Relax to Stan Kenton “On the Hill” April 26

Sunday, April 19, 2009

 

Mix together spring sunshine, grass and jazz in equal proportions and you’ve got the magic combination for Purdue Bands’ salute to jazz great Stan Kenton at its traditional Jazz on the Hill concert, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 26, at Slayter Center, on the corner of Stadium and Jischke Drive, West Lafayette. Admission is free. Blankets and lawn chairs encouraged for comfortable seating!

 

“Stan Kenton’s music features brass a lot. It’s very exciting and powerful and just lends itself to outdoors concerts,” says Mo Trout who, with graduate assistant Todd Ward, will put five bands on stage for the annual event. Concert-goers will hear the Purdue Jazz Band, American Music Repertory Ensemble, Lab Jazz Band, Concert Jazz Band and Jazz Conception Ensemble.

 

All the bands will play Kenton tunes or tunes arranged by members of his group including one with historical ties to Purdue. American Music Repertory Ensemble will perform a Bill Holman arrangement of Benny Goodman’s “Stompin’ at the Savoy” that was debuted at the Kenton Road Show when it played at Elliott Hall of Music.

 

The Lab Band will perform “Eager Beaver” and other tunes from the 1940s when the Stan Kenton Band first became popular. There will also be Latin-flavored numbers from the 1950s and 60s.  Among them: “Malaga,” “La Suerte de los Tontos and “Recuerdos” from the Cuban Fire Suite where the brass is augmented by two French horns and “Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise.” There’s even an arrangement of “Bali Ha’i” from the musical South Pacific that alternates between Latin and swing rhythms.

 

The Purdue Jazz Band will sample Kenton arrangements of standards like “Begin the Beguine,” “Stella By Starlight,” Whatever Lola Wants,”  “My One and Only” and It’s Alright With Me.”

 

The concert concludes the Purdue Jazz Season for 2008-09.  The Purdue Summer Jazz Band will perform at the Stars and Stripes concert at Slayter Center on July 4.

 

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