Marcus Roberts and the Modern Jazz Generation will headline the 40th annual Carolina Jazz Festival at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Feb. 15-18. The festival promotes a broad range of programming spanning performance, education and scholarship.
Roberts and the Modern Jazz Generation will perform Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. in Memorial Hall. A jazz pianist/composer, Roberts rose to prominence with the Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center bands, then with his own trio and as a classical soloist. Best known for his entirely new approach to jazz trio performance, his critically acclaimed legacy of recorded music reflects his tremendous versatility as an artist.
In 2014, Jazziz Magazine wrote: “In the course of a single piece, [Roberts] constantly modulates grooves, tempos and keys, plays separate time signatures with the right hand and the left, and, as he puts it, ‘flips around the roles of the piano, bass and drums …’”
For 40 years, festival founder and director Jim Ketch, a music professor and director of jazz studies, has brought his passion and love for jazz to the Carolina campus and community.
“What has happened over the years is that the festival has evolved from a department of music event to a university event,” Ketch said. “In 40 years, many of the world’s most talented jazz artists have graced our stage. We also created an artist-in-residence program that brings talent jazz artists and educators to work very closely with jazz students. Our students have been
inspired by these generous and gifted artists, but so, too, has the jazz faculty.”
The festival will feature additional performances and workshops by the UNC Jazz Band, UNC Faculty Jazz Ensemble, UNC Jazz combos, Charanga Carolina and Dayna Stephens, a tenor saxophonist and composer who is the artist-in-residence. Many of the events are free.
The Carolina Jazz Festival also links UNC-Chapel Hill to the educational wing of Jazz at Lincoln Center. For 12 years, the festival has featured the North Carolina Regional Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Festival, which has engaged student participation from high school bands from North Carolina, Virginia, Washington D.C., and New Jersey in performances and clinics. This year’s high school jazz festival is Feb. 18 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Hill Hall and the Kenan Music Building.
Full details about Carolina Jazz Festival are available here or call the music department in the College of Arts and Sciences at (919) 962-1039.
For tickets, contact the Memorial Hall box office at (919) 843-3333 or visit the Carolina Performing Arts website.
