Jazz in Park County this week

The 27th annual Northwest Jazz Festival gets underway Wednesday-Friday, March 17-19, in Powell, with performances by an Austrian brass ensemble and a Northwest College alum’s vocal group. Concerts are scheduled all three days.

Wednesday, March 17: The festival kicked off a 7:30 p.m. concert by M-pact, hailed as "one of the best pop-jazz vocal groups in the world" by the San Francisco Chronicle. The Los Angeles-based a cappella sextet features the bass renditions of Trist Curless, a former NWC student from Cheyenne.

Thursday, March 18: The instruments change from voice to brass for the concert when the Mnozil Brass takes the stage this evening. The concert begins at 7 p.m. with the All-State Jazz Band followed by the NWC Jazz Band and then Mnozil Brass to close out the performance.  

Mnozil Brass

The seven-piece ensemble has been around since 1992. What began as a handful of players performing together in Josef Mnozil’s tavern in Vienna, Austria, has become so well-known in concert circles, the group now plays more than 120 concerts around the world each year.

Both concerts are being held in the Powell High School Auditorium.

Mnozil Brass tickets are $30. They can be purchased online by following the “Jazz Festival” link at http://www.northwestmusic.org, or in person at Cody Newsstand in Cody, the Northwest College Bookstore and Nelson Performing Arts Center on campus in Powell.

Friday, March 19: The festival’s best student performers are featured in a 3 p.m. concert in the Nelson Performing Arts Center Auditorium. Admission is free.
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Yellowstone Jazz ALIVE! - Cody

The public will again be able to sample fine dining and great jazz in the third of the successful wintertime live jazz series on Saturday, March 20. Yellowstone Jazz ALIVE! continues as a service to the arts in the local area. As the festival, now celebrating its twenty-third year, presents this monthly event jazz lovers at a dining venue Cody area, according to a press release.

Craig Hall

Bozeman guitarist Craig Hall will be leading a trio performing jazz standards while diners enjoy listening to jazz at the Terrace on the west Cody strip. Montana-born guitarist (and acoustic bassist) Craig Hall has had a busy year, having played with Grace Kelly, Joey Caldarazo, Scotty Wright, Benito Gonzalez, Azar Lawrence, Dena DeRose and Eddie Marshall as well as a slate of in-state players, including the Bozeman early-swing jazz violin-based group "The String Jumpers." But this trio is his favorite outlet.

Other members of the trio will be drummer Adam Greenberg who has been playing music for more than 20 years. Adam led his own big band as well as playing with various groups in the Midwest, before moving to Montana. There he has landed in a wide variety of ensembles including the Montana Mandolin Society and the Jeni Fleming Group. Bassist Mike Carey studied at the UW-Madison Jazz Dept. under the direction of Richard Davis before migrating to Bozeman and has quickly become a top-call player for groups of all styles.

This series began in January this year and will continue through May. It is free, with no cover charge. Dinner reservations at Terrace can be made by calling 587-5868. For more information on these events, the artists, and dinner menus available please visit the festival website at www.yellowstonejazz.com.

 

The Yellowstone Jazz Festival is supported in part by a grant from the Wyoming Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts and also from private and business donors.