NSU Jazz Ensemble set to perform

(Tahlequah, Okla.) On Sunday, Nov. 2, the NSU Jazz Ensemble, directed by Tommy Poole, Director of Jazz Studies and assistant professor of Music at NSU, will begin a three-day music extravaganza, much of which will feature world-renowned saxophonist, Dave Pietro.

Pietro, currently one of the best-known jazz alto saxophonists in the world, is a professor of Jazz Studies at New York University-Steinhardt. He is also a member of the Grammy award-winning Maria Schneider Orchestra and the critically acclaimed Gil Evans project, a jazz ensemble currently working to record recently discovered works of the late Gil Evans.

The Boston Globe and Jazz Times voted his 2001 release of Standard Wonder-The Music of Stevie Wonder as one of the top 10 jazz CDs and he has released numerous other CDs with musicians such as Dave Holland, Kenny Werner and Brian Blade.

The first event that will take place will be a concert at the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in Tulsa. The concert is set to begin at 5 p.m.

In conjunction with NSUs Jazz Lab, the Oklahoma Jazz Educators will be holding its annual fall workshop, where four Oklahoma high school jazz ensembles as well as Tulsa Community College will perform throughout the afternoon at the NSU Center for Performing Arts in Tahlequah.

Throughout the day, guest clinicians, like Dean Sorenson, the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Minnesota, and Pietro will offer specialized clinics.

Dave Pietro is one of the most sought after jazz saxophonists around, Poole said. In addition to being a tremendous saxophonist, he's an educator, a composer, and an arranger for large ensembles. This level of versatility sets a great example for the NSU Jazz students who will get to work with him.

Sorenson is the author of the jazz methods book titled, Standard of Excellence, which includes some of the most widely used methods used my middle school jazz bands nationwide.

At 7 p.m. on Nov. 3, an encore performance with NSUs Jazz Ensemble and Dave Pietro will take place at the NSUs Center for Performing Arts.

Concluding the series of events, on Nov. 4 Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences jazz band director, Mike Sisco will lead a workshop and the Austin Poole Project will perform.

Tickets are available for the concert on Nov. 2 by calling 918-928-2599 and the Nov. 3 concert by calling 918-444-4603.