Robin Eubanks Featured At Green Country Jazz Festival

TAHLEQUAH- Northeastern State Universitys 40th Annual Green Country Jazz Festival will take place Monday, March 5, 2007, with trombonist Robin Eubanks as the festival guest artist.

Widely considered to be the premier jazz trombonist of his generation, Eubanks leads his own groups EB3 and Mental Images, and is a regular member of the Dave Holland Big Band and Quintet. He has collaborated with jazz and rocks elite, including Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, Michael Brecker, the Rolling Stones and the Talking Heads. Eubanks, whose musical family includes brother/Tonight Show musical director Kevin Eubanks, is also a tenured professor of jazz at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Robin Eubanks is a special talent: a rare combination of composer, performer and educator, said Arthur White, NSU director of Jazz Studies. He is among the top jazz musicians in the world, and is an excellent teacher as well. The NSU Jazz program is certainly fortunate to have this potent artist in Tahlequah.

The evening concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the NSU Center for Performing Arts. Tickets are $12 general admission or $6 for students or groups of ten or more.

The GCJF will also present the Third Annual Judges Jam on Sunday March 4, 2007 at 8 p.m. in the NSU Jazz Lab. In addition to Eubanks and White, performers include saxophonist/flutist Paul Scea, director of Jazz Studies at West Virginia University; bassist Steve Haines, director of the Jazz Ensemble at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro; drummer Thomas Taylor, one of the most sought-after drummers on the East Coast, who teaches at several North Carolina universities, as well as the Aebersold Summer Jazz Camps; and trumpeter Andrew Cheetham, director of Jazz Studies at Oklahoma State University. Tickets are $5.

During the day of the festival, junior high and high school jazz bands will perform for judges at the NSU Center for the Performing Arts and the NSU University Center. There will also be a clinic with Eubanks for students attending the festival. These performances are open to the public.

Eubanks will be performing with the NSU Jazz Ensemble. This ensemble has been awarded unanimous superior ratings and numerous outstanding musicianship awards at the 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001 Wichita Jazz Festivals in Wichita, Kansas. Recently, Jazz Ensemble I performed with internationally renowned jazz artists such as Joe Lovano, Jimmy Cobb, Bob Mintzer, Mulgrew Miller, Marvin Stamm, Slide Hampton, Byron Stripling, Bobby Shew, Kevin Mahogany, Henry Johnson, Scott Wendholt, and Bobby Watson. The group is celebrating the release of their newest CD, the critically acclaimed Appointment In Milano, with guest Bobby Watson on saxophone.

The Green Country Jazz Festival is sponsored by Tahlequah City Hospital, and supported with a grant from the Oklahoma Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Tickets for the evening concert may be reserved by calling the NSU Jazz Lab at 918-444-4603. For additional information, contact Arthur White, NSU director of Jazz Studies at 918-444-4602 or whitea@nsuok.edu.