Come out for Jazz in June

The Gene Harris Jazz Festival will be out in the full swing of its final concert series for the season. The Jazz in June concert series will offer some of the greatest jazz music in the world. The concerts will feature local artists, students and musicians from around the nation.

Gene Harris and fellow community leaders established the Gene Harris Jazz Festival in 1998. The purpose of the festival was, and still is, to promote the appreciation and enrichment of jazz music. By featuring great jazz artists in large public venues, the festival hopes to inspire young artists as well as entertain legions of jazz fans.

“We are very excited about these concerts coming up,” Executive Producer for the Gene Harris Jazz Festival Brad Peters said. “There are bands coming to Boise from all over the place. There is a group from New York, a group from Cedar Falls, a group from California and more.”

The concert series aims to inject a strong and identifiable jazz ambience into Boise. In addition to the concerts, a jazz competition will begin on Wednesday. The newly conceived competition offers an incredible opportunity for young musicians to get attention.

“The jazz competition is set up kind of like ‘American Idol.’ The competition is centered around musicians trying to get signed by a record label. Origin Records will sign the winner of the competition and produce a studio album. Origin is a great record label. Winning this competition would be a big deal,” Peters said.

Other than winning a record deal, the competition’s finalist will get the chance to open a concert for a true legend. The headlining concert, which will be at The Big Easy Concert House on Friday, features the legendary jazz drummer, Roy Haynes.

The concert gives a fantastic opportunity for the audience to witness a legend perform live. The 85-year-old drummer boasts an impressive resume.

“Roy, this guy is amazing. He has been around for a long time. He has played with Louis Armstrong, Jon Coltrane, Miles Davis and just a ton of other greats. He has played around the world and has won a lot of awards. The band he is bringing with him is just as amazing,” Peters said.

“The bassist, Christian McBride is probably one of the top two bassists in the world. The guy on trumpet, Nicholas Peyton is easily in the top five in the world. The others in the band are no less talented,” Peters said.

“The Gene Harris Jazz Festival is delighted to be a part of the community,” Peters said.

“We are cooperating with the Idaho Food Bank and will have locations which will provide concert goers the ability to donate non-perishable food items to the bank. We are also working with the Susan G. Komen foundation to bring more awareness to breast cancer,” Peters said.

Jazz in June is the fifth and final concert series of the season. It will run from today through Friday.

Bob Beers

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