August 23–25, 2019 Our 19Th Year!
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Our 19th Year! August 23–25, 2019 –1– About the Jazz Summit Education is a primary purpose behind the Prescott Jazz Summit. We provide clinics for bands from all over Arizona, have student ensembles perform at our annual festival, and give funds to local music departments. We’ve also given scholarships to deserving students, and regularly present assemblies to schools. Our programs have reached more than 5000 students in North Central Arizona elementary schools, middle schools and high schools. Our assemblies adress the WHOLE student body in the schools where we perform. We present jazz music in an entertaining and “inclusive” form for ALL the students, not just the music students. Our programs are done at NO CHARGE to each school. We also demonstrate each instrument, so that the students get an idea of what each instrument sounds like and how it works. Our Educational Outreach program is funded through donations to “Friends of Big Band Jazz,” a 501c3 nonprofit corporation. FBBJ is the sponsoring organi- zation for the Prescott Jazz Summit and the Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra. It has given more than $60,000 for jazz camp scholarships, funds to school music departments, funds to help musicians in need, and the Habitat for Humanity for the New Orleans Musicians Village. –2– Born in Scranton, PA, our Master of Ceremonies Pete Barbutti started accordion lessons at 11 and within a year was earning money playing at weddings. Later, Pete formed a musical-comedy-vocal quartet group called “The Millionaires,” which toured the country. Settling in Las Vegas, “The Millionaires” quickly became a Las Vegas favorite. Pete went on to become one of the most famous stand-up comedians in history. He has appeared over 1,000 times on national television, and over 90 times on “The Tonight Show.” Pete continues to have a busy performing and traveling schedule. Pete is also a fine musician having worked with such stars as Frank Sinatra, Henry Mancini, & Nat King Cole, and he has also won many prestigious music awards. Save the dates for our 20th Anniversary Jazz Summit August 28–30, 2020 –3– –4– Director’s Welcome It’s great to be back with the 19th Prescott Jazz Summit. We’re thrilled that it continues to be a successful venture. I’d like to welcome everyone who is attending this, year, especially those of you who are visiting the area or joining us for the first time. We always feel that we have a wonderful lineup, and this year is no exception. The musicians attending in 2019 are both great perform- ers AND wonderful teachers who guarantee an exciting weekend of performing, discussing and demonstrating jazz music and jazz techniques. My special thanks to all of our sponsors and advertisers. Without their support, we could never have brought you this festival. I know the music will be excit- ing, and the musicians will be thrilled to perform for you. We think the themes “A Celebration of Jazz from New Orleans to New York” and “The Music of the Great Bands” will be outstanding musical evenings. We are proud that our Educational Outreach Program continues to reach into schools around Northern Arizona to tell students about “America’s Original Art Form.” Students from kindergarten through 12th grade benefit from our efforts to create a whole new generation of Jazz Fans in the Prescott area. Let’s again have a great time, and as they have always said in New Orleans, “Laissez les bons temps roller” – “Let the Good Times Roll.” Mike Vax Festival Director Dedication It isn’t often that a person can be so closely associated with everything a city does, that he can become a true spokesman for the whole area and be loved by everyone. Ken Byers was that type of person. Not only was he a well- known radio personality, but he was THE person to go to for MC duties for so many of the non-profit organizations and fundraising events everywhere in the Quad- city area. He was tireless and never said no. When he was involved, you knew that the excitement level and “fun quotient” would be at the top tier! He was taken from us way to soon by the horrible disease of Cancer, and we dedicate this year’s festival to his memory. –5– Our Sponsors Festival Sponsor Friends of Big Band Jazz Co-Sponsors El Gato Azul Top of the Elks Benefactor Sponsors City of Prescott – Department of Tourism The J.W. Kieckhefer Foundation Arizona’s Hometown Radio Group Prescott Unified School District York Motors Hotel Sponsors Marriott Spring Hill Suites Prescott Quality Inn Hampton Inn and Suites – Prescott Valley In Kind Sponsors Prescott Newspapers, Inc. Jazz in AZ Sir Speedy Printing Prescott Chamber of Commerce Program Layout, Design & Editing David Leonnig / ResponsibleWorks.com –6– Meet the Musicians In addition to celebrating the legacies of June Christy and