don’t Mean A Thing,’ and maybe one more tune,” said Joseph Duong, an adjunct professor and director of the Jazz Combo.
Jazz I ensemble, led by Robertson, head of the jazz area, is scheduled to perform jazz standards, including Gordon Goodwin’s “La Almeja Pequena,” led by graduate assistant Cole Cavanah; Dean and Kelly Gordon’s “That’s Life” and JJ Johnson’s “Lament.” Other selections chosen by soloists will also be performed.
For more information, contact Robertson at grobertson@uca.edu, or (501) 450-5760.
The UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication includes the School of Communication with Communication, Journalism, Public Relations and Writing, as well as the Departments of Art, Music, and Film, Theatre and Creative Writing. The college’s primary mission is the preparation of the next generation of artists, educators and communicators. For more information about CFAC, visit www.uca.edu/cfac or call (501) 450-3293.