Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Feb. 20, 1992, edition 1 / Page 14
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Page 6 DTH Omnibus Thursday February 20, 1992 DTH Omnibus Page 7 Thursday February 20, 1992 A Whole Woodwind artist Tim Eyermann Vocals play VICKI HYMAN Editor lies Uavis ana his trum pet. Wynton Marsalis and 1 his saxophone. Jevonna Brooks-Fox and her voice. Her voice! Brooks-Fox and her special jazz "instrument" may be unfamiliar to you now, but if you attend this weekend's UNC Jazz Festival, you will forever associate the strong and flexible rhythms of jazz with Brooks Fox's vocals. Brooks-Fox, a junior speech com munications and Spanish major from Cary, will be the featured vocalist with the UNC Jazz Band, who will perform this Thursday and Saturday night. James Ketch, director of the UNC Jazz Band and an associate professor of music, said that previously, he had rarely used a vocalist with the band. "Most of the students I've encoun tered really didn't have a really good feel for jazz. I didn't feel like the students had ever listened to the great jazz singers." They were mostly pop or classi cally trained, he said. Ketch decided to give it another try after North Carolina Central University brought a very impressive will perform Saturday night powerful role in concert vocal group to festival last year. He posted openings for vocalists for the Jazz Band this spring, and that's how he found Brooks-Fox. "I'd never met her before or heard her sing before," he said. "She's ter rific." Brooks-Fox, who lists among her influences Sara Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Diane Schurr and Billie Holliday, said she's been singing "ev erything else forever" and decided she wanted to make a change. She's sung a lot of blues, and she compared that to jazz: "Blues is just a lot slower a lot of different feeling. Jazz is just a happening kind of thing. "It's an outlet to allow you to feel so much," she said. The next step was to find some tunes that would be effective show cases for her, he said. Grammy-award winning vocalist Diane Schurr re corded with Count Basie the twosongs Brooks-Fox will be singing, "I Just Found Out About Love" and "Trav elling Blues." "She's been blessed with a won derful voice," Ketch said. "It's quite flexible she can sing with a lot of emotion and yet she has a lot of high notes that can really be exciting." DlOT (Df Jazz (Boing UNC's 15th annual JENNI SPITZ Staff Writer pring is still weeks away, but .1 . rt I tne temperature in napei v Hill will be on the rise this weekend. The town is heating up with four days of classical jazz, begin ning today. As celebrity jazz artists, like Terence Blanchard, Rick Lillard and Tim Eyermann arrive for the weekend, UNC's own jazz bands will also be sending up some of their local steam. The 15th Annual Jazz Festival will run from Feb. 20-23, and will include a series of concerts by bands from local colleges, area high schools, guest performers, and the UNC Jazz Band and Jazz Lab Band. On opening night, the festival will begin with a program entitled "Jazz Sessions with UNC'The show, which starts at 8 p.m. in the Carolina Union Cabaret, will feature instru mental and vocal jazz students of UNC, and, take note, it's free. Thurs day night is sponsored by the Caro lina Union Activities Board, which has worked closely with the Depart ment of Music to coordinate the Jazz Festival. Jennifer Werner, chairwoman of the Union committee in charge of A jazz singer can't be intimidated of her accompaniment, Ketch said. "You have to get on top of the band, so to speak." He said that Brooks-Fox really carries herself well with the band. Voices and instruments in jazz form a sort of dichotomy. "Good horn play ers develop a vocal-like quality and good vocalists will have a sort of horn like instrumental quality," Ketch said. "That's what I appreciate about Jevonna she already has an au thentic quality and I would think the more she listens, the deeper she's go ing to be go inside the lyrics or the melody or the tune." Brooks-Fox considers herself an instrument to the band. "My purpose is to just kind of fit in where the blanks are." Those patrons who have been fol lowing the Jazz Band for a number of years will get a big treat, Ketch said. "1 hope she'll create a tradition she can maintain so others can follow in her footsteps." Brooks-Fox expressed the same sentiment. "I'd love to keep doing it," she said. "It's become my new pas time." But she gave credit to Ketch for making jazz such a wonderful experi ence. "He allows you to live through music," she said. "You find your own sort of happening." Thursday's performance, expects opening night to be an eye- opener for those inter- ested in jazz, and they're