We’ve got a packed weekend, kicking off with Jim Ketch on Friday night.
Jim Ketch’s career reveals a deep passion for the performance and teaching of music. He is a versatile and experienced artist with considerable skills in both the classical and jazz idioms. As a professional trumpeter and conductor, he has performed internationally in England, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. He has performed at 15 conferences of the International Trumpet Guild, including featured or solo performances at conferences held at the University of Kentucky, Ohio State University, Ithaca College, and Arizona State University. Ketch has appeared as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and clinician in hundreds of concert and educational venues across the nation. His classical and jazz performances include solo recitals, guest artist appearances with orchestras, bands, and jazz ensembles, and a wide variety of chamber and commercial music. His versatility as a performer is quite notable. He performs music ranging from Louis Armstrong to Pat Metheny and from J.S. Bach to Tori Takimitsu.
Ketch is joined with faculty and artistic connections to the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshop, the Savannah Music Festival’s Swing Central Jazz Program, and the Essentially Ellington program of Jazz at Lincoln Center. In 2009 he released Next Set, his first CD for the Summit label.
This will be a great show to check out of classic straight-ahead jazz.
After that it’s the B&W Quintet on Saturday night– Brian Horton and Ira Wiggins!
A personal favorite and voted BEST JAZZ BAND in the Triangle by the Independent Weekly in 2010!
Brian Horton is a composer, saxophonist, producer and jazz educator from Kinston, North Carolina. As a composer and arranger his music has been featured in several independent documentaries for Columbia and Stanford Universities, ESPN, FootLocker and director Spike Lee. Best by far, this young lion is as entertaining to watch as he is to hear on record. Horton currently is a visiting professor at his alma mater, North Carolina Central University, alongside artist in residence Branford Marsalis. His work has also been sited with the likes of latin percussion guru Kevin Jones (10th World), producer Just Blaze (Snoop Dogg, Memphis Bleek) Esoterica, Me’Shell Ndegéocello and DJ Carl Craig to name a few.
He graduated from North Carolina Central University with a BA in jazz performance in the spring of 1997. Two years later he obtained his MA at the Aaron Copeland School of Music in Queens, New York under the direction of Jimmy Heath and the late Sir Roland Hanna. Since that time he has kept a steady balance of work as a bandleader, sideman and composer/arranger for such renowned jazz musicians as Hanna, Winard Harper, Louie Bellson, Clark Terry, Delfaeyo Marsalis and others.
Horton’s playing is known for his attention to detail and melody, especially in his ballads. Horton’s sound is lush and soulful yet filled with a quiet fire when needed. Though a technically competent player, he prefers to speak more than just his vast vocabulary on his instrument. Instead, he tells the story. No matter what tempo, setting or tune he finds room to speak the blues, a characteristic often overlooked by many young horn players today. Horton is an extremely versatile player who opens his ears to many genres of music. His work has also been sited with the likes of latin percussion guru Kevin Jones (10th World), producer Just Blaze (Snoop Dogg, Memphis Bleek) Esoterica, Me’Shell Ndegéocello and DJ Carl Craig to name a few.
As a saxophonist/flutist, Dr. Wiggins is a highly respected musician and educator with 15 albums to his credit as a sideman and soloist. He has shared the stage with Jimmy Heath, Grady Tate, Frank Foster, Nnenna Freelon, Fred Wesley, Slide Hampton, Louie Bellson, Vanessa Rubin, Ellis Marsalis, Branford Marsalis and has been a featured soloist with the North Carolina Symphony. Dr.Wiggins is a recipient of the Walter J. Norfleet Award for Outstanding Service to the Arts by an Artist and the UNC-Greensboro Jazz Education Service Award.
Dr. Ira Wiggins, Director of Jazz Studies at North Carolina Central University, holds the Ph.D. in Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He received the Master of Music in Performance from Virginia Commonwealth University and the B. A. in Music Education from North Carolina Central University.
Overseeing NCCU’s jazz program, Dr. Wiggins’ students have received Downbeat Magazine Awards, International Association for Jazz Education Sisters In Jazz Recognition, and Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead Selections. “Blues and the Verdant Green” is their latest recording. NCCU’s jazz groups have appeared at numerous festivals receiving top honors, including first place honors at the Villanova Jazz Festival held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Notable performances include two performances at the Montreux, Switzerland and Vienne, France Jazz Festivals, National Music Education Conferences, two performances at the White House and an invitation to perform a tribute for Dr. Billy Taylor in Kansas City, Missouri in May 2006. In 2008, performances included the International Association for Jazz Education Conference in Toronto, Canada with current Artists-in-Residence Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo, and a performance in the British Virgin Islands. The NCCU Jazz Ensemble received two important invitations in 2009 (the 55th Annual Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island and the 30th Annual Detroit Jazz Festival).
