WSU jazz ensemble Nighthawk.
PULLMAN, Wash. – “Jazz in the Space Age,” a concert featuring the acclaimed Washington State University faculty jazz ensembles Nighthawk and Jazz Northwest, will be presented as part of the School of Music Faculty Artist Series at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, in Kimbrough Concert Hall.
The members of these ensembles are well known to Palouse audiences and have worked with many of the leading figures in jazz, including Lionel Hampton, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Clark Terry, Mal Waldron, Randy Brecker, Bill Watrous and Bobby Shew.
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| WSU ensemble Jazz Northwest. |
Ticket proceeds benefit the School of Music scholarship fund. Tickets, available in the lobby one hour before concert time, are free to WSU students, $5 for other students and senior citizens and $10 general admission.
The concert will open with the quartet Nighthawk, featuring saxophonists Greg Yasinitsky and Dave Hagelganz, bassist Frederick “Dave” Snider and percussionist David Jarvis. The group emphasizes hard driving, fiery saxophones and high energy improvisation.
Nighthawk recently was invited to perform at the international conference of the Jazz Education Network, the leading organization for jazz in education.
The group will perform Yasinitsky’s “Extra Slick” and “By Chance,” Hagelganz’s “The Board” and “Dark Tower,” and Snider’s arrangement of Dave Holland’s “Four Winds.”
Closing the concert will be the sextet Jazz Northwest, which includes trumpeter David Turnbull and pianist Brian Ward along with Yasinitsky, Hagelganz, Snider and Jarvis.
Ward is the newest member of the WSU jazz studies faculty. He is most recently from Portland, Ore., where he performed with the Oregon Symphony, Bobby Torres, Shirley Nanette, Curtis Salgado, Obo Addy, Thara Memory and many others. Ward appears on a variety of recordings and has had his works performed at jazz festivals and concert halls around the United States.
Jazz Northwest will perform Jarvis’s arrangement of “Stratus Phunk” from the George Russell album “Jazz in the Space Age,” Jarvis’ original composition “Run, Ritty, Run,” Snider’s arrangement of Christian McBride’s “In a Hurry,” Hagelganz’s “Wog,” and Yasinitsky’s “Diva.”