The Warsaw Community High School Music Department will present “Jazz in the Night/Drum Enchanted Evening” in the Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. May 8. The concert will feature the Combined Edgewood and Lakeview Middle School Jazz Band, the WCHS Jazz Band and the WCHS Percussion Ensemble along with two guest performers, Jay Flippin and Frank Oddis. Admission is $5. Tickets will be on sale in the WCHS Performing Arts Center the night of the concert or may be purchased in advance at the WCHS ticket booth or by calling 574-371-5037. Flippin and Oddis are retired professors of music from Morehead State University, Morehead, Ky., and former teachers and mentors of WCHS Band Director Mickey Ratliff. They will present master classes to the WCHS bands during the day May 7 and 8 and perform with the students during the concert. The WCHS Jazz Band will perform a variety of jazz, rock and popular songs, such as “Caravan” by Duke Ellington, “Chameleon” by Herbie Hancock and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John. The WCHS Percussion Ensemble performance will include “Molecular Dance City,” the program that earned the group an 18th consecutive trip to State Percussion Finals. Flippin is a very active performing musician, according to a press release from the WCHS Music Department. The artists he has performed or toured with include the Count Basie Band, Rosemary Clooney, Percy Sledge, Ray Charles, LeAnn Rimes, the Platters, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Ricky Skaggs and Wilson Picket. He has composed and arranged over 3,500 pieces of music, including over 250 jingles and scores for more than 50 films and videos. Flippin has five Emmy awards for scores he composed for documentaries. His recording credits include performing, arranging, and/or producing on over 350 album/CD projects, and he has six releases under his own name. Flippin retired from full-time teaching at Morehead State University in 2001. Oddis was the associate professor of music and coordinator of the Morehead State University Percussion Program from 1977 through 2012. Under his direction, the MSU Percussion Program became internationally recognized for excellence in performance style and quality, the press release states. The MSU Marching Percussion Ensemble won the Percussive Arts Society National Championships three times during Oddis's tenure. The ensemble toured and performed in China twice, Spain and Brazil, as well as numerous state, regional, national and international venues. Oddis has conducted and performed at Conservatorio Dramatico e Musical Dr. Carlos de Campos, of Tatuí, Brazil – the leading conservatory of music in South America – and has worked as a freelance percussionist and drummer for many well-known celebrities and jazz artists, and touring companies of Broadway productions. Oddis is an endorser of Ludwig drums, Musser Keyboards, Sabian Cymbals and Vic Firth Inc. Sticks and Mallets, and has musical arrangements published by Drop 6 Media. The WCHS Music Department thank Ludwig/Musser, Sabian, Vic Firth Inc. and the Wyndham Garden of Warsaw for providing support for this program.
