NMU Jazz Concert Dec. 4

The Northern Michigan University jazz ensembles will present their second concert of the fall season at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, in Reynolds Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public. The concert will feature both the NMU Jazz Band and the NMU Jazz Combo.

The NMU Jazz Band is a standard big band with five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones and a rhythm section. This group will be playing a variety of material, including standards by Neil Hefti (Cute) and Oscar Pettiford (Blues in the Closet), a Beatles tune (Blackbird), and a crazy funk tune by saxophonist Jeff Coffin titled The Mad Hatter Rides Again. Senior Nick Wegrzyn will be featured as a student conductor on Jeff Jarvis' Critical Mass, and the whole audience will be encouraged to participate in an arrangement of Take the A Train that the band will put together live on stage.

The combo is a sextet this semester, with three horns and a rhythm section. It will perform a mixture of original compositions and arrangements by the group members.