March 11, 2005

Purdue Jazz Band to perform at North Texas Festival

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – When it comes to bowl games and music, Purdue just seems to have a love affair with Texas. Following on the heels of the "All-American" Marching Band's Sun Bowl appearance in El Paso, the Purdue Jazz Band will visit the Lone Star State on April 1-3 for a command performance at the North Texas Jazz Festival in suburban Dallas.

"Just being invited to this prestigious festival means you're a winner," says Purdue jazz bands director M.T. "Mo" Trout, who's excited to take the department's top jazz band to his alma mater and show it off.

The University of North Texas, which sponsors the festival, is a Mecca for jazz musicians. It was the first university to begin offering a degree in jazz in the 1950s, and for 20 years was one of the only universities in the United States serious about jazz education.

Because of North Texas' influence, the Dallas-Denton-Fort Worth area became "a very vibrant, very involved jazz scene," Trout says. In their heydays, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman and Buddy Rich all enjoyed special relationships with the University of North Texas.

"It became a breeding ground for jazz musicians, and it opens doors in the jazz community if you went there," says Trout, a Texas native who got his master's and doctoral degrees from North Texas.

For a university with such a long and prestigious reputation, staging a jazz festival is something relatively new. The North Texas Jazz Festival is just five years old (compared to Purdue's, which turned 15 this year).

Bringing their reputation to festival planning, however, guaranteed the festival a high profile right off the bat. Participants can't just sign up, pay a fee and go. Bands are invited to attend based on audition tapes. The festival boasts just one stage, and only the cream of university, high school and middle school bands get to attend. Bands from all corners of the United States and Hawaii vie for acceptance, and less than a dozen college bands are accepted each year.

Some of the other universities accepted for 2005 include Illinois, Southern Mississippi, Nebraska, Texas Southern and Texas Arlington. Purdue will be the only university bringing a band composed of non-music majors.

"I have no conception that we'll go out there and blow them away," Trout says. "But I think we can hold our own. This band has a lot of strong points."

At the festival, the Purdue Jazz Band will perform a 30-minute set on the festival stage, then retire to an adjacent room to work with adjudicators. At the end of the day, one college band will be chosen for a cash award and will share the stage at the evening concert with the premiere North Texas One O'Clock Jazz Band.

While in Texas, the Purdue Jazz Band also will travel to Fort Worth on April 2 to appear as a guest band at Texas Christian University.

Source: Kathy Matter, Purdue Bands public relations director, (765) 496-6785, kcmatter@purdue.edu

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