Jazz Festival returns to MAC
The countdown has begun for the 38th annual Mike O’Brien/Carol Moore Memorial Jazz Festival held at Mineral Area College, March 14 and 15. The two-day festival will draw bands from as far away as Jefferson City and the bootheel of Missouri.
The headline artist for this year’s festival is trombone master, Steve Wiest. Mr. Wiest is well known for his work as a clinician and educator, having been a past director of the University of North Texas One O’Clock Jazz Band, regarded as one of the premier ensembles in the country. Under his direction, the band was nominated for two Grammy awards: one for Best Large Jazz Ensemble and one for Best Instrumental Composition for Wiest’s original composition, Ice-Nine.
Wiest also received a Grammy nomination for his arrangement of Besame Mucho, which was recorded by Maynard Ferguson on the famed trumpeter’s last album “The One and Only.” Steve burst onto the music scene as a soloist and composer for the Maynard Ferguson Big Band in the 1980s. He is a highly respected master of the trombone and is known for his wit and sense of humor, which becomes obvious in both his dialogue and his playing.
Joining Wiest as the festival adjudicators will be Chip McNeill, musical director and tenor saxophonist for Arturo Sandoval, a position he has held since 1998. He is also the Professor and Chair of Jazz Performance at the University of Illinois. In his career, he has also performed and toured with Maynard Ferguson, with whom he has written, produced, and performed on several of Ferguson’s CDs as well as Nat Adderley, David Liebman, Larry Willis, and the Woody Herman Orchestra. Mr. McNeill has performed at MAC on several occasions with the Kicks Band.
Dave Dickey, who heads the Dave Dickey Jazz Camp held at MAC in the summer, will also serve as an adjudicator as will Kevin Gianino, noted drummer from St. Louis, who has been associated with the jazz festival for over 30 years and Ken Kehner, who is a highly regarded pianist, teacher, and accompanist, from Jefferson City.
High school and middle school ensembles will be performing during the day Friday in the theater and the MAC library and on Saturday in the theater only. Performances are free and open to the public. The first performance on Friday morning in the theater is at 8:10 a.m. and 9 a.m. in the library. Local jazz bands performing are from North County and Farmington.
Friday evening, at Twin Oaks Winery, Wiest and the guest combo, made up of the adjudicators and clinicians, will be performing beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets for the event are $25 and give you a seat at a table of 8 people. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. that evening. For those individuals and businesses wishing to participate in sponsorship of this event, contact Amanda Dement at mafinearts.org or call 573-518-2265.
Saturday evening, March 15, the concert featuring Steve Wiest and performances by the Kicks Band, The Mineral Area Jazz Ensemble, and the MAFAA Jazz Combo. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. and will be in the MAC Fine Arts Performing Center. Tickets are $15 for the evening.
The festival was originally the Mineral Area Jazz Festival, which was started in 1975 by Dennis McBride, with assistance from Jim Widner, at North County High School in Desloge. After McBride left, the festival declined and eventually ceased in 1985. In 1987, Mike O’Brien, chair of the MAC Music Department, revived the festival, moving it to MAC, keeping the name Mineral Area Jazz Festival.
The festival grew in size and prestige. After O’Brien’s retirement, Carol Moore continued to manage the festival which became one of the largest in the state, with up to 50 bands. In recent years, the festival regularly draws between 20-30 participating ensembles from around the east, southeast, and central parts of the state and groups from Illinois and Arkansas.
For ticket or festival information, contact mafinearts.org or call 573-518-2265.
