The third annual CCU Jazz Festival is a two-day event featuring performances by the CCU Jazz Ensemble, CCU Jazz Combo, and CCU faculty ensembles with guest composer and pianist Ron Miller.
The CCU Jazz Ensemble is the flagship group of the commercial music and jazz program, featuring traditional big band instrumentation and vocals. The award-winning CCU Jazz Combo performs throughout the area, has recorded albums with national distribution and performed at the 2016 Montreaux, Vienne and Umbria Jazz Festivals in Europe.
Miller is professor emeritus of jazz composition at University of Miami Frost School of Music and a renowned composer and educator. His former students include Pat Metheny; Bruce Hornsby; Bobby Watson; Gil Goldstein; Steve Bailey, CCU artist in residence in the Department of Music; and Matt White, CCU associate professor of music. Each ensemble performs Miller’s original compositions and arrangements.
The third annual CCU Jazz Festival is a two-day event featuring performances by the CCU Jazz Ensemble, CCU Jazz Combo, and CCU faculty ensembles with guest composer and pianist Ron Miller.
The CCU Jazz Ensemble is the flagship group of the commercial music and jazz program, featuring traditional big band instrumentation and vocals. The award-winning CCU Jazz Combo performs throughout the area, has recorded albums with national distribution and performed at the 2016 Montreaux, Vienne and Umbria Jazz Festivals in Europe.
Miller is professor emeritus of jazz composition at University of Miami Frost School of Music and a renowned composer and educator. His former students include Pat Metheny; Bruce Hornsby; Bobby Watson; Gil Goldstein; Steve Bailey, CCU artist in residence in the Department of Music; and Matt White, CCU associate professor of music. Each ensemble performs Miller’s original compositions and arrangements.
On Saturday, April 14, from 3-5 PM, CLASS Productions presents Gerald Smith with his group JAZZSMITH at Kimbel Lodge (Hobcaw Barony) for the ninth performance in the Kimbel Concert Series.
From his introduction to the drums at the tender age of 5, Gerald Smith has been performing professionally as a lead vocalist and drummer since he was 10. After touring with his college ensemble, he formed an R&B group in Arizona which performed for 15 years throughout the southwest, followed by work as an engineer/studio manager in Trinidad where he performed with numerous top artists. He joined the group Michael Boothman and Kysofusion which was the opening act for Al Jarreau, George Duke, Wynton Marsalis, Arturo Sandoval and others.
Upon his return to the U.S., he joined the smooth jazz group Indigo City for a few years and then formed JAZZSMITH, performing at many jazz festivals including the Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The group’s most recent project is a compilation of Smith’s smooth jazz percussive styles and the smooth melodies from over the years, titled “Jazzsmith Live and Unedited.”
A sample set includes Jazzsmith’s versions of favorites like Just the Two of Us, Maputo, On Broadway, Masquerade, Footprints, Let’s Stay Together, What’s Goin’ On, My Funny Valentine, My Girl. CDs will be available at the concert.
Tickets are $30. Space is limited. Light refreshments and iced tea provided (you are welcome to BYO an adult beverage, if preferred). For reservations, call 843.235.9600 or www.ClassAtPawleys.com.
Tim Fischer, CCU assistant professor of music, and Matthew White, CCU associate professor of music, present an evening of original music and jazz standards, accompanied by Charleston-based musicians Brett Belanger on double bass and Adam Ray on drums.
Fischer is a jazz guitarist, composer and educator who has performed across the United States as well as in Europe. He holds a D.M.A. in studio/jazz guitar with a minor in Musicology from the University of Southern California. As a trumpeter, composer and educator, White teaches trumpet lessons, directs the CCU Jazz Ensemble and Combo 1, and manages the Wheelwright Recording Studio; he holds degrees from the University of North Florida and the University of Miami.
Belanger earned his B.A. in jazz performance and theory at the College of Charleston and plays professionally around the Southeast. Ray is also a graduate of College of Charleston, having earned a B.S. in economics and a B.A. in music performance. He has performed at the Charleston Jazz Festival, the Folly Beach Jazz Festival, and with many professional big bands in the Charleston region.
The CCU Jazz Big Band will perform with the Carl Payne Big Band to showcase the authentic, polished jazz sound of the Big Band Swing Era. The Carl Payne Big Band, headed by Carlton Payne Jr., was founded with the intent of educating the listening public and young, aspiring musicians in the genre of Big Band Swing. The band members include band directors, teachers, engineers, lawyers, law enforcement officers and students from college as well as high school.
International Jazz day is an annual worldwide celebration of jazz music sponsored by the United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organization. Dedicated volunteers across the world have created thousands of activities, programs and community service initiatives that celebrate “the virtues of jazz music” as an educational tool, force for peace, instrument for intercultural dialogue and global cooperation. This will be the seventh year International Jazz Day has been observed around the globe and the second year at CCU.
Beyond the Crossroads is a celebration of American blues music that includes both the classic sounds of artists such as B.B. King and the new styles that comprise the contemporary blues scene. Directed by Dan O’Reilly, CCU lecturer of music, the concert features POP 101, CCU’s contemporary music ensemble of student singers, horn players, guitarists, bass players, keyboardists and drummers.