Warm your soul at JazzNIC 2024
Posted: Wednesday, Jan 31, 2024
The North Idaho College Music Department is inviting one and all to attend JazzNIC 2024.
JazzNIC annually features a series of jazz clinics with local middle school and high school students, who will spend Monday working with experts in the field of music. This year’s event will culminate with a free and open-to-the-public Jazz Ensemble concert with special guest artists and clinicians Gary Gemberling, Al Gemberling and Dan Bukvich at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 6 at the Boswell Hall Schuler Performing Arts Center on NIC’s Coeur d’Alene campus.
“The clinics are a wonderful chance for our local students to learn jazz, a truly American art form,” said NIC Music Professor and JazzNIC Director Terry Jones. “Jazz needs to be experienced and can’t really be learned through books. The jazz clinics are designed to give the students firsthand experiences and opportunities to learn from some of the Northwest’s best.”
The pinnacle of the festival will be the Tuesday evening concert, Jones said. The concert will open with a Chris Walden piece, “Winter Games.”
“This piece is sure to warm you up and get your blood moving,” Jones said.
The temperature will be kept high with Olive Nelson’s arrangement of Duke Ellington’s “In a Mellow Tone.” The concert will display the incredible diversity of the guest artists, starting with a beautiful duet, “Cinema Paradiso,” with Gary Gemberling on trumpet and Al Gemberling on trombone. Next, Gary will display his trumpet chops on a great Latin tune titled, “Open Invitation.” Gary’s vocals will be highlighted as he performs Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life” and the Blood Sweat and Tears version of “God Bless the Child.”
Al Gemberling will be featured on Carl Fontana’s “Polka and MoonBeams” and “Beautiful Love.” Al will also take the old classic, “That Old Black Magic,” and run it through a variety of styles, showing how great tunes can stand up to almost any style.
The audience will also enjoy a rare treat as the Gemberling brothers deliver a vocal duet during their rendition of “Centerpiece.”
Bukvich will also be a standout at JazzNIC 2024 while he shows two faces of jazz vibes. For the softer side, he will perform his arrangement of “Over the Rainbow.” For the flipside, he will play his composition, “Hamp’s Rhythm Breakdown.”
“It is a good thing that the vibes are metal,” Jones said in jest. “I don’t think they would stand up to the ‘heat’ if they were wood.”
The concert will conclude with Gordon Goodwin’s blazing arrangement of “Sing, Sang, Sung,” featuring all three of JazzNIC’s guest musicians, in what is sure to keep audience members warm for the ride home.
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