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Performance

Faculty Artist Series: Soul Jazz Reimagined

About the event

poster-2016
WSU Faculty Artist Series Concert—September 20, “Soul Jazz Reimagined” Featuring Gator Tail

Pullman-WA. The WSU School of Music presents “Soul Jazz Revisited” on Tuesday evening, September 20th, at 8:00pm, in Kimbrough Concert Hall on the WSU campus, featuring the faculty jazz quartet Gator Tail as part of the Faculty Artist Series. The group includes tenor saxophonist Greg Yasinitsky, Director of the School of Music; organist Brian Ward, Coordinator of Jazz Studies; drummer David Jarvis, percussion professor; and guitarist Brad Ard, head of the Guitar Program. The group’s name, Gator Tail, was inspired by the great saxophonist and master of Soul Jazz, Willis Jackson, whose nickname was Gator Tail.

Soul Jazz, also called Hard Bop, developed in the late 1950s and features hard-swinging, exciting, blues influenced performances. One of the classic ensembles of Soul Jazz is the tenor saxophone/organ quartet showcasing the sound of the Hammond Organ. Gator Tail features this same instrumentation while bringing a contemporary approach to the genre.

The program will include originals composed especially for the group including “Count Dutch” written by Ward as a tribute to a great Portland-based organist known by that name, “Gator Hips” written by Ard with a guitar-driven, funky groove; and “Off the Grid” written by Yasinitsky as a blazing, up-tempo tour de force. These compositions were inspired by traditional Soul Jazz but in an updated and reimagined way. As saxophonist Yasinitsky describes the music, “It’s jazz, drenched in blues and funk.”

General admission is $10.00, seniors and non-WSU students are $5.00 and WSU students are free. All proceeds go to support music scholarships in the WSU School of Music.

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