PULLMAN, Wash. – A jazz tribute to the Rolling Stones will be presented in a free, public concert at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 15, in Bryan Hall at Washington State University.
Matt Harris will perform with the award-winning WSU Jazz Big Band, directed by Regents Professor Greg Yasinitsky, and Big Band II, directed by graduate teaching assistant Alvin Delos Santos.
A pianist, composer and arranger with the big bands of Buddy Rich and Maynard Ferguson, Harris has recorded six CDs of original music and is regularly commissioned to write for bands all over the world. He has written for the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Metrapole Orchestra in the Netherlands, U.S. Air Force Airmen of Note and air force Falcolnaires and Kluvers Big Band in Denmark.
He will join the Jazz Big Band on three of his arrangements of Rolling Stones classics: “Under My Thumb,” “Paint it Black” and “Honky Tonk Woman.” The band will perform “Chick Lick,” a new Harris composition inspired by jazz pianist Chick Corea, and “One-Two-Three,” composed by Yasinitsky.
Soloists will include pianist Alberto Ferro, guitarist Clay Parkman, trumpet players Adam Willey and Noah Austin, and saxophonists Machado Mijiga and Delos Santos. Also featured will be members of the jazz studies faculty: guitarist Brad Ard, bassist F. David Snider, drummer David Jarvis and saxophonists Dave Hagelganz and Yasinitsky.
Big Band II will perform: Bob Berg’s “Friday Night at the Cadillac Club,” arranged by Delos Santos; Sammy Nestico’s classic “Hay Burner,” written for the Count Basie Band; and two Latin pieces by San Francisco Bay-area composer John Palacio, “Smile and Dance Away” and “Latin Disease.”
Contact:
Gregory W. Yasinitsky, WSU School of Music, 509-335-2509, 509-335-4244, yasinits@wsu.edu