Bison Jazz Orchestra in Concert Nov. 10

November 6, 2017

The Oklahoma Baptist University Warren M. Angell College of Fine Arts presents the OBU Bison Jazz Orchestra in a fall concert titled, “It Might As Well Be Swing.” The concert will take place Friday, Nov. 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Raley Chapel’s Yarborough Auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public.

The program includes contemporary big band works by Alan Baylock (“Two Seconds to Midnight”), Jeff Coffin (“Move Your Rug”), as well as a Zac Lee arrangement of the funk-jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy’s “What About Me.” Modern takes on big band classics are also included, from Richard DeRosa’s “Not in the Mood” to Bill Holman’s “It Might As Well Be Swing.”

The concert will feature OBU adjunct trumpet professor Paul Stephens on “Brazil” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Professor Stephens has served as lead trumpeter of the U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors, toured with Maynard Ferguson, and frequently records as a commercial studio trumpeter for the Walt Disney Corporation.

“This concert will feature our students performing a wide variety of music, including swing, jazz-fusion and samba. The band and soloists have been working hard on this music and we can’t wait to share it with the OBU-Shawnee community,” says Justin Pierce, assistant professor of instrumental music and director of the Bison Jazz Orchestra.