East-Central Jazz Educators All-Star Big Band: “The Magic Continues” The driving & hard-swingin' big band sounds of Count Basie, Jay McShann, & Tadd Dameron are celebrated in this special show, including highlights from the group's upcoming album release, "The Magic Continues!"

Comprised of musicians that hail from all across the region (representing Tri-C, Cleveland State University, Youngstown State University, Slippery Rock University, Duquesne University, Ohio State University, and the University of Cincinnati), the esteemed East-Central Jazz Educators All-Star Big Band makes their roarin’ return to BLU with “The Magic Continues!”
 
Transcribed and orchestrated for the ECJE All-Star Big Band by co-director & lead alto saxophonist, Dr. Kent Englehart, the program will showcase the music of Count Basie, Jay McShann Big Band with Charlie Parker, and Tadd Dameron’s compositions & arrangements penned for Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet and Dizzy Gillespie!
 

 
Join us for this very special evening at BLU Jazz+ with the return of this incredible group of top-notch players – get your tickets today!
 

The Band

Kent Englehart (co-director), Dave Sterner, Jason Kush, Dave Kana, Mike Tomaro, Steve Hawk, Scott Belck, Joe Badaczewski, Steve Enos (co-director), Jeff Bush, Jay Ashby, Stacie Mickens, Phil DeGreg, Dave Morgan, Jim Rupp, Erin Keckan.
 

About the Directors

Kent Engelhardt holds a BM and MM from Youngstown State University and a MA and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, the Society for Ethnomusicology, and Jazz Education Network. Kent is an active performer, composer, arranger, editor, scholar, author, and educator. His Charlie Parker research, including two books, is published by VDM, Oxford University Press, and the IAJE. He can be heard on numerous recordings including the Paul Ferguson Jazz Orchestra, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, and the Blossom Festival Band. Kent is a Conn-Selmer Artist and a Remle/Beechler Representative Artist.
 
Kent was awarded a YSU Research Professorship in 2011-2012 for his project “The ‘Head’ Arrangements of the Count Basie Orchestra 1937-1939” which resulted in eleven new musical editions. He was awarded a second Research Professorship in 2012-2013 for his project “Musical Contextualization of Charlie Parker’s Solos with The Jay McShann Orchestra” which resulted in thirteen new musical editions. In 2013-2014, Kent’s research “The Music of Tadd Dameron for Harlan Leonard and his Rockets” was accomplished through CCAC Professional Development and re-assigned time, and it culminated in seven new editions. Kent is one of nine faculty at YSU who received a Research Professorship for 2016-2017. He has recreated and edited the music from Tadd Dameron’s last recording entitled “The Magic Touch,” which has been completed for the centennial of Tadd Dameron’s birth in Cleveland, Ohio.
 

Trumpeter, Steve Enos, is Director of Jazz Studies at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C). Steve earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Professional Music with a Jazz Performance Emphasis from the Berklee College of Music and his Master’s in Music Education from the University of Akron. He also directs the award winning Tri-C JazzFest High School All-Stars and Tri-C JazzFest Summer with the Jazz Master’s Program. Steve is also a member of the Ernie Krivda Fat Tuesday Big Band and Omnibus Orchestra, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and performs in the Playhouse Square Orchestra for their “Broadway Series”. At the Berklee College of Music he received the Lennie Johnson Memorial Scholarship Award and performed with the Boston famed, Herb Pomeroy Orchestra. He has performed with Aretha Franklin, The Four Tops, The Temptations, The Funk Brothers, Natalie Cole, Louis Bellson, Phil Woods, David Sanborn, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Johnny Mathis, Barry Manilow, Frankie Valli and others. Under his direction, the Tri-C Jazz Studies Program is a nationally recognized music program with articulation agreements with both the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and the Jackie Mclean Jazz Institute at the Hart School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. Some of Tri-C’s outstanding students have included, Sean Jones, Dominick Farinacci, Curtis Taylor, Jerome Jennings, Aaron Kleinstub and Steve Renko. Steve Enos is a Yamaha Artist.
 

$10