Ripon College Jazz Ensemble features guest performer

The Ripon College Jazz Ensemble will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 26, in Demmer Recital Hall, C.J. Rodman Center for the Arts.

Jose Encarnacion will be the guest performer. Encarnación teaches jazz improvisation, small jazz groups and applied jazz saxophone at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton.

He has performed jazz, salsa and Latin music with the Bob Mintzer Big Band, the Dave Rivello Ensemble, Gilberto Santarosa, Roberto Rohena, Bobby Valentin, Domingo Quinones, Israel “Cachao” Lopez, Tito Puente, Danilo Perez, Dave Valentin, Giovanni Hidalgo, Batacumbele, Humberto Ramirez, and David Sanchez. His pops performances include appearances with the Temptations, Dianne Reeves, Natalie Cole, Doc Severinsen, Lou Rawls, New York Voices, Brasilia, Ann Hampton Calloway, and the symphony orchestras of Milