On Wednesday, Nov. 6, the Washington State University School of Music and Jazz Society at WSU will host the 27th annual WSU Jazz Festival. The Gala Concert, a highlight of the Festival, is scheduled from noon to 1:00 p.m. in Bryan Hall Theatre on the WSU campus.
Guest artists for the Gala Concert are WSU’s newest Jazz Studies faculty members: pianist Jake Svendsen and guitarist Gabe Condon. Also featured will be the award-winning WSU Jazz Big Band directed by Regents Professor Greg Yasinitsky with additional faculty soloists Horace Alexander Young, saxophone; F. David Snider, bass; David Jarvis, drums.
The program will include Leslie Drayton’s hard-driving blues “Rush Hour Traffic,” Chick Corea’s “Tones for Joan’s Bones” as arranged by Duke Pearson, Snider’s “A Blues for Gabe in G,” and Yasinitsky’s “True North” from his critically acclaimed YAZZ Band CD. The Gala Concert will also be livestreamed.
Visiting school ensemble will present adjudicated performances from 8:00 a.m. to noon and 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. in Kimbrough Concert Hall. Outstanding bands will be selected from the morning and afternoon performances. At 4:30 p.m., there will be a short concert by WSU faculty ensemble Jazz Northwest featuring Young, Yasinitsky, Svendsen, Condon, Snider, Jarvis and special guest trumpeter Max Harrington, a WSU School of Music graduate teaching assistant.
Clinics will be presented throughout the day by WSU faculty members. All events are free and open to the public.
