HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Hutchinson Community College will celebrate jazz tradition and education during the 51st annual Bryce Luty Jazz Festival, scheduled for Friday, Feb. 6, with a featured concert and two days of clinics for middle school and high school musicians.
The festival’s main concert begins at 7 p.m. at the Stringer Fine Arts Center and will feature guest artist Bryan Lynch, the Bryce Luty All-Star Band and the HutchCC Concert Jazz Band. The long-running event honors Bryce Luty, a nationally respected jazz educator who helped establish collegiate jazz programs in Kansas.
“Bryce Luty had quite a reputation,” said Jack Cassidy, HutchCC’s jazz program coordinator. “He was the first collegiate jazz educator in the state of Kansas.”
Cassidy said Luty’s influence extended well beyond Hutchinson. Luty helped establish the National Association of Jazz Educators and was later named Jazz Educator of the Year in 2000.
“So they’re quite proud of him here in Hutch, and this is just my second year, so I’ve been learning a lot about him as time goes by,” Cassidy said. “Big shoes to fill.”
The festival will feature Lynch, a Grammy Award-winning trumpeter and professor of jazz studies at the University of Miami. Lynch has performed with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Horace Silver and Toshiko Akiyoshi’s Big Band, among others.
“He has quite a reputation and quite a resume, and we’re very fortunate to get him to come with us,” Cassidy said.
In addition to the Friday night concert, Lynch will work directly with students during adjudications and clinics Thursday and Friday. Visiting middle school and high school bands will perform prepared selections and receive feedback from professional musicians.
“They’ll perform the songs that they’ve been working on, and then the three clinicians will discuss their performance stylistically, historically, ways to maybe improve what they were doing,” Cassidy said. “They’ll discuss jazz harmony, and of course jazz improvisation, because that’s the basis of jazz.”
Cassidy said one of the festival’s distinguishing features is the opportunity for students to hear and interact with professional musicians.
“To hear the pros and to get to meet them,” Cassidy said. “That’s really the basis of the entire thing, is to give the kids an opportunity to see it up close.”
Cassidy added that the festival can serve as a stepping stone for students considering music beyond high school.
“If it’s something they’re interested in pursuing, there’s being on the team and then there’s being an expert,” he said. “This gives them the opportunity to do that.”
Tickets for the concert are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $5 for students. HutchCC students and staff are admitted free with a college ID. Tickets are available through the HutchCC Fine Arts Department. Doors to the concert will open at 6:30 p.m.
“This is a inexpensive way to immerse yourself in jazz quickly,” Cassidy said. “His music is fantastic.”