Jazz was the theme last weekend at the McArdle Theater as Michigan Tech’s jazz ensembles made their debut for the 2009-10 season. On Fri., Oct. 30, and Sat. the 31, all four jazz ensembles had the opportunity to perform the music they had been working on since the beginning of the semester. The concert, titled “Jazz Showcase,” opened with the Research & Development Big Band, which performed such jazz classics as “Afro Blue” as well as a piece composed by director Mike Irish, “Lester Likes It.” Their performance was followed by one of the small-group jazz combos, known as Jazztec, on Friday and Momentum on Saturday. After a brief intermission, the Jazz Lab Band finished off the concert with songs such as “Old Man River,” “My Funny Valentine,” and “Geller’s Cellar,” the last of which was also referred to as “Sheff Salad” in reference to a tradition of renaming the song after the soloist that plays it– in this case, alto saxophone soloist, Ben Sheff. While the groups wore standard concert dress on Friday, they showed up on Saturday’s performance in full Halloween regalia. Among the costumes visible were Abraham Lincoln, a hippie, a pirate, and even Luigi from the Super Mario video game series.
The Jazz Lab Band is the older of the two large ensembles, according to previously mentioned Director of Jazz studies at MTU and an assistant Professor of Music, Mike Irish. Founded in 1967, and one of the oldest of its kind in the Upper Midwest, the Jazz Lab Band is an intensive jazz experience that requires an audition of prospective members. In contrast, the Research and Development Big Band was added in 1973 “for students who don’t have as much time to devote to jazz” according to Irish.