Band jazzes up rock tunes
By Jacqueline Flusche / Staff Writer –
Classic rock and jazz will come together today when the One O’Clock Lab Band plays music from the Rolling Stones.
The lab band will have its 50th Annual Fall Concert at 8 tonight featuring music by the Stones with guest artists Bernard Fowler and Tim Ries.
“You take the Rolling Stones music that you don’t think of as jazz music, and then to do jazz arrangements of it is kind of what jazz artists have been doing all along,” said Steve Wiest, a music professor, the lab band’s director and a Grammy-nominated arranger. “They took Broadway tunes and pop tunes and did jazz versions. That’s what Tim has done with the Stones music.”
Steve Wiest, director of the One O’Clock Lab Band, conducts the band members as they practice for their 50th Annual Fall Concert, which is at 8 tonight in Winspear Hall at the Murchison Performing Arts Center. (Photo by Stacy Powers / Design Intern)
The band will perform pieces including those written by student composers and then feature jazz renditions of Stones music with Ries and Fowler. Those songs might include “Satisfaction,” “Under My Thumb,” “Lady Jane” and “Wild Horses.”
Ries, a UNT alumnus and close friend of Wiest, has worked with many artists within the jazz genre and has performed and recorded with the Stones, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Tony Bennett. Wiest said Ries came up with the idea to compose a jazz rendition of the music.
Fowler, an American composer and vocalist, is a backup singer for the Stones and a lead singer in many groups. Wiest said Fowler has been working with Ries as the vocalist for his arrangements.
“He’s a very experienced, wonderful singer,” Wiest said. “Tim has been collaborating with him for a while, so he wanted to bring him for this concert as well.”
Within the last 40 years, the band’s albums have been nominated for six Grammy Awards. The band has also toured around the world.
Mark Dehertogh, a jazz studies graduate student and saxophonist in the band, is happy to be a part of this concert.
“I get to play a featured solo, and that’s always scary and exciting,” Dehertogh said. “Also, I’m looking forward to listening to Tim Ries, who is an incredible alumnus and tenor player.”
Nick Wlodarczyk, a jazz studies senior, first-semester lab band member and trombone player, expressed his excitement as well.
“I’ve always gone to see the annual fall jazz concerts with all these guest stars,” Wlodarczyk said. “It’s just really an honor for me to finally be in the band on the other side of it.”
50th Annual Fall Concert
- Where: Murchison Performing Arts Center’s Winspear Performance Hall
- When: 8 tonight
- Cost: Tickets are $10 to $15
- Call 940-369-7802 or visit music.unt.edu/mpac for tickets.
There are no comments at the moment, do you want to add one?
Write a comment