Jt' working to set the mood t r i i v lur uie wecKcuu. were shooting for a nightclub atmo sphere," Werner said. "Jazz Sessions with UNC" will in clude three 20-minute sets with vo calists and pianists, and one 40-minute "jam" with the UNC Jazz Band. The evening is intended to focus on the students. Friday night will feature one of the festival's highlights. Terence Blanchard, the jazz trumpeter who scored and performed much of the music for the Spike Lee films Mo Better Blues and Jungle Fever, is ex- pected to draw a large crowd to Me morial Hall. The concert is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Blanchard has been called "a true in novator on the trum pet." He will be perform' ing selections from his first solo release, 1 99 1 's Terence Blanchard, which includes several tracks from Jazz vocalist Jevonna Brooks-Fox i- i ' ' ;i '" c:i- , z. . - ' . r. rrr. . ; V festival brings you all that jazz his work with Lee. This album has been acclaimed as "a triumphant step forward for one of the most distinctive trumpet voices to day. Tickets for the Blanchard concert are on sale at the Carolina Union Box Office and are $8 for the general public and $4 for UNC s t u dents. Invit ing guest artists to the Jazz Festival was part of an effort to in clude the student body and community in the an nual event, said James Ketch, director of the UNC Jazz Band, an associate professor of music and one of the festival's organizers. OmnibusKathy Michel will sing with the UNC Jas Band JX Tickets for the A Blanchard concert are s ill on sale at the Carolina 1 "' j if a union dox umce ana j ir f I are $8 for the general J" " ' 1 I public and $4 1 1 Ur;r?r ') , A 1 i dents. S j i j r i Terence Blanchard is part of a group of musicians who have had an incredible impact on jazz," Ketch said. "Musicians like him have stood for the. historical value of acoustical jazz." Ketch said it is im portant for jazz stu dents to take ad vantage of the op portunity to hear one of the stan dard bearersof their art. Werner also sees Blanchard's concert as a main at traction of the festival, especially for the student body. "We decided to choose Terence Blanchard because he has one of the newer, younger groups around to day," she said. "His quintet is alive, and he has popular appeal because he is associated with Spike Lee." The third evening of the Jazz Fes tival will bring two other great musi cians, Rick Lillard and Tim Eyermann, to Chapel Hill. Both art ists will be playing with the UNC Jazz Band in their feature perfor mances of the year. The show will be held Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. in Memorial Hall. Tickets, on sale at the Union, are $3 for the general public and $1 for UNC stu dents. Lillard was formerly the lead trom bonist for the famed U.S. Air Force Airmen of Note Jazz Orchestra. He has appeared on the Tonight Show with bandleader Doc Severinson (who is great fan of Airmen of Note ) , and has performed with such artists as Sarah Vaughn and Joe Williams. Currently Lillard has been perform ing with the Jazz Society of Gainesville, Fla., as a guest artist. Eyermann is a woodwind artist who has recorded eight albums with his jazz group East Coast Offering. He has also toured and recorded with Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra over the last two decades. Ketch said the band is looking forward to performing with both mu sicians. They've sent us some diffi cult material to work with, so we've been practicing hard. I think they'll be pleased with how professionally we can create a backdrop for them." For example, the Jazz Band found themselves expanding their horizons when they added conga drums for one Latin-oriented number. UNC Jazz Band member Billy Bish said that the students in the band are "proud to have the opportunity to learn from famous musicians." He (Dn said experiences like the Jazz Festi val enable amateur musicians to grow musically. Band members and Ketch expect Saturday night's concert to be ex citing and full of diversity. In a ' changefrompreviousyears.theband will be accompanied by a vocalist in several numbers. This year's vocalist, selected through open audition, is Jevonna Brooks-Fox. She will appear with the Jazz Band on the Thursday and Saturday night performances. She plans to sing several Count Basie songs, including "I Just Found Out About Love," and "Travelling Blues.". Saturday's festival itinerary also includes the High School Jan Festi val, to be held at Hill Hall. Clinics will be held for participating area high school jazz students, with Lillard, Eyermann and Ketch acting as instructors and adjudicators. Ses sions will focus on jazz techniques and improvisation. Each high school band will play three numbers to be judged by clinic instructors. Awards