Jazz Spectacular marks 41st year at Michigan State University with slate of performances
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Act I: Jazz Spectacular marks 41st year
When it comes to jazz in Greater Lansing, no one does it better than Michigan State University. With its world-renowned professors and performers, they have long owned the jazz scene.
This weekend, they’re launching year 41 of the three-day Jazz Spectacular, a jazz festival that celebrates live jazz performances of all sizes. This year’s festival is headlined by jazz trumpeter Marquis Hill.
The festival starts Thursday with four groups performing in the MSU Auditorium’s Fairchild Theatre, led by faculty artists Walter Blanding, Randy Napoleon, Michael Dease and Xavier Davis.
Friday’s performance tempts audiences to get on their feet with the “Swing Dance with MSU Jazz Orchestras.” Rodney Whitaker, MSU’s king of jazz and director of jazz studies at the MSU College of Music, will be joined by faculty artist Anthony Stanco. It’s being held at the Music Building’s Murray Hall. The dance begins at 8 p.m. with tickets $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and free for students.
Saturday will be filled with high school competition during the day and a concert at night. Bands participating in the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington Regional High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival will present a full day of performances, exploring the music of Duke Ellington and other big band composers. The band that wins the day’s competition will get to open for the Saturday night Finale Concert. Performances run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Murray Hall and multiple locations in the Billman Music Pavilion. It is free and open to the public.
The Saturday concert will blast out the music of jazz trumpeter Marquis Hill, joined by a lineup of MSU jazz artists and the Jazz Orchestra I. Hill, now an internationally renowned musician, composer and bandleader, came from Chicago and he draws from his African American creative heritage to combine contemporary and classical jazz, hip-hop, R&B, Chicago house and neo-soul. The concert begins at 8 p.m. at Fairchild Theatre. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and $15 for students.
“Spring is a time of hope and renewal and jazz at the MSU College of Music,” said Whitaker. “We’re grateful for the support we’ve received from our community and generous donors who have made the Jazz Spectacular Festival a signature event as we continue our fifth decade and celebrate our 41st year.”
Act II: Ixion play travels to death row
Ixion Ensemble is closing its season by returning to the work of Nathan Louis Jackson with “When I Come to Die” at 8 p.m. on May 5, 6, 12 and 13 at the Lansing Mall.
Directed by Rose Jangmi Cooper, Ixion’s associate artistic producer, the story explores the struggle of Damon Robinson, a death-row inmate. He survives a lethal injection and seeks to find faith and hope and understand why his life has been spared. Throughout the show, he reads from the letters he keeps in six shoeboxes under his bed — letters he wrote to his family and they returned to him unopened.
The survivor is played by Ndegwa McCloud with the rest of the cast made up of Doak Bloss, Drew Cook, Janell Hall and Joseph Beaman. The latter also serves as a prison culture consultant.
Ixion last performed work by Jackson in 2018 when they produced his “Broke-ology.” He’s also a television screen writer and producer.
Tickets are $15 at the door.
Encore!
The MSU Symphony Orchestra and Choirs present a concert, “A Celebration of Legacies” at 8 p.m. April 29 at Cobb Great Hall. It will be David Rayl’s conducting finale as he retires this year. The concert features work by Bach, Ravel, Mozart and Brahms.
The Portland Playhouse will host “70s Music by Singers on the Grand,” a concert at 7 p.m. April 29.
All-of-Us Express Children’s Theater is performing School of Rock at Hannah Community Center in East Lansing from April 28 to May 7 with shows at 7 p.m. Fridays and 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Dale Voelker will perform a free organ concert at Eastminster Presbyterian Church, 1315 Abbott Road, East Lansing at 3 p.m. April 23. Eastminster will close out its 2022-2023 concert series with a performance by the Capitol City Bell Ringers on at 7 p.m April 28.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Jazz Spectacular at Michigan State University runs April 20-22
