WSU Jazz Festival features Brent Edstrom

 
 
PULLMAN  –  The WSU Jazz Festival will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 4 on the Pullman campus.
A highlight of the festival will be a gala concert from noon to 1 p.m. in Bryan theater featuring guest pianist and arranger Brent Edstrom performing with the award-winning WSU Jazz Big Band directed by Greg Yasinitsky. 
Edstrom — a renowned pianist, composer, arranger and author — earned degrees from WSU and the Eastman School of Music and he has performed with many of the greatest figures in jazz including Clark Terry, Ron Carter, Ernie Watts, Lee Konitz, John Clayton, Jon Faddis, Bob Berg, Bob Mintzer, Dee Daniels, Freda Payne and Peter Erskine.
Edstrom’s compositions and arrangements have been featured at numerous prestigious festivals. In 2007 he premiered a 45 minute concerto for piano and orchestra with the Coeur d’Alene symphony.
Edstrom’s recent publications include “Musicianship in the Digital Age,” distributed nationally by Thomson, and “Bill Evans Signature Licks,” “Hard Bop For Piano” and “Latin Jazz Piano,” distributed by Hal Leonard.
  
Edstrom is an associate professor of music at Whitworth College in Spokane where he teaches jazz piano and coordinates the music theory and composition program.
The faculty group Jazz Northwest will also perform, featuring Kathleen Hollingsworth, piano; Yasinitsky, saxophone; David Turnbull, trumpet; Dave Hagelganz, saxophone; Frederick “Dave” Snider, bass; and David Jarvis, drums. The concert will be presented in Bryan Hall Theatre and will be free of charge.
Jazz Northwest will perform “Run, Ritty, Run,” composed by Jarvis, followed by the Jazz Big Band’s presentation of “Park City Express” composed by Yasinitsky. Edstrom will be featured with the Jazz Big Band on Yasinitsky’s arrangement of Billy Strayhorn’s ballad Chelsea Bridge, and Edstrom’s own arrangements of the traditional tune “Down by the Riverside,” Cole Porter’s “I Love You,” and George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm?” on which the pianist will be joined by faculty soloists Yasinitsky, Hagelganz and Jarvis.
Additionally, the festival will feature school groups from throughout the northwest performing in Kimbrough Concert Hall from 8 a.m. to 11:40 a.m. and from 2:20 p.m. to 3:40 p.m.
 
Edstrom will present a clinic at 1 p.m. in Bryan Hall Theatre and WSU faculty members will present clinics at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at various locations in the Kimbrough Music Building. All of these events are open to the public without charge.
The WSU Jazz Festival is supported by the WSU School of Music, the Jazz Society at WSU and a Student Programming Grant from Campus Involvement.

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