will be given to the best bands and soloists. The festival culminates on Sun day, with CollegeUniversity Jazz Day. Held in the Carolina Union's Great Hall, the performances are free and open to the public. The UNC Jazz Lab Band, with director Keith Jackson, UNC Jazz Band, NCCU Jazz Ensemble di rected by Ira Wiggins, the ECU Jazz Ensemble directed by Carroll Dashiel, and St. Augustine's Jazz Banddirected by Harold Jeffries will participate in a day of jazz jams. The show will run from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Ketch said that Sunday's show case should have a "street-festival atmosphere." Last year was the first time that the idea of inviting visit ing jazz bands to play in a free con cert was incorporated into the festi val, and it was met with great suc cess. College Jazz Day drew the largest crowd and the most enthusiasm in last year's festival, and organizers hope for the same turnout this year. The Jazz Festival is an excellent opportunity for current or prospec tive jazz students, Ketch said, and with performances by celebrities of the industry, thisyear'sfestival could have a significant impact on future musicians. Through the cooperation of the Carolina Union Activities Board and the Department of Music, UNC is able to host one of the greatest jazz festivals on the East Coast. By ex posing the community and students to renowned artists of our time, as well as the talent within the Uni versity, festival organizers continue to add to Chapel Hill's diverse cul tural appeal. r a I i ill S i I A 1 I Terence Blanchard, one of the Blanchard plays 'jazz of Terence Blanchard Quintet Friday, February 21 Memorial Mall Tickets:$4 lor students; $8 public For information call 962-2285 you can hear the jazz of tomor row the spirited, emotional and technically complex this Saturday from the horn of rising young trumpeter Terence Blanchard as part of UNC's 15th annual Jazzf Festival. One of the innovators of new, soulful jazz, this 29-year-old from New Orleans comes from a strong tradi tional background of classical trum pet (he studied with George Jenson and Bill Fielder) and concentrated best young Jazz musicians today on jazz with Ellis Marsalis (father of Branford, Wynton and Delfeayo), Kenny Barron and Paul Jeffries. These days, Blanchard also works with Spike Lee he and saxophonist Donald Harrison recorded the soundtrack on Lee's 1987 film, School Daze, and when Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) blew his horn in Lee's Mo' Better Blues, it was Blanchard's magical notes that flew out. He recorded the soundtrack with the Branford Marsalis Quartet as well as serving as technical supervisor and music composer for the film. Blanchard, who has toured and performed with some of jazz's greats, formed his own quintet in 1990, and then he released his first solo album last year, titled simply Terence Blanchard. The album, a vigorous, potent exercise which was produced by Delfeayo Marsalis, was called "a triumphant step forward for one of JAZZFEST SCHEDULE 8:00 p.m. Jazz Sessions with UNC Instrumental and Vocal Jazz Students in Carolina Union Caba ret Admission is free and it is open to all. 8:00 p.m. The Terence Blanchard Quintet will perform in : Memnrml Hall. See preview below. The High School division of the Jazz Festival will take place during the day in Hill Hall Audito rium. 8:30- 1 :25a.m. HighSchool Band and combo performances. J 1:45 a.m.-1 2:30p.m. Open Rehearsal with the UNC Jazz Band with guest soloists. 1 :30 - 3:30 p.m. Jazz Work shops with Rick Lillard, Tim Eyermann and Jim Ketch. 3 :00 - 4:40 p.m. High School Jazz Band and combo performances. 5:00 p.m. Awards. 8.00 p.m. UNC Jazz Bandconcert with guest soloists. 2:00 - 6.00 p.m. The finale will be a concert in Great Hall with UNC Jazz Lab Band, UNC Jazz Band, NCCU Jazz Ensemble, ECU Jazz Ensemble and St. Augustine's Jazz Band. tomorrow' the most distinctive trumpet voices today." One's of the album's standouts is its mesmerizing, bluesy verson of "AmazingGrace."That song was very personal for Blanchard, whose musi cal career almost came to a halt last year. Blanchard finally noticed a prob lem with his embouchure (the forma tion of the lips on the mouthpiece of the trumpet) that had been present since he first learned to play. "I had been plying incorrectly with my bottomlip over my bottom teeth, which often caused me to cut my lip," he said. He realized that he couldn't develop as a musician until he cor rected this problem, so he took some time off to work on his new tech nique. Luckily for us, he returns to the stage sounding better and stron ger than ever. from staff reports
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Feb. 20, 1992, edition 1
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