Omaha Performing Arts presents jazz pianist Kenny Barron and his trio at the 1200 Club on Friday, May 18 at 8:00pm. Kenny Barron mesmerizes audiences with his elegant piano playing, sensitive melodies and infectious rhythms. During his decades-spanning career, Barron has worked with several jazz greats, including Dizzie Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine and many more. One of the most renowned pianists in jazz today, Barron is a multiple-Grammy® nominee, was inducted into the American Jazz Hall of Fame in 2005 and was selected for the National Endowment for the Arts prestigious Jazz Masters in 2010. For more information, you may visit http://www.omahaperformingarts.org
Jazz fans can turn to NPR Music for archived performances with today's leading jazz artists. This month you can listen to new performances from Steve Coleman and Third World Love. Recently The Checkout: Live From 92Y Tribeca presented a concert with the Ingrid Jensen Quintet. That performance has been archived, along with recent performances from drummer Al Foster and pianist Geri Allen at the Live at the Village Vanguard concert series. You may listen to these and other concerts anytime at http://www.npr.org/music
A 50 year reunion concert is scheduled for Saturday evening at South High School. The Ambassadors Show Choir began in 1962 as the Choralaires. Among the 100 participants in this weekend’s reunion show are members of that choir.
Clay Blackman, Director of Choral Activities at South High School, says the Ambassadors Show Choir has 18 members this school year. He says even if participants choose not to pursue a career in performing arts, he hopes Ambassadors Show Choir instills in them a lifelong love of music.
KIOS will air a special to usher in Jazz Appreciation Month in April. The Art of the Jazz Solo can be heard Friday April 6th at 2:00PM. The one-hour program is part of a series from Interlochen Public Radio in Michigan called The New Jazz Archive hosted by Jeff Haas.
The Art of the Jazz Solo goes inside the art and craft of one jazz's most quintessential elements: the solo. We'll hear from veteran jazz instructor Bill Sears about the challenge of teaching students the art of jazz improvisation, and trace the evolution of the jazz solo from it's roots in New Orleans to some of it's present day incarnations. And we'll hear the all-time influential solos in jazz history with jazz historian Lewis Porter.
KIOS celebrates Jazz Appreciation Month, a national celebration sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute to help raise awareness of this great American art form. The objective, is to draw greater attention to jazz by encouraging musicians, concert halls, schools, colleges, libraries and public broadcasters to offer special programs on jazz every April. You can learn more about Jazz Appreciation Month at www.smithsonianjazz.org
Experimental percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani performs at the Bemis Center Saturday, April 7th.
Joel Damon, Underground Curator, says Nakatani plays a traditional gong with a bow. He says it creates an atmospheric sound that can be felt and experienced on multiple levels.
Damon says Nakatani also plays singing bowls, and uses cymbals in new ways. He says the Bemis is always interested in performers and artists who may not fit comfortably within traditional concert venues.
"The second half of the performance he will take on the role of a conductor and conduct the Nakatani Gong Orchestra. We will have five or six members of the creative community here in Omaha and from Lincoln that will be playing bowed gongs at his direction.”
Once again this year KIOS will air highlights from the UNO Great Plains Jazz Festival. The one-hour 2012 edition will air Thursday March 29 at 8:00PM. The festival took place on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and featured a wide array of high school jazz bands ranging from small combos to big bands. On this years' broadcast you'll hear performances by Omaha Central, Omaha Burke, Westside, Papillion-LaVista, Millard North,Thomas Jefferson, Kearney, Lewis Central and Bloomington North High School, all the way from Bloomington, Indiana.
