February 25-27, 2010
The NAU Jazz Festival is a non-competitive arena for middle school,
high school, and junior college musicians. This type of festival creates a relaxed
atmosphere that promotes education as opposed to competition. Big bands
and combos perform for three adjudicators to receive ratings and/or
comments. Following the performances, most groups will participate
in feedback clinics.
This year marks the 48th annual NAU Jazz Festival. More than fifty bands will perform in Ardrey Memorial Auditorium each day of the festival. The public is invited to view all performances and support the participating bands; these performances are free to the public.
Jazz pianist Jim McNeeley, this year's guest artist, will perform in concert with NAU Jazz Ensemble One on Friday evening, February 26, 2010.
Tickets are available through the Central Ticket Office.
Concert ticket prices:
Public: Door- $25, Advance- $20
Students: Door- $20, Advance- $15
For more information please contact NAU Jazz Studies at (928) 523-3779 or email Russell Schmidt at NAUJazzFest2010@yahoo.com .
Jim McNeely, guest artist
Jim McNeely was born in Chicago and moved to New York City in 1975. In 1978, he joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, spending six years as a featured soloist with that band and its successor, Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra (now The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra). Nineteen-eighty-one saw the beginning of McNeely’s four-year tenure as pianist/composer with the Stan Getz Quartet. From 1990 until 1995, he held the piano chair in the Phil Woods Quintet. At the present time, he leads his own tentet and trio, and he appears as soloist at concerts and festivals worldwide. McNeely’s reputation as composer/arranger and conductor for large jazz bands continues to flourish, earning him nine Grammy nominations. In 1996, he re-joined The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra as pianist and Composer-in Residence. He also is artist-in-residence with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band. Other recent work includes projects with the Danish Radio Big Band (where he was chief conductor for five years), Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Metropole Orchestra (Netherlands), Swiss Jazz Orchestra, and Stockholm Jazz Orchestra. The New York Times has called his writing “exhilarating.” DownBeat has said that his music is “eloquent enough to be profound.” McNeely has appeared as sideman on numerous recordings led by major artists such as Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer, David Liebman, Art Farmer, Robert Watson, and Phil Woods. He has numerous albums under his own name. The latest is Up from the Skies with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra on the Planet Arts label (“concert jazz at its headiest”—DownBeat). Teaching also is an important element of McNeely’s work. He is Musical Director of the BMI Jazz Composers’ Workshop. In addition, he serves on the faculties of The Manhattan School of Music and William Paterson University. He has appeared at numerous college jazz festivals as performer and clinician, and he has been involved regularly with summer workshops such as the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Clinics, the Lake Placid Seminar in Jazz Improvisation, and the William Paterson University Summer Jazz Workshop. McNeely also has done clinics and major residencies at dozens of institutions in the U.S., Canada, Europe, China, Australia, New Zealand, and Egypt.