Regional Jazz tour stops at Carroll University

Northern Illinois University’s Jazz Ensemble is currently touring the Midwest with special guest Vincent Gardner, lead trombonist of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The ensemble will perform at Carroll University on Friday, April 11, 2014, at 7 p.m., in Shattuck Music Center, 218 N. East Ave., Waukesha. Carroll’s Jazz Ensemble will be the opening act.

Tickets are $16.50 for the main floor, $11.50 in the balcony, and $8.50 for senior citizens and students. Purchase in advance from the Carroll University Box Office at 262.524.7633 or tickets.carrollu.edu; they will be held at Will Call in the Shattuck lobby. Tickets also will be sold at the door starting at 6 p.m.

With a roster that includes students from Miami to Milwaukee, the NIU Jazz Ensemble is considered one of the best college jazz bands. The ensemble has performed at the 54th annual Midwest Music Clinic in Chicago with saxophonist Jimmy Heath and at the 28th annual International Association of Jazz Educators Conference in New York with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. It also has performed internationally at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands, the Jazz à Vienne Festival in France and the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

NIU Jazz Ensemble is directed by Ronald Carter. He has worked as a freelance musician on saxophone, clarinet, flute and as a vocalist. Carter has performed with Clark Terry, Jimmy Heath, Lena Horne, Lou Rawls, the Jimmy Dorsey Band, Wallace Roney, Terell Stafford, the Temptations, the Dells, Oliver Lake, Hamiett Bluiett, Leon Thomas, Art Davis, Fareed Haque, Joseph Bowie, Frank Mantooth, Delbert Bernadella, Byron Bowie, Orbert Davis, Carl Allen and others. He is a member of the “DownBeat Magazine” Jazz Educators Hall of Fame, and has received The Woody Herman Music Award from Birch Creek Music Center, the Milken National Distinguished Educator Award, Southern Illinois University Excellence in Teaching Award and the “St. Louis American” newspaper’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

The band’s 2013-2014 tour schedule includes guest artists Tom Garling, trombone; Rodney Whitaker, bass; Marcus Printup, trumpet; Pharez Whitted, trumpet; Herlin Riley, drums; and Vincent Gardner, trombone.

Gardner has released four albums and performs in a group with his brother, trumpeter Derrick Gardner. He is the lead trombonist of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in New York City, and a composer. He also has performed with The Count Basie Orchestra, The Duke Ellington Orchestra, Illinois Jacquet, The Saturday Night Live Band, Lauryn Hill, Matchbox 20, Clark Terry, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster and others.

For more information on the concert at Carroll, contact the Music Office at 262.524.7182 or smeyer@carrollu.edu.

About Carroll University
Carroll, Wisconsin’s oldest four-year institution of higher learning, is an independent, co-educational comprehensive university grounded in the liberal arts tradition. Incorporated in 1846, it offers bachelor’s degrees in 57 majors and master’s degrees in business administration, education, exercise physiology, graphic communication, nursing, physician assistant studies and software engineering, as well as a clinical doctorate in physical therapy. For more information, visit www.carrollu.edu.