By Danilynn Welniak/ne news editor
The NE Jazz Lab Band has been selected to perform in the North Texas Jazz Festival April 16-17 in Addison.
The ensemble was selected by an audition process, which included sending a recording of one of the group’s previous concerts to the committee that selects groups to perform.
NE music instructor Philippe Baugh said he expressed worries about the recording he had to work with.
“I was somewhat hesitant to send the recording, being that it was recorded from a video recorder from a concert we had held in the cafeteria last year,” he said.
The band is made up of two sections, credit and noncredit.
Since fall 2006, the band has grown from three to more than 25 in both sections.
However, this will be the group’s first competitive jazz festival.
“We’re looking forward to performing our music in front of an audience,” he said. “But we are going to receive the added benefit of having our performance critiqued and reviewed by the University of North Texas jazz faculty.”
Schools from across the U.S. will perform at this festival, including UNT’s One O’Clock Lab Band.
“I’m also looking forward to hearing what other community colleges are playing as far as charts and what their level of performance is compared to my group,” he said.
Baugh explained how significant this opportunity is to all of the lab band students.
“This will be great for the students to be critiqued by other faculty and to hear other groups perform by seeing and hearing other players who perform on their same instruments,” he said.
The town of Addison has done a lot to promote jazz in the area. Baugh said by joining with the well-known University of North Texas’ jazz program, this festival has become one of the most prestigious.
“The second reason the festival is so well-known is that, in addition to the competition among schools, they typically have a Saturday night performance by a nationally known jazz artist and, in some cases, multiple artists,” he said.
Promotion of the NE jazz program has been a challenge, but Baugh says that this festival is a powerful opportunity.
“TCC NE jazz hasn’t had the visibility that I would like,” Baugh said. “Putting us in this competition is a great way to promote our program and spread our school’s music program by word of mouth.”
The school performances are free, but the town of Addison is currently selling tickets for the Saturday night performances of Tierney Sutton and other name groups who will perform that evening, Baugh said.
