jazz

Haven’t been to the Baker Museum yet? Now’s your chance. The Baker Museum is offering free admission on Sundays beginning May 17 and continuing through Sept. 6 along with Art After Hours on the last Wednesday of each month. Summer at the Baker also includes jazz in the Daniels Pavilion.

Reginald O’Neal’s best-known body of work is his Jazz Figurines Series. Paintings and a sculpture from that series are on view in Hayes Hall at Artis-Naples. “The fact that it has a musical connection made it feel really appropriate for our unique institutional context here,” said Baker Museum Chief Curator Courtney McNeil. The series originated from a random stop at a souvenir shop on a visit to New Orleans in 2022.

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Wynton Marsalis asks the question that confronts us as a nation: “Do we want to find a better way?” He answered that in the eight songs that comprise his 2022 album “The Democracy! Suite.” The Gulf Coast Jazz Collective – Paul Gavin, Zak Bartholomew and Brandon Robertson – will perform it on April 18.

The FGCU Jazz Combo will perform original student compositions inspired by multidisciplinary Miami artist Onajide Shabaka on Feb. 3. His exhibition, “Becoming Tomorrow’s Dream,” is on view in the Wasmer Gallery in the Arts Complex at Florida Gulf Coast University.

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.

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.