Anita O’Day with the Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra, Ginger Berglund’s multi-faceted career now includes singing with The Modernaires - of Glenn Miller fame – and in duets with her husband, Scott Whitfield, the renowned trom- bonist, arranger and singer. Ginger has recorded with original Tonight Show host Steve Allen, and with the great pianist Paul Smith. She has sung duets with the smooth and soaring voice of Kenny Rankin, and most recently, Ginger is most proud of duo albums with Scott. Their work is full of smooth harmonies reminiscent of Jackie Cain & Roy Kral’s vocal creations and Scott’s “swingmeister” arrangements. Their most recent outing is entitled “Solitary Moon: Ginger Berglund and Scott Whitfield Sing the Johnny Mandel Songbook.” Scott Whitfield is internationally recognized for his work with contemporary big bands, including those of Toshiko Akiyoshi, Bob Florence, Clare Fischer, Johnny Mandel, Bill Holman, Phil Norman Tentet, Glen Miller Orchestra, Stan Kenton Alumni Band and Jimmy Dorsey Band, as well as his own Scott Whitfield Jazz Orchestras (East AND West). In addition to Scott’s own recordings, his compo- sitions and arrangements have been performed and recorded by such artists as Diva, Maurice Hines, The Pied Pipers, The Modernaires, Bill Allred’s Classic Jazz Band, and Pete Petersen’s 23-strong Collection Jazz Orchestra. Scott’s playing, writing, and singing have been compared to that of some of his biggest influences, including Carl Fontana, Frank Rosolino, Thad Jones, Sammy Nestico, Mel Torme, and Jack Jones. While jazz ensemble compo- sition and arranging is his forte, he’s arranged for the Omaha Philharmonic and The New York City Pops Orchestra. –7– While Kim Richmond’s first love is jazz – and his primary jazz voice is the alto saxophone – he has been involved in nearly every facet of the professional music industry. A gifted player and composer/ arranger, his instruments are alto, soprano, tenor and baritone saxes, clarinet, bass clarinet, and flutes. Kim has been a member of the orchestras of Stan Kenton, Louis Bellson, Bob Florence, Bill Holman, and Vinny Golia among others. His work is also highlighted in the Kim Richmond Concert Jazz Orchestra and his Ensemble (sextet). His current group is The KIM-PROJECT, co-led with vocalist Kimberly Ford, and is a tribute to the music of Herbie Hancock and Joni Mitchell. A past-President of ASMAC (American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers), Kim is a Selmer artist and endorses all Selmer woodwinds. He is also a Vandoren artist, and uses Vandoren reeds, mouthpieces and other acces- sories. Kim Richmond enjoys serving as guest lecturer, conductor and guest soloist at college music festivals and workshops around the country. Gary Anderson knows how to swing with the best of them, having been the music director for the Woody Herman Herd from 1973 through 1978. After seven albums with Woody and tours with Frank Sinatra & Tony Bennett as well performances with Joe Henderson, Charlie Mingus, Chet Baker and many others, Anderson decided to settle into the New York scene and soon found his niche as a studio arranger, orchestrator and composer for television, film and the Broadway stage. Since the late 1970s Gary Anderson has written for network and cable TV, documentaries, telefilms & dramatic series, feature films, Broadway, Off-Broadway, Radio City Music Hall and 100s of commercials and albums. He has toured with Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Mel Torme and Gerry Mulligan.and is a member of the Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra who performs in his own small groups and others, Anderson today lives in Las Vegas, where he continues to play, write and arrange. –8– Performing with jazz legends is nothing new to C.E. (Claude) Askew. He spent 22 years traveling the world as drummer and for six years conductor of the Airmen of Note, the premier jazz band of the U.S. Air Force. But he got to his career in music based on a chance hearing of the Stan Kenton Orchestra as a raw Air Force recruit in 1971. He’d never heard of the Kenton Orchestra – a friend asked him to go to the concert. It was a life changing experi- ence. Forty-three years later, Askew got the chance to sit in with the Stan Kenton Alumni Orchestra when the band’s drummer could not finish the 2015 tour. He’s been “sitting in” with the band ever since. During his time with the Airmen of Note – in addition to playing with the likes of Tony Bennett, Herbie Hancock and Chaka Khan – he was part of one of the finest jazz bands in the U.S. From 2011 through 2018, Askew was on the faculty at the University of Arkansas–Monticello. A Jazz Summit favorite, Tony Vacca is from New Jersey but received his formal musical training at Arizona State University’s jazz department under the direction of Dan Hearle and Tom Ferguson.