WSU Jazz Big Band.
PULLMAN, Wash. A free, public concert will open the season of the award-winning Washington State University jazz big bands at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2, in the Kimbrough Music Building.The WSU Big Band II, directed by Matt Lanka, will open with Billy Strayhorn’s evocative ballad, “Blood Count,” composed for the Duke Ellington Band; the uptempo blues, “The Cutting Edge,” by Greg Yasinitsky, regents professor and director of the School of Music and Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II’s “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise,” as arranged by Charles Argersinger, WSU professor emeritus.
The WSU Jazz Big Band directed by Yasinitsky will perform his hard driving blues, “Neil Behind the Wheel,” written for the Yellowstone Jazz Festival Big Band; Neal Hefti’s classic “Fantail” composed for the Count Basie Band; Sammy Nestico’s beautiful ballad “Rachael;” Yasinitsky’s blazing blues “Top Dog;” his arrangement of the Charlie Parker bebop classic “Ornithology” and Los Angeles composer Les Hooper’s “New Suit for Zoot.”
Soloists will include: saxophonists Matt Lanka, Tom Guenther and Jonathan Urmenita; trumpeters Gabe Braendlein and Noah Austin; trombonist Nick Brockmeyer; guitarist Clay Parkman; pianist Kana Ishii and drummer Paul Davis.