Purdue News

April 13, 2001 Easy listening jazz fills traditional outdoor event Jazz on the Hill WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Jazz standards and tunes with a rock flavor will be featured at Jazz on the Hill Friday, April 20. For decades, the traditional outdoor concert has ushered in Gala Weekend on campus. Four bands, highlighted by Purdue's Jazz Band and the Alumni Jazz Band, are featured at the informal event, which runs from 5-8 p.m. at Slayter Center. Concert-goers are encouraged to bring picnics and lawn chairs to Slayter’s grassy hill. Admission is free. "We try to play tunes where a lot of people get a chance to solo, and hit different styles of jazz," said M.T. "Mo" Trout, director of jazz studies at Purdue University. "We do things that are fun to play." Purdue’s future in jazz performance, as well as its past, gets a salute during the evening. Rebecca Hodson, a public relations major from Lafayette, Ind., landed a position in the Purdue Jazz Band as a freshman. She will perform an extended saxophone solo in Horace Silver’s "Nica’s Dream." Twenty jazz band alumni, returning to campus for the weekend, get another chance to entertain campus audiences under Trout’s direction. The group includes a father and son combination – Greg and Devin Johnson of Indianapolis – both former saxophone players in the Purdue Jazz Band. In other eras, the jazz band had regular singers, and two of them also will be featured. Carleton Mitchell, of LaCrosse, Wis., will sing "Orange Colored Sky," while Linda Deloso, of Tigard, Ore., will perform "The Nearness of You." Duke Ellington’s "C Jam Blues" and the Count Basie version of "April in Paris" also are on the Alumni Band lineup. The Purdue Jazz Band features a contemporary jazz fusion tune written in the style of the Brecker Brothers called "Brecker-Brac." The band also will perform an arrangement obtained from the Dunedin City Jazz Orchestra, the Australian ensemble the band toured Europe with in the summer of 2000. Titled "Introducing The Band," the unique piece offers every member of the band a short solo spot. Purdue’s Concert Jazz Band, directed by Alan Landers, and Lab Jazz Band, directed by Trout, fill out the program. The Lab Band’s numbers include a rock-based tune "Are We There Yet?" along with Cole Porter’s "You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To." Order of performance for the concert begins with the Concert Jazz Band followed by the Lab Jazz Band, Alumni Jazz Band and topped by Purdue Bands’ premier ensemble the Purdue Jazz Band. CONTACT: Kathy Matter, (765) 496-6785; kcmatter@purdue.edu. To the Purdue News and Photos Page