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Jazz Festival tickets on sale Monday

November 30, 2013
The University of Idaho Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival will celebrate its 47th year February 19-22, and Festival tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday, December 2.

Tickets are available for all nights, with prices ranging from $25-$50 per night and special discounts as low as $7 for youth and college students in the quad cities area. Tickets may be purchased at the ASUI-Kibbie Activity Center Ticket Office by calling (208) 885-7212, toll free 1-88-88-UIDAHO or online at www.uidaho.edu/ticketoffice.

“Each new year astounds me with the caliber of artists that want to play in Moscow, Idaho,” said Steven Remington, executive director of the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. “They are so sincerely moved by the students who come here to see them, too. It’s a very special relationship that Lionel Hampton enabled us to have here with jazz music and our young musicians. It just keeps getting better.”

The festival includes evening concerts featuring some of the biggest names in jazz, free student performances, and free and low-cost workshops and clinics.

The Wednesday, February 19 opening night concert, presented by Avista Corp., will feature NEA Jazz Master Benny Golson, Ken Peplowski, Grace Kelly with the All-Star Quartet featuring Josh Nelson, Shawn Conley, Bruce Forman and Kevin Kanner, and the Lionel Hampton School of Music Jazz Band 1 in the Student Union Building Ballroom.

Golson, a multi-talented and internationally famous jazz legend, continues to make important contributions to the jazz world. He is the only living jazz artist to have written eight standards for jazz repertoire. Those standards are still used in countless recordings internationally. He has recorded over 30 albums and written more than 300 compositions.

The Thursday, February 20 evening concerts, presented by Pepsi, will feature the Ken Peplowski and Terell Stafford Septet, NEA Jazz Master Sheila Jordan with the All-Star Trio, and Geoffrey Keezer.

Born in Cleveland, Peplowski made his professional debut at age 10. By 19, he had spent two years touring with the Tommy Dorsey ghost orchestra. Peplowski settled in New York City, where he played with Benny Goodman. He signed with Concord in 1987 and has worked with artists such as Mel Torme, Dee Daniels and Rosemary Clooney. He was one of the top clarinetists of the 1990s and a talented tenor player.

Raised in poverty in Pennsylvania, Jordan started singing at a young age. By her early teens, she was performing semi-professionally in Detroit clubs. She became a member of the vocal trio Skeeter, Mitch and Jean. The trio worked with Charlie Parker to sing versions of Parker’s songs. In the early 1950s, she married Parker’s pianist, Duke Jordan.

At only 17, Keezer joined the Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers as the last pianist. He worked alongside artists such as Horace Silver, Bobby Thimmons, Cedar Walton, James Williams and Benny Green. After Blakey’s death, Keezer recorded with Sunnyside, Blue Note, DIW/Columbia and Sackville. He also performed and recorded with the Contemporary Piano Ensemble and the Ray Brown Trio. In early 2000, he teamed up with Zero One.

The Friday, February 21 evening concerts, presented by Alaska Airlines, will feature Groove for Thought, Rene Marie and the Yellowjackets.

Groove for Thought is comprised of seven singers, combining swing with smooth jazz and classic pop. The group of friends formed in 2000, meeting weekly in living rooms. Each member of the group has ties to jazz education in the Pacific Northwest, many of them as experienced music teachers, and toured throughout North America and Europe.

Marie’s style incorporates elements of jazz, soul, blues and gospel. Marie has received several awards throughout her career including Best International Jazz Vocal CD by the Academie Du Jazz in Paris, France. She has graced the Billboard Charts multiple times, propelling her to headliner status at major festivals in the U.S. and abroad, including the Women In Jazz festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C., the Edinburgh Jazz Festival in Scotland and the Shanghai Jazz Festival in China, among many others. She has just released her newest album November, 2013, “I Wanna Be Evil," a tribute to Eartha Kitt.

The Yellowjackets consists of Bob Mintzer, Russell Ferrante, William Kennedy and newly joined bassist Feliz Pastorius, all top-notch L.A. session musicians. The original line-up, assembled to record the 1979 solo album “The Inside Story,” was released under the name of then bandleader Robben Ford. During this initial period the band’s sound combined elements of blues, jazz fusion and progressive rock with Ford contributing vocals. The group has since moved in a more democratic direction with no vocals and embraced a jazz-funk approach overall. In May 2008, the Yellowjackets released their 20th recording “Lifecycle.” The album was nominated for the 2009 GRAMMY Awards in the category of Best Contemporary Jazz Album. They released their latest album, “A Rise in the Road,” in June 2013.

The Saturday, February 22 evening concerts, presented by Frontier Communications, will feature the Lionel Hampton Jazz Youth Orchestra with special guests Jason Marsalis, NEA Jazz Master Benny Golson, followed by the NEA Jazz Master Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Septet.

Palmieri was born in Spanish Harlem in 1936. At an early age, he started playing piano. By age 13, he joined his uncle’s orchestra, where he played timbales. He began his professional career in the early 1950s with Edie Forrester’s Orchestra. He joined Johnny Segui’s band in 1955. By 1961, he had formed his own band La Perfecta, which featured a trombone section in place of trumpets.

For more information, visit www.uidaho.edu/jazzfest
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