PULLMAN, Wash. — Jazz Northwest, the Washington State University faculty ensemble, will be heard in an 8 p.m. free, public concert on Thursday, Jan. 30, in Kimbrough Concert Hall on the WSU campus.
Members of Jazz Northwest are well known to Northwest audiences. The group includes saxophonist Greg Yasinitsky, woodwind artist Horace-Alexander Young, trumpeter David Turnbull, saxophonist Geof Bradfield, pianist Charles Argersinger and percussionist Dave Jarvis. New to the ensemble are vocalist Jennifer Scovell, director of WSU’s award-winning VOJAZZ vocal jazz ensemble, and bassist Dave Snider, a graduate teaching assistant in music with more than 20 years of experience directing jazz bands in the U.S. Air Force.
Individually, the members of Jazz Northwest have performed, toured and recorded world-wide with the top figures in jazz including Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton, Abdullah Ibrahim, McCoy Tyner, Arturo Sandoval and many others. Jazz Northwest regularly appears at festivals, conferences and schools throughout the Pacific Northwest. In late January the group will travel to Seattle where they will perform at Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project and play in Seattle area schools before returning to WSU for the ensemble’s performance on Jan. 30.
The program for WSU will include a mix of original compositions and classic jazz standards including unique compositions and arrangements which have been created especially for the group by Yasinitsky, Scovell, Bradfield and Snider. Also the group will feature new pieces by WSU student composers Ryan Jesperson, an award winner at the Lionel Hampton Festival, and Spencer Morris.
