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MORGANTON JAZZ FESTIVAL

The Morganton Jazz Festival will be held in Downtown Morganton, NC on Saturday May 16, 2015 from 5:00pm until 9:00pm.
Spend Saturday May 16th on the Courthouse Square enjoying downtown's newest event The Morganton Jazz Festival! The Jazz Festival begins Saturday at 5:00pm with the first of three jazz bands, while members of the Patton Band Boosters and local restaurateur extraordinaire, Phil Scarboro, serve up a feast of New Orleans cuisine.
Come hungry and prepared to enjoy mouthwatering salt & pepper catfish, shrimp & slaw, and red beans & rice! Hotdogs, Hamburgers, soft drinks, wine and beer will also be available.
Featured on the "Smokin Hot Jazz Stage"
12:00pm-4:00pm Jazz Clinics
5:00pm The Original King Street Jazz Band
6:00pm High School All Stars (TBA): First Place High School Jazz Band from North Carolina
7:00pm The Marsalis Brothers featuring Delfeayo & Jason Marsalis, Geoff Clapp, Rale Micic and Zack Page
The Morganton Jazz Festival is also excited to host an educational component, offering multiple clinics throughout downtown to high school jazz bands from across North Carolina between noon and 4:00pm. Students will perform for clinicians (Delfeayo Marsalis, Jason Marsalis, Geoff Clapp, Rale Micic and Zack Page) at the Morganton Community House and the Burke Arts Council. The jazz band who obtains the highest score from the clinics will open for the evening headliner at 6:00pm. The public is welcome at the clinic sites!
For up to date information call 828-438-5252 or visit www.morgantonfest.org. Morganton Jazz Fest is a production of the Patton Band Boosters and The Historic Morganton Festival, Inc.

More on the artists...


OPENING ACT
THE ORIGINAL KING STREET JAZZ BAND
The Original King Street Jazz Band presents a truly American art form by blending happy uplifting Dixieland jazz with the soulful strains of the birthplace of jazz music, New Orleans. Musicians with a deep love and understanding for the swinging sounds stemming from the twenties and thirties play a varied program that highlights the music from that era.
King Street Jazz Band has been pleasing customers for over eight years and are able to perform for Weddings, Festivals, Corporate events, Country Clubs, Universities and Night Clubs. More recently they were the opening act for All That Jazz Weekend at The Grove Park Inn starring Henry Butler, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Ellis Marsalis.
Jason Hoyle-Trumpet-Lenoir NC
Robert Johnston-Trombone-Morganton NC
Jerry Collins-Clarinet-Hickory NC
Sharon Vess-Keyboard-Drexel NC
Bobbie Pearson-Drums-Morganton NC
Thom McClarren-Bass/bandleader-Morganton NC
HEADLINERS
DELFEAYO MARSALIS
(NEW ORLEANS, LA)
Delfeayo is one of the top trombonists, composers and producers in jazz today. Known for his "technical excellence, inventive mind and frequent touches of humor..." (Leonard Feather, Los Angeles Times), he is "...one of the best, most imaginative and musical of the trombonists of his generation." (Philip Elwood, San Francisco Examiner.) In January 2011, Delfeayo and the Marsalis family (father Ellis and brothers Branford, Wynton and Jason) earned the nation's highest jazz honor - a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award.
As a bandleader, Marsalis has earned wide acclaim for his first three albums as a leader: Pontius Pilates Decision (1992), Musashi (1997) and Minions Dominion (2006). His January 2011 release Sweet Thunder, his most ambitious project yet, is a modern interpretation of the Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn suite Such Sweet
Thunder. Rather than merely recreating the classic work, which is comprised of musical depictions of characters from William Shakespeareʼs plays, Marsalis took the work as a point of departure for his octet, creating fresh and new music inspired by the original suite."In some ways Sweet Thunder started for me in the seventh grade when I
the University of Louisville, I wrote a thesis paper on Ellington and Shakespeare. For the project, I went to the Smithsonian and studied the original copies of the music for Such Sweet Thunder. I didnʼt want to just play what Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn wrote in 1957, but to imagine what they might have written if they were here today, more than 50 years later. To me this is jazz opera without the vocals, telling a story with the dramatic music."
In addition to the recording, Delfeayos original theatrical jazz production, Sweet Thunder: Duke & Shak, will tour to some 35 American cities and towns beginning in January 2011. Marsalis has also been long involved in work as an educator. In 2004, he earned an MA in jazz performance at the University of Louisville and was conferred a doctorate by New England College in 2009. He lectured in schools in 1995 on behalf of the Dallas Opera and the Bravo cable network. Marsalis served as director of the Foundation for Artistic and Musical Excellence summer program in Lawrenceville, New Jersey (1998-2002), founded the Uptown Music Theatre in 2000, and implemented its Kidstown After School in three New Orleans grammar schools in 2009. He has composed over 80 songs that help introduce kids to jazz.

