Jazz Concert “End of an Era”
About the event
On Tuesday, April 19, at 7:30pm, in Bryan Hall Theatre, the WSU School of Music will present the jazz concert, “End of an Era,” featuring guest percussionist and composer, and Professor Emeritus, David Jarvis, performing with WSU Big Band II, directed by saxophonist, composer and Jazz Studies Professor, Horace Alexander Young; and the award-winning WSU Jazz Big Band, directed by saxophonist, composer and Regents Professor, Greg Yasinitsky. Young and Yasinitsky are retiring from WSU in May.
Jarvis, who retired in 2020, served as WSU Coordinator of Percussion Activities for 33 years. In his final year at WSU, he received the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Career Achievement Award. Jarvis’s music is widely published and performed internationally. He is a co-founder of the Dozier-Jarvis Trio, well-known to jazz fans in the Palouse.
Young performed internationally for 17 years with National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Abdullah Ibrahim. Young’s performances have thrilled audiences in nineteen countries across five continents at major Jazz festivals in Montreux, Hamburg, Leipzig, London, Paris, The Hague, British Columbia, Berlin, New York, New Orleans, Detroit, Tokyo, Houston, Seattle, Gent, Cape Town, Leverkusen and Glasgow. He has performed with Aretha Franklin, McCoy Tyner, B.B. King, Bill Withers, James Brown, Patti LaBelle and many others.
Yasinitsky has received numerous awards including the American Prize for Orchestral Composition and WSU’s Eminent Faculty Award. He is one of the most published composers in jazz with hundreds of pieces which are performed in forty countries. Yasinitsky served as director and composer for the Jazz Education Network All Stars Big Band, which includes some of the most acclaimed musicians in the world. Yasinitsky has performed with Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughn, Lou Rawls, Lionel Hampton and many others. As WSU Coordinator of Jazz Studies, Yasinitsky led the program to national recognition with numerous awards from DownBeat magazine, the “Jazz Bible,” top awards at major festivals, invitations to perform at prestigious conferences and critically acclaimed recordings.
The program will include Jarvis’s “2:34am Shuffle” and “N.YC.L.”; Young’s “Val’s Place” and “Saturday Night at the El Dorado Ballroom”; and Yasinitsky’s “Chant Noir” and “Prairie Fire.” Soloists will include saxophonists Alexander Santa Cruz, Ethan Stanigar, Thomas Wieland, Rogan Tinsley and Dillon Sellers; trombonists A.J. Ah-yek, Brad Dowson and Jason Kochis; guitarist Shane Isom; pianist Meg Fritz and drummer Erik Hawkins.
The concert is free of charge and will be presented live in Bryan Hall Theatre. Also, the performance will be livestreamed on the WSU Pullman Music YouTube Channel, https://www.youtube.com/wsupullmanmusic.
This concert is made possible by generous support from the Jazz Society at WSU; Allegro, the Student Association for Music Advocacy, and Dr. Jerry T. Standal.