The world-renowned Stan Kenton Legacy Jazz Orchestra is on tour all across the country and will be making a stop at East Lyme High School on Tuesday, April 17, for a very special performance.
Stan Kenton was a highly influential American popular music and jazz artist. A pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative jazz orchestra from the 1940s through the 70s; in Kenton’s own words, it was “progressive jazz”. He was also on the cutting edge of jazz education with the Stan Kenton Band Clinics starting in the late 1950s.
Kenton conceived the idea out of concern that education of jazz and all its forms were not reaching teenagers who showed interest in it. He strongly felt that the survival of jazz depended heavily on the ability of leaders and artists in the jazz
community to educate a younger generation.
Today, alumni from the 1956-1978 Stan Kenton Jazz Orchestra play at festivals, clinics, concerts, cruises and dances. Performing some of the well-known music of the Stan Kenton Orchestra and in keeping with Stan’s insistence on not just performing nostalgia type music, they also perform fresh new material written in the Kenton style and original material written by members of the Band, carrying on Stan’s dedication to creative music and jazz education.
Leader Mike Vax has led a big band since his days at College of the Pacific over 45 years ago. The goals of the big band are to perform meaningful music, talk about the importance of the jazz heritage in America, bring jazz music to young people, and to offer audiences a wonderful evening of jazz.
The performance will be held on Tuesday, April 17, at 7 p.m. at the East Lyme High School Auditorium. Earlier in the day, students will be participating in a variety of jazz clinics.
Adult general admission tickets are $32; Seniors 60+ and Students are $25. For ticket sales and more information, visit https://tinyurl.com/elhsjazz