JASON MARSALIS
(NEW ORLEANS, LA)
From a tender young age it was clear that Jason Marsalis had what it took to be great. Jason is the son of pianist and music educator Ellis Marsalis and his wife Dolores, and the youngest sibling of Wynton, Branford and Delfeayo. Together, the four brothers and their patriarch Ellis, comprise New Orleans venerable first family of jazz.
In 2009, the Marsalis Family would receive the NEA Jazz Masters award. In June of that year, the family would appear at the White House and the Kennedy Center to do a tribute show to their father. The concert was made into an album entitled, "Music Redeems". Later that year, Marsalis would release his first new album in 9 years and his debut album on vibes, "Music Update". In 2010, the bassist from the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, Christian Fabien, called him to participate in a recording session with drummer Ed Littlefield and pianist Reuel Lubag. The made two records, Christian's "West Coast Session" and Ed's "Walking Between Worlds". The latter would include folk songs from the leader's native Alaskan Tlingit tribe from his hometown of Sitka, Alaska. That project inspired the group to be named the Native Jazz Quartet, a group that would arrange folk songs into jazz tunes. Their first recording of that concept was "NJQ Stories", recorded in 2012. Marsalis was involved in another genrebreaking collaboration as the Marcus Roberts Trio released an album with banjoist Bela Fleck. The combination of jazz and bluegrass was entitled "Across the Imaginary Divide" and the unit toured successfully that year.
2013 was a monumental year in which Marsalis released his next recording as a leader on vibes entitled "In a World of Mallets". The album went to number 1 on the CMJ Radio Charts and also won an Offbeat Magazine award, a New Orleans music magazine, for best Contemporary Jazz Album. Marsalis also participated in a session produced by Bill Cosby by playing vibes for music used in Cosby's Comedy Central special, "Far From Finished". There was even recordings from the drum kit as Marcus Roberts released three recordings that year. Two with Wynton Marsalis, "Together Again - In the Studio" and "Together Again - Live in Concert", and the ambitious original trio suite from Roberts, "From Rags to Rhythm".
With each passing year Jason Marsalis continues to grow and develop as both a composer and performer. With a fire in his heart and a passion for the music, his will to swing has never been more resolute. The maturity and the command he possesses over his music is clearly evident to those who have heard or seen him.
GEOFF CLAPP
(NEW ORLEANS, LA)
ABOUT GEOFF
Geoffrey Bryan Clapp started playing drums at age three. Throughout his middle and high school years, young Clapp was involved in various musical situations from church groups to The Northeast Middle School Jazz Ensemble, to the NC All State Band. From 1987-1989, he studied Classical Percussion at the North Carolina School of Arts located in Winston Salem, North Carolina.
In the fall of 1989, Geoff headed south to New Orleans to study Jazz Performance at the University of New Orleans with the legendary Ellis Marsalis. "After meeting Wynton Marsalis and Herlin Riley at a concert in Chapel Hill, my plans shifted from studying Classical music in New York, to rooting myself in the Crescent City to become a jazz musician. I've never looked back."
During his ten years in New Orleans, Geoff became one of the city's most sought after drummers, not only for Jazz but any genre of music that was going on. He has since performed, recorded and toured with such great artists such as: Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison, Ellis Marsalis, Nicholas Payton, Dianne Reeves, Wynton Marsalis, Peter Martin, Charlie Hunter, and Benny Green, to name a few. Geoff has done over 100 recording sessions, an A&E TV Special with Dianne Reeves and three film scores. Geoff has Toured Europe, Asia, Africa, Canada, and has also been asked to travel as an American Artistic Diplomat in Africa and Eastern Europe.
RALE MICIC
(BELGRADE, SERBIA)
Rale Micic is one of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to emerge from Serbia. Audiences throughout the world have been captivated by Micic's mesmerizing compositions on his previous releases, Bridges (2003), as well as Serbia (2006), featuring Tom Harrell. Micic explores interaction between his Serbian musical roots and his extensive knowledge of jazz, creating a sound that's unmistakably and recognizably his own. His brand new release, symbolically titled "3", is an entrancing trio record featuring Gregory Hutchinson (Ray Brown, Joshua Redman, Joe Henderson) and Scott Colley (Jim Hall, Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker). "3", already recognized by listeners and critics alike, is described as " a groove heavy record... pure listening pleasure". Rale Micic is CTA Records recording artist and has been featured in numerous publications including Downbeat, JazzTimes, LA Times, San Diego Tribune, Boston Globe, etc. He has performed at prominent jazz clubs and music festivals in US and Europe including Catalina Jazz Club, Blues Alley, Scullers Jazz Club, Dizzy's, San Jose Jazz Festival, Hartford International Jazz Festival, etc.
Born in Belgrade, Serbia and living In New York City for the last decade, Rale Micic recently signed an endorsement deal with D'Addario strings, joining the likes of guitarists Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Lenny Kravitz.
ZACK PAGE
(ASHEVILLE, NC)
Zack Page has been performing as a professional bassist since the early '90s. His work with various jazz ensembles, theater companies and the cruise industry has taken him to all 50 U.S. States, the Caribbean islands, Australia, South America, Europe and the Far East.
In a jazz setting, Zack has had the good fortune to play and/or record with Billy Higgins, Marvin Stamm, Eddie Daniels and Babik Reinhardt, the son of gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. Following time spent in LA and New York City, Zack relocated to Asheville four years ago.


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