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digg4 HOURS OF BIG BAND, LATIN JAZZ
Don’t you just love an anniversary party? This month JAZZ in AZ celebrates 30 years of bringing great jazz to venues across the state with a four-hour fiesta featuring some of the hottest Latin jazz and big band swing performers in the region.
Better make sure your shoes are made for cuttin’ the rug because the organization has built its annual fundraiser around the dance floor.
Dennis Rowland and The Extreme Decibel Big Band open the evening, followed by Raul Yañez’s CPR Latin Jazz Orchestra. As a special treat, three original members of the renowned band, El Chicano -- Bobby Espinosa, Freddy Sanchez and Rudy Regalado – will join Yañez to perform. (Those who used to cruise may recall EC’s big hit, VivaTirado.)
Yanez, known locally as a music educator, recently performed an original work, Concierto for Turntables, at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Rowland spent several years as a vocalist with the original Count Basie Orchestra and has performed with jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Tony Bennett.
The inaugural jazz dance event runs from 8 p.m. until midnight June 23 at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort, 7200 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. Tickets are $30 in advance or $35 at the door and are available through TicketForce, (480) 840-0457 or online at www.jazzinaz.org.
Proceeds from the dance will support the organization’s “How Cool Is Jazz?” program in elementary schools across the Valley; lesson, instrument and jazz camp scholarships for Arizona’s gifted young musicians; and other programs that cultivate emerging jazz musicians and audiences.
Maxine Harvard, chairman of the anniversary events committee, calls the event “a first-time-ever, one-of-a-kind dance in the Valley.”
“We don’t expect there to be too much time spent sitting because you’re not going to be able to keep from getting out on the dance floor,” Harvard says, “Although you’re welcome to just listen to four hours of fabulous music!”
