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Annual Jazzfest to be Hosted
Tuesday, April 12, 2005

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C-SC Music Department

Walk to the beat of jazz as Culver-Stockton College presents its eighth annual Jazzfest on Tuesday, April 12. The festival will include performances by junior high and high school jazz ensembles throughout the Tri-State area from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Alexander Campbell Auditorium and Mabee Little Theatre, located in Robert W. Brown Performing Arts Center on campus in Canton, Mo.

A clinic led by guest artists Reggie Thomas, Rick Haydon, Jim Widner, Mardra Thomas and Miles Vandiver will be held from 3-4 p.m. The day will conclude with a 7:30 p.m. concert performed by the C-SC Jazz Ensemble and the guest artists. Ticket prices are $7.50.

The C-SC Jazz Ensemble’s musical selections will include Computer, by Bob Mintzer, Manteca, by Dizzy Gillespie, and Fables of Faubus, by Charles Mingus. The ensemble is under the direction of Thomas C. Polett, associate professor of music.

Reggie Thomas, appearing for his seventh year at JazzFest, is a nationally and internationally known jazz pianist and has a distinguished career in performance and education. He serves on the summer faculty of several jazz camps throughout Missouri and is an active clinician and adjudicator in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. He is featured on the CD releases “Ivories on Avenue,” “Blues for the Ages” and “Fade to Blue.” Thomas has performed with several nationally known artists, including Karrin Allison, Eddie Daniels, Slide Hampton and Jimmy Heath. Currently, Thomas is associate professor of music at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. Thomas also remains active as a performer in the St. Louis area and works as a freelance musician and leads his own bands, The Mardra & Reggie Thomas Jazz Ensemble and OGD (Organ-Guitar-Drums).

Haydon is an innovative jazz educator who has played guitar for nearly 40 years. He has studied with many masters of jazz guitar, including Johnny Smith and Bucky Pizzarelli. Haydon is known for his “seven strings” throughout the country. His professional repertoire includes performances with Herb Ellis and Mundell Lowe during the 1996 Guitar Foundation of America International Guitar Convention. Haydon is currently professor of music at SIUE, where he is head of the jazz guitar program and the state-of-the-art department recording studio.

Bassist Jim Widner, alumnus of the Stan Kenton, Woody Herman and Glen Miller big bands, is known throughout the United States for hosting summer camps. He serves as guest conductor for numerous all-state jazz bands, music director of the Quad-Cities Jazz Festival, and maintains an ambitious clinic and festival schedule at high schools and colleges throughout the U.S., including a series of jazz camps by members of the Jim Widner Big Band. The group’s CDs consist of “Yesterdays and Today,” “Body and Soul” and “Live, the Jim Widner Big Band Rides Again.” Widner resides as an artist-in-residence and coordinator of jazz studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and is a Yamaha performing artist.

Mardra Thomas has impressed audiences nationally and internationally as both a talented jazz vocalist and a gifted actress. She performs in concert and with different theater companies, including the St. Louis Jazz Festival and the Sheldon Concert Hall, as well as being vocalist with OGD, big bands and small ensembles alike.

Vandiver, known for his talent as a drummer, is a member of the jazz faculty at SIUE and UMSL. He performs locally, as well as abroad, and can be seen regularly with the Reggie and Mardra Thomas ensemble, OGD, the Kennedy Brothers, Vargas Swing, Anne Hampton Calloway, Lavern Butler and Commonwealth. His most recent release is “Narrative Threads” with guitarist Bob Borgstede.

For more information or to reserve tickets, contact the Fine Arts Office at (573) 288-6346 or e-mail finearts@culver.edu.