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NIU Jazz Ensemble to play Duke Ellington Ballroom Nov. 20

November 18, 2014
Reggie Thomas

Reggie Thomas

The NIU Jazz Ensemble, under the tutelage of new director Reggie Thomas, will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center.

The concert is free and open to the public.

Alongside the Jazz Ensemble will be international jazz trombonists Michael Dease and Tom Garling.

Dease has emerged as one of the premier jazz trombonists of his generation. A Grammy award-winning trombonist, he has played with many of today’s foremost jazz orchestras, including those led by Wynton Marsalis, Christian McBride and Roy Hargrove. He is recognized for having revitalized the trombone’s image on the frontline of quintets and sextets.

Garling teaches jazz trombone at NIU and is often recruited globally as a recording artist, composer/arranger, teacher and clinician. He studied arrangement and composition at Berklee College of Music, and at the age of 20, he left Berklee to tour with Buddy Rich, who said in an interview, “Tom Garling is going to have a very, very strong future in jazz.”

Since 1998, the Jazz Studies Program at NIU has been rated as one of the top 10 graduate jazz programs in the country by U.S. News & World Report. Jazz bands from NIU have received performance awards at several major jazz festivals, including the prestigious Notre Dame, Elmhurst and Eau Claire Collegiate Jazz Festivals.

For more information, call (815) 753-0643 or email reggiethomas@niu.edu.

The 2014-15 NIU Jazz Ensemble

The 2014-15 NIU Jazz Ensemble