Swing into spring at NIC

The North Idaho College Jazz Ensemble will heat up the spring with a concert of “hot” big band arrangements at 7:30 p.m tonight at the Boswell Hall Schuler Performing Arts Center on NIC’s Coeur d’Alene Campus.

The concert is free and open to the public.

The Swinging into Spring concert, led by NIC Jazz Ensemble Director Terry Jones, begins with a tune straight out of the Count Basie book, Benny Carter’s “The Swizzle.” This up-tempo swing tune is sure to get some feet tapping.

The second piece is a big band standard, “String of Pearls” but with a rhythmic interplay that makes the piece sound familiar and new all at the same time.

The concert will venture into the Bossa Nova world with Ellen Rowe’s “Cross Currents” featuring the ensemble’s guitarist Tom Duebendorfer.

The concert continues with a suite of pieces from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story.” The suite features various styles with the ballad “Somewhere” being played by the ensemble’s trombonist Tim Sandford.

The next selection, Dizzy Gillespie’s “Grooving High,” brings the saxophone section front and center with a saxophone soli and solo space for the whole section and Mark Taylor’s “Brass Machine” will give the trumpet section a chance to shine.

The concert continues with Billy Strayhorn’s “Take the 'A' Train” by Duke Ellington, arranged by Bill Holman. Holman arranged the piece for Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show band and transformed the music into an energetic jazz waltz.

The ensemble will end the show with Chick Corea’s “La Fiesta,” an Afro-Cuban piece that will look to end the evening with the same heat it began with.