Contact: Bruce Conley, Associate Director of College Relations
Phone: (605) 274-5526
Fax: (605) 274-4903
www.augie.edu

February 28, 2005

Jazz on the Upper Great Plains Festival March 7-8 

SIOUX FALLS – Augustana College 's music department hosts the 36 th annual Jazz on the Upper Great Plains Festival March 7-8.

Fifty-two ensembles representing high schools in three states are competing in five classes – AAA, AA, A, B and C.

Participating bands will be performing Monday, March 7, beginning at 2:00 p.m. and continue until 6:00 p.m. in Kresge Recital Hall. Performances resume at 8:00 a.m. Tuesday, March 8, and conclude at 6:15 p.m. in Kresge and the Lillehaug Instrumental Rehearsal Room.

Concerts, featuring guest clinicians Chris Vadala and Rufus Reid along with the Augustana Northlanders Jazz Band, are scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Monday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Kresge. A concert and clinic begins at noon Tuesday in Kresge. Seats are available for the Monday and Tuesday evening concerts, which are free and open to the public. The Tuesday noon concert is sold out.

RUFUS REID is one of today's premier bassist on the international jazz scene. He traveled and recorded extensively with Eddie Harris, Nancy Wilson, Thad Jones & Mel Lewis, Dexter Gordon, Jack DeJohnette, Stan Getz, and J.J. Johnson. He has more than 250 recordings, and in April 2003, the Rufus Reid Quintet released “The Gait Keeper.” Reid is also an exceptional educator. He is a professor emeritus from William Paterson University , where he was director of jazz studies and performance program for 20 years. In 1997, the International Association of Jazz Educators awarded Reid the Humanitarian Award. Bass Player magazine selected him for the 1998 Jazz Educator Achievement Award.

CHRIS VADALA , one of the country's foremost woodwind artists, has appeared in more than 100 recordings performing on all the saxophones, flutes, and clarinets. He is director of jazz studies and saxophone professor at the University of Maryland . His performing career has been highlighted by a long tenure as standout wood wind artist with the Chuck Mangione Quartet. He has performed and/or recorded with such greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, B.B. King, Chick Corea, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Sarah Vaughn, Natalie Cole, Ray Charles and many others. His column on woodwind doubling appears regularly in the Saxophone Journal , and he has authored articles for many other magazines.

The Northlanders Jazz Band was started in 1954 with Earl Colgan as its first student director. It continued as a student-run organization until Harold “Doc” Krueger assumed leadership after his appointment to the Augustana College music faculty in 1965. Since then the Northlanders Jazz Band has performed for many campus and community events, as well as being featured with many guest soloists in the annual Jazz on the Upper Great Plains Festival. Dr. Paul Schilf is in his fourth year as director of the Northlanders Jazz Band and is also the festival coordinator.