Jazz artist plays Tuesday

Grammy Award nominee and jazz musician Steve Wiest, formerly of the Maynard Ferguson Band, is scheduled to appear at the University as a special guest of the Department of Music and UT Tyler Friends of the Arts.

The appearance is set for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the R. Don Cowan Fine and Performing Art Center during a concert with the UT Tyler Jazz Patriots and Jazz Ensemble.

Wiest is the director of the University of North Texas One O’Clock Lab Band.

The Jazz Patriots, a seven-piece jazz combo consisting of six instrumentalists and a vocalist, is expect to perform with Wiest during the first half of the concert. He will perform with the 17-piece Jazz Ensemble during the second half.

Both groups are directed by Dr. John Webb, professor of music.

Along with standard jazz repertoire, the program will feature two of Wiest’s original big band compositions, Thaditude and Art Appreciation.

In 2009, Wiest was nominated for two Grammy Awards. The UNT One O’Clock Lab band was nominated in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album category for its Lab 2009 recording. Wiest received a Best Instrumental Composition nomination for Ice-Nine, a track from the same album.

An associate professor of music, Wiest joined the UNT faculty in fall 2007. In addition to leading the One O’Clock Lab Band, he has taught jazz composition, jazz arranging and jazz trombone and has directed the UNT jazz trombone band, The U-Tubes.

He has performed extensively in Australia, Europe, Japan, South America and United States. He and recently released the CD, Out of the New, with UNT jazz studies faculty members Fred Hamilton, Stefan Karlsson, Lynn Seaton and Ed Soph.

For more information about the concert, call the School of Visual and Performing Arts, 903-566-7250.