jazz

The Gulf Coast Jazz Collective opens its season with “A tribute to Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong.” Music Director Andrew Kurtz says the Gulf Coast Jazz Collective plays the best professionally curated jazz in Southwest Florida. On November 13, the Collective will be playing all of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s classic hits.

The Gulf Coast Symphony continues to grow and offer year-round programming even as other regional symphony orchestras have closed. Gulf Coast Symphony Founder and Music Director Andrew Kurtz explains how the organization works to diversify its performance offerings and attract new audiences.

In this second encore edition of our April show featuring Emmy-nominated jazz trumpeter, vocalist and composer Benny Benack III performing with the Florida Gulf Coast University Jazz Combo, we hear even more music performed live in studio, including a bonus track featuring Benack and FGCU Director of Jazz Studies and bassist Brandon Robertson.

We listen back to our April show featuring Emmy-nominated jazz trumpeter, vocalist and composer Benny Benack III performing live in studio with the Florida Gulf Coast University Jazz Combo.

Emmy-nominated jazz trumpeter, vocalist and composer Benny Benack III is in Southwest Florida working and performing with musicians in the Florida Gulf Coast University Jazz combo. Benack and the combo perform live in the WGCU studios, and we explore how the university’s jazz studies program continues to grow.

Arts Bonita honored veterans with a Big Band concert featuring the South Florida Jazz Orchestra and Lisanne Lyons, a former United States Air Force Band vocalist.

The Southwest Florida Symphony’s first Masterworks Series program features well-known works by iconic American composers Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and John Williams. The Marcus Roberts Trio joins the symphony to perform Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” ahead of next year’s 100th anniversary of the composition. Ahead of the Nov. 4 concert, we get a preview from Maestro Radu Paponiu and the Symphony’s Community Outreach Ambassador Robert Van Winkle.

In July Artis-Naples announced full plans for the coming 2023-24 visual and performing arts season. The unifying theme this year is “Artistic Senses – See, Hear, Taste,” and seeks to transcend the boundaries between artistic disciples in a way that engages the senses on multiple levels.

Florida Gulf Coast University Director of Jazz Studies and bass player Brandon Robertson will perform with his quartet at a concert this Saturday, May 6 at the Center for the Arts Bonita Springs. The concert will contribute to the future development of a jazz studies department at FGCU.

The tragic loss, last summer, of the incomparable trumpet player Dan Miller has left a huge void in the jazz world. We preview this coming weekend’s “Celebration of Love and Life” tribute concert and learn about how his legacy will continue through the Dan Miller Jazz Foundation in a conversation with his long-time significant other Judi Woods. We also hear selections from a previous episode of this program featuring Dan Miller performing live in studio.