UW-Parkside to Host Jazz Week 2024
Pianist Orrin Evans Headlines UW-Parkside’s 11th Annual Jazz Week
Kenosha, Wis.- The University of Wisconsin-Parkside is excited to host Jazz Week from Monday, March 11 through Friday, March 15. Yamaha Pianist Orrin Evans will bring his bold and cutting-edge compositions to UW-Parkside’s 11th Annual Jazz Week as the featured headliner on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Bedford Concert Hall. With more than 25 albums to his credit, Orrin Evans is the model of a fiercely independent artist, who dares his fellow musicians to embrace innovation.
The week kicks off on the evening of Monday and runs through Friday, culminating with a concert by local high school jazz ensembles from Tremper, Bradford, and Walden III. Tim Berne’s Trio will begin the week on Monday, March 11 at 7 p.m. in the Bedford Concert Hall. This performance is free and open to the public. Alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and label boss, Berne works in a variety of styles, often juxtaposing meticulous noted arrangements with free improvisation. His is truly impressive with over 50 albums on labels such as Empire, Soul Note, Columbia, ECM, and his own, Screwgun. Berne will be accompanied by Gregg Belisle-Chi on guitar and Tom Rainey on drums.
On Tuesday, March 12 at 7 p.m., UW-Parkside will welcome Grammy Award-winning bassist Christian Dillingham to the Bedford stage. Dillingham is a musician who excels in both an orchestral setting and has an intuitive feel for nuance and improvisational skills necessary to play jazz. Now in Chicago, he plays for the Lyric Opera and the Chicago Opera Theater while being a regular at the iconic Velvet Lounge, the Green Mill, and Constellation to name a few. He is currently also a faculty member at Indiana University as a Professor of Jazz Bass. This performance is free and open to the public.
Trumpet player and band leader, Emily Kuhn, will perform with her quintet on Wednesday, March 13 at 7 p.m. in Bedford concert Hall. Kuhn has released two albums via BACE Records—Sky Stories (2020) and Ghosts of Us (2023) to much praise. She was named a Luminarts Fellow in 2020 and received a nomination for “Best Jazz Musician” in the Chicago Reader’s 2020 end-of-the-year poll. This performance is free and open to the public.
Yamaha Pianist Orrin Evans will bring his bold and cutting-edge compositions to UW-Parkside’s 11th Annual Jazz Week as the featured headliner on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Bedford Concert Hall. With more than 25 albums to his credit, Orrin Evans is the model of a fiercely independent artist, who dares his fellow musicians to embrace innovation. Admission to this concert is $10.
As an adventurous composer, Evans traverses stylistic boundaries, drawing on full-throttled swing, deep-rooted blues, expressive soul with excursions into the avant-garde. His audacity and independence have paid off in accolades including topping the “Rising Star Pianist” category in the 2018 DownBeat Critics Poll and two Grammy nominations.
Jazz week will conclude with two concerts on Friday, March 15. At noon in Bedford Hall, UW-Parkside will host a free Jazz Studio, featuring among others, Grammy-nominated trumpet player and leader of the university’s jazz program Russ Johnson and the incomparable Dave Bayless on drums. An evening concert will highlight UW-Parkside student musicians, playing their original compositions, as well as three high school jazz ensembles at 7 p.m. in Bedford Concert Hall. Admission to the evening concert will be $10.