Jazz band shines spotlight on Count Basie in latest concert
The GCSU Jazz Band played its spring concert March 4-5 in front of a sizable Russell Auditorium audience.
Highlighting the great jazz pianist Count Basie, the band played 14 classic songs, including “Georgia on my Mind,” “Flight of the Foo Birds” and “Shiny Stockings.”
Dr. Todd Shiver, the band director, praised the band, saying that it was a superb performance by the players.
“There was a lot of variety,” said Shiver of the concert’s songs. Several notable performances stood out on the night. Joey Hollis, the band’s guitarist, played solos in “Shiny Stockings” and “Splanky,” highlighting an aspect of the band that some might have overlooked.
Sarah Fender, the band’s vocalist, sang three songs, including “I’ve Got the World on a String,” while trombonist Jeremy Dudley showed his versatility by singing a rousing rendition of the Ray Charles song “Busted.” Yet another song, “Scoot,” featured trombonist Philip Gubser playing a jazz flute solo.
Continuing with tradition, history professor Dr. Bob Wilson emceed the event, providing both background on the pieces and further entertainment for the audience, with a slightly dirty joke about the song “Flight of the Foo Birds” and an imitation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt that had the audience in stitches.
There was a bittersweet note for the band, as well. The concert, according to Shiver, was probably alto saxophonist Kyle Christmas’s last one with the band. Christmas, who will be graduating this semester, gave the audience a terrific solo during Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia on my Mind.”
The Jazz Band will perform two more times this semester. On April 1 it will play at the Douglass Theater, located at 355 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in downtown Macon, and oApril 23 the band will perform on Front Campus for this year’s Jazzfest. Additionally, Dr. Shiver noted that many alumni of the Jazz Band will return to GCSU on May 1 to play in a fundraiser for the music department.
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