Vanguard Jazz Orchestra performs Nov. 1
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra will present a concert of jazz and American music on Saturday, Nov. 1, 7:30 p.m. in the Luther College Center for Faith and Life.
Tickets are $23, $21 for students and senior citizens, and are on sale at the Luther College Box Office, (563) 387-1357, open Monday-Friday, 9-10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; extended hours Thursdays: open until 7 p.m.
Tickets may also be ordered on-line at http://programming.luther.edu.
The performance is part of Luther’s Center Stage Series, a chain of professional performing arts events for the 2008-09 year.
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra began as the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra in 1966. Famous cornetist, composer, arranger Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis compiled the members of the band and approached famous club owner Max Gordon about booking a three week gig at his legendary club, the Village Vanguard. Those three weeks developed into a permanent band that has been performing for over three decades.
Saxophonist Dick Oatts, an Iowa native, joined the Thad Jones- Mel Lewis Orchestra when he first moved to New York City in 1977. Oatts has toured with many famous small groups, such as Red Rodney, Eddie Gomaz and Vic Juric, and has performed with big bands such as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Mel Lewis Band and he Carnegie Hall Jazz Band.
He was featured with the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, and has accompanied such vocalists as Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, Luther Vandross and James Taylor.
For 30 years, Oatts has appeared at college jazz festivals as a soloist and clinician throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, South America and the Middle East. He has been on the Manhattan School of Music faculty since 1989, and has been an artist-in-residence at the Amsterdam Conservatory since 1997.
For more information about the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, visit website http://www.