Una To Host Big Band Blowout Feb. 6

Jan. 24, 2011

Michelle Eubanks, UNA, at media@una.edu, 256.765.4392 or 256.606.2033

FLORENCE, Ala. - The University of North Alabama band program will host its second annual Big Band Blowout Feb. 6 at 2 p.m. The program will bring together the UNA Studio Jazz Band, Shoals Area Big Band, Mars Hill Jazz Band and the UNA Marimba Band for a knockout performance. The performance will feature big band favorites like Duke Ellington's "Perdido" and Cole Porter's "Miss Otis Regrets," as well as Broadway hits from "West Side Story," "My Fair Lady," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "The Sound of Music." The UNA Studio Jazz Band recently performed at the Alabama Music Educators Conference in Montgomery and are a standard big band instrumental group with a few extras, including flutes, clarinets and French horns, which allow the band to explore different genres of popular music while staying with the unique swing band sound tradition. "The 2011 UNA Studio Jazz Band is, without a doubt, one of the finest groups I've had the pleasure to work with in my career," said Dr. Lloyd Jones, UNA band director. "The students are very talented and eager to perform. They make the music fun, and I know the audience will enjoy what these students bring to the stage." Founded in 1979 by Dr. Lyman Mitchell, the Shoals Area Big Band has performed numerous times at the W.C. Handy Music Festival and other benefit concerts. The Mars Hill Jazz Band, directed by Joey Krieger, has cultivated an interest in the jazz band idiom. Dr. Iain Moyer's Marimba Band will use marimbas as well as the xylophone, vibraphone, tympani, drum-set, bass guitar and other percussion instruments during the performance. "The 2011 Big Band Blowout promises to be a toe-tapping, hand-clapping, swinging good time," Jones said. "We hope to see all of our loyal attendees and encourage them to bring a friend or neighbor. All proceeds will support the student musicians of the UNA and Mars Hill band programs." The Big Band Blowout will take place in Norton Auditorium and is $5 for students and $10 for general admission. Children under 10 and veteran and active military personnel get in free. For more information about the event, contact the UNA Department of Music and Theatre at 256-765-4516.

About The University of North Alabama

The University of North Alabama is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs through the colleges of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering; the Sanders College of Business and Technology; Education and Human Sciences; and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions. Occupying a 130-acre campus in a residential section of Florence, Alabama, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. UNA Athletics, a renowned collegiate athletics program with seven (7) Division II National Championships, is now a proud member of NCAA Division I as part of the Atlantic Sun and United Athletic conferences. The University of North Alabama is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age, or national origin. For more: una.edu and una.edu/unaworks/.