{"id":5834,"date":"2011-04-03T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2011-04-03T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=5834"},"modified":"2011-04-03T05:08:19","modified_gmt":"2011-04-03T10:08:19","slug":"jazz-great-john-pizzarelli-headlines-50th-anniversary-of-jazz-festival-at-apsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2011\/04\/03\/jazz-great-john-pizzarelli-headlines-50th-anniversary-of-jazz-festival-at-apsu\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz Great John Pizzarelli Headlines 50th Anniversary of Jazz Festival at APSU"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheClarksville, TN<\/strong> – This spring marks the 50th anniversary of the Austin Peay State University Mid-South Jazz Festival, and to honor this milestone, APSU is bringing in one of the foremost jazz musicians working today as its featured performer.<\/p>\n

John Pizzarelli and the Swing 7, a staple at world-renowned jazz clubs such as New York City\u2019s Birdland, will perform their take on some of the genre\u2019s standards by Duke Ellington and Count Basie at 7:30pm, April 8th, in the APSU Music\/Mass Communication Building\u2019s Concert Hall. Tickets are $25.00.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he\u2019s bringing includes piano, bass and drums, but he also has four horn players with him, so it\u2019s a bigger, more dynamic sound,\u201d David Steinquest, APSU professor of music, said. \u201cFor this 50th anniversary, we wanted to have this really big cool thing. It\u2019s like a little big band almost. It\u2019s got this excitement about it simply because of its size. But John also has this really dynamic personality and a real connection to the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pizzarelli is a major talent in the jazz world. The Los Angeles Times called him \u201cmadly creative,\u201d and Town and Country magazine referred to him as \u201chip with a wink.\u201d Pizzarelli grew up listening to jazz greats and found particular inspiration in the works of Nat \u201cKing\u201d Cole.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said in my concerts that Nat \u2018King\u2019 Cole is why I do what I do,\u201d he said. \u201cWe aren\u2019t trying to copy him. His sound was singular and inspired. I\u2019ve always said we\u2019re an extension, a 21st century version of what that group was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"John

John Pizzarelli<\/p><\/div>\n

Pizzarelli\u2019s newest album, \u201cRockin\u2019 in Rhythm,\u201d is a tribute to Duke Ellington.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not exactly a throwback, but he definitely knows the roots he came from,\u201d Steinquest said. \u201cHe sounds a little retro, back to that sort of swing kind of stuff. But there\u2019s really a contemporary twist a lot of times.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mid-South Jazz Festival is a three-day event that was founded in 1961 as a way of bringing jazz musicians to Clarksville to work with APSU students. It has since morphed in the last 25 years, under Steinquest\u2019s leadership, into one of the region\u2019s most successful, professional jazz experiences. Luminaries such as the Joel Frahm Quartet and pianist Fred Hersch have visited the University over the years as part of the festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted it to have that totally professional experience,\u201d Steinquest said. \u201cThis may be the only time a lot of our students may see a professional jazz group. It\u2019s even hard to find that in Nashville. If you don\u2019t go to New York or Los Angeles, you don\u2019t get to see these people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival, sponsored by the APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts and the Clarksville Community Concert Association, actually begins on Thursday, April 7th, with a 7:30pm performance by APSU\u2019s Jazz Combo. The combo is made up of students Johnny Tubbs, Henry Rives, Mario Kee, Freddie Jefferson, Bruce Ervin and Kirby Newman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this being the 50th year, what I have done is draw from the people who have been here,\u201d Steinquest said. \u201cWe\u2019re opening with a piece that Delfeayo Marsalis did when he came in 2008, and we\u2019re closing it out with a tune The Yellow Jackets did here when they came in 1997.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pizzarelli plays on Friday night, but he\u2019ll host a clinic at 4:00pm in the concert hall that day that is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n

On Saturday night, the festival closes with another strong lineup. At 7:30pm, the APSU Trombone Choir, under the direction of Susan Smith, will perform. Then, the APSU Jazz Collegians, led by Richard Steffen, will take the stage. The 50th anniversary event will end later that evening with a set by the Clarksville Jazz Project.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything that\u2019s lasted for 50 years, whether it\u2019s a jazz festival or a marriage, that\u2019s something to celebrate,\u201d Steinquest said.<\/p>\n

For more information or to purchase tickets, contact the APSU Department of Music at 931-221-7818.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – This spring marks the 50th anniversary of the Austin Peay State University Mid-South Jazz Festival, and to honor this milestone, APSU is bringing in one of the foremost jazz musicians working today as its featured performer. John Pizzarelli and the Swing 7, a staple at world-renowned jazz clubs such as New York […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[23,589,1129,1130,1131,4025,7292,262,7290,7286,7294,6687,5697,7291,6688,7289,7287,7285,5827,7200,7288,1134,7293],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-1w6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5835,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5834\/revisions\/5835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}