The concert follows a successful spring tour, which featured the Season 6 winner of America’s Got Talent, Landau Eugene Murphy Jr., as a special guest artist.
For this concert, the ensemble will include tunes it presented on tour as well as new material the members have been working on.
“We will present some contemporary, large jazz ensemble music from the late, great trumpet player Roy Hargrove, some canonic works by Duke Ellington, as well as some new takes on classic tunes,” said Jeff Wolfe, director of the MU Jazz Ensemble I.
“We had a great time on our mini-tour spreading the word about jazz at Marshall,” Wolfe said. “We were able to hear some great young jazz players at several high schools across our state as well as sharing America’s artistic gift to world, jazz, with audiences across West Virginia.”
The concert is free and open to the public, with sponsorship from the School of Music in the College of Arts and Media.
The MU Jazz Ensemble I is the premier large jazz ensemble in the Marshall University Jazz Studies Program. Over the past year, the MU Jazz Ensemble has performed with world-renowned drummer and band-leader Jeff Hamilton and NEA Jazz Master Jason Marsalis at the Inaugural Huntington International Jazz Festival and Ellis Marsalis International Jazz Piano Competition, as well as with noted trumpet player and band leader Rob Parton at the 50th Annual Marshall University Winter Jazz Festival. In addition to multiple on-campus concerts each semester, the MU Jazz Ensemble I performs frequently across West Virginia and the Tri-State area, and at regional high schools and jazz festivals.