Southwest Baptist University News Release
Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
417-328-1803 / scsmith@sbuniv.edu
BOLIVAR, Mo. – The Department of Music at Southwest Baptist University will showcase two ensembles of jazz musicians in a joint concert on Tuesday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m. in Meyer Recital Hall on the SBU campus. The joint concert is free and open to the public.
Scat-us Quo, the select vocal jazz ensemble of SBU will present a variety of music by well-known jazz composers such as Paul Desmond, Dizzie Gillespie, and Louis Prima. “Much of the music revolves around scat-singing, thus the genesis of our name,” explained Dr. James Tarrant, director of Choral Studies at SBU. “The greats in the business make scat-singing look easy, but it is more difficult than it looks.”
Scat-us Quo will perform about half of the concert a cappella. “There’s even a bit of Shakespeare for the classical lovers,” Dr. Tarrant added.
For the second half of the concert, the SBU Jazz Ensemble will present a program of big-band jazz music, which includes arrangements of familiar tunes as well as compositions written specifically for 17-piece jazz ensemble. “As usual, we try to include a little something for a variety of jazz tastes—from the old standards to the newer jazz charts,” stated Dr. Jeffery Waters, director of the SBU Jazz Ensemble.
The jazz ensemble program includes a rousing arrangement of the classic “Bernie’s Tune,” as well “Blue Five Jive,” and “Jada,” two other familiar standards from the big bands of Count Basie and Oliver Nelson, respectively. The spotlight will fall on the 5-man trombone section as they are featured in Lennie Niehaus’s “Bonehead;” and “Carla” and “Summer Never Ends,” two lush contemporary ballads, will provide a nice change of pace from the high-energy swing tunes. “Of course, we must include some form of the blues, and ‘Alianza,’ a new work by Erik Morales which forms an ‘alliance’ between swing and Latin rhythms fits that bill nicely,” Dr. Waters said.
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Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. Since 1878, the faculty and staff have created a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. The University has been named one of America’s Best Christian Colleges® for 13 consecutive years, one of America’s 100 Best College Buys® for 14 consecutive years, and it has been named among institutions with America’s Best College Scholarships ® for the past three years by Institutional Research and Evaluation, Inc. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.
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