The Grace College Community Wind Ensemble will present its final concert of the year May 5. The program will feature not only the Grace College Community Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Martin Becker, but also the popular 18-piece Truth in Jazz Big Band from Elkhart. Additionally, the concert will feature three soloists. The “Big Band Pops Concert” will be held at the Warsaw High Performing Arts Center May 5 at 7:30 p.m. Becker is excited to bring a different style of music to Warsaw and Winona Lake audiences with a focus on authentic ragtime, dixieland and the Big Band swing sound from the mid 1930s to the 1940s. “In an effort to truly present the best in the big band style, I have tried to put a program together that features the sound of a distinct era of popular American culture, the music for this concert will be truly be a scrapbook in sound taking the listeners back to the time period known as the Big Band Era,” said Becker. “In addition, we are presenting the traditional big band vocal tradition by having Truth in Jazz own and South Bend vocal soloist Kelli Armentrout singing two George Gershwin compositions: ‘Someone to Watch over Me’ and ‘They Can’t Take That Away from Me’. The band will also feature Truth in Jazz’s fantastic drummer, Jim Catalano, playing Neil Hefti’s drum set classic ‘Cute’.” The audience members will be tempted to dance in the aisles as the ensembles perform the music from some of the big name dance bands; with an arrangement titled “Big Band Signatures”. The medley contains the theme songs of Glenn Miller, Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Les Brown. The wind ensemble will play WC Handy’s “St. Louis Blues”, “At the Dixieland Funeral (Closer Walk with Thee and the Saints Go Marching In”), and a ragtime arrangement “That Old Hound Dog Rag”. The concert will also include Indiana’s own great composer, Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia on my Mind”. Flippin is the featured soloist and comes all the way from Kentucky. He works regularly with several jazz and commercial groups, and averages more than 150 performances a year. He is both the keyboardist/pops arranger for the Lexington Philharmonic (since 1973), and accompanist/arranger for the Lexington Singers (since 1976). He has performed, done clinics, and/or toured with dozens of artists, including Clark Terry, James Moody, Chris Potter, the Count Basie Orchestra, Bernadette Peters, Ray Charles, LeAnn Rimes and Wilson Pickett. His compositions and arrangements include more than 2,500 works for orchestra, chorus, band, jazz ensembles of every size and description, keyboards, solo instruments, voice and MIDI orchestra. He has written more than 300 jingles, scored more than 50 films and videos, and composed cues for several television series. In 2000, he won an Emmy® for his score for the documentary “Ashes to Glory”, and in 2001 he was nominated for a Daytime Emmy® for best original song. His recording credits include arranging, producing, and/or playing on more than 350 album/CD projects. He has five CD releases under his own name, including his most recent, “The Jay Flippin Trio: By Request”, released by Ballpark Records in November 2004.The Wind Ensemble will feature one of Flippin’s arrangement that he had written for the Lexington Philharmonic and Jazz Trio, titled “Tribute to the Duke”. The Truth in Jazz Big Band will take over the second half of the program, also featuring Flippin performing several Count Basie standards, along with the many jazz soloists in the band. Members of the band come from a variety of musical backgrounds. Each member of the TiJ is an accomplished musician, several are or have been music educators, hold music degrees and also members have played in service jazz bands and ensembles. Becker is also a member of the band’s trumpet section. The jazz group is featured each year at the Elkhart Jazz Festival and appears at many other venues in the Elkhart and South Bend area. The band’s repertoire includes big band swing, jazz, latin and music spanning from the 1940s to present day. Doors for the free concert open at 6:45 p.m., with the concert starting at 7:30 p.m. May 5.
