A key piece of the jazz studies program at the University of Northern Colorado returns to view next weekend when the 53rd UNC-Greeley Jazz Festival plays for three days on UNC campus.
Described as an “educational festival” by current UNC professor and jazz studies director Dana Landry, the three-day event features workshops, clinics and student performances in addition to the main stage concerts.
Those concerts will be held in the Campus Commons Performance Hall. The clinics and workshops will utilize the Performance Hall and the adjacent University Commons. The festival begins at 8 a.m. Thursday and Friday and at 8:30 a.m.
The main headliners at the festival are musicians who have won Grammy Awards and received multiple Grammy nominations, Landry said.
They include The Paquito D’Rivera Quintet, performing with Camille Thurman and the Jazz Festival All-Star Big Band, 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Campus Commons Performance Hall, 1051 22nd St.
Born in Cuba, D’Rivera has won a combined 16 Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards. He is celebrated for his artistry in Latin jazz and as a classic composer, according to the festival website.
Also appearing is former UNC music student Trist Curless, who will perform with fellow vocalists and musicians Michael Mayo and Genevieve Artadi. The trio will do a tribute to Lambert Hendricks and Ross, a vocalese jazz trio in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Curless, Mayo and Artadi will perform at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
The Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra will perform at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Friday.
The orchestra was founded in the mid-1980s by John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton and Jeff Clayton. John and Jeff Clayton were brothers. Jeff Clayton died in December 2020 following a lengthy illness. The CHJO sound is described as influenced by Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Thad Jones.
John Clayton is a Grammy Award winner and bassist. He has written and recorded with artists such as Milt Jackson, Diana Krall, Paul McCartney, Regina Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gladys Knight, Queen Latifah, McCoy Tyner, YoYo Ma and Charles Aznavour, according to johnclaytonjazz.com.
Student groups from Eaton, Erie, Fort Collins, Frederick, Greeley, Loveland and Platte Valley are on the schedule to participate.
Landry said the significance of the festival lies in its history, which was created by former professor Gene Aitken, who also started the university’s jazz studies program. The festival started small with UNC, Colorado State and the University of Colorado Boulder performing together. Aitken, who retired from UNC in 2002, expanded the festival and its reach to hundreds of schools in the U.S. and abroad, Landry said.
“We bring in the best jazz artists on the scene, and that attracts a lot of schools,” Landry said. “It’s rare to see a lineup like we have year after year. That emphasis being on education puts the spotlight on what we feel is important, which is students learning about this amazing form of music.”
Landry said more than 3,000 students in 200 performing groups will attend, which is about the number each year. Twenty-two of those will be from UNC with others coming in from other locations including Wyoming, Montana, Kansas and Wisconsin.
Landry said the jazz studies program was well known under Aitken when he started the festival and the UNC Jazz Press, a publishing arm of the program. The jazz press was founded in 1977 to help student composers and alumni publish their work.
The program eventually began to attract students from all over the U.S. and internationally. Faculty also wanted to come to UNC, and the reputation grew.
When students leave the program, they spread the word through their work including as teachers in K-12 music programs, Landry said, adding that they’re “fantastic students who are getting their music out there.”
The jazz studies department also enhances its reputation by collaborating with musicians in their fields.
“We try to reach well beyond UNC with the projects we’re doing,” he said.
One of those projects was with Grammy-nominated jazz singer Carmen Bradford, a third-generation musician and one-time featured vocalist with the Count Basie Orchestra. The Count Basie Orchestra is a well-known and accomplished group dating to the 1930s.
“Those are the kinds of projects we’re doing where we’re collaborating with great guest artists,” Landry said. “Bringing in guest artists, pivoting back to the jazz festival, like we are this year.”
For information on performances and tickets, go to tickets.unco.edu or call the UNC ticket office at (970) 351-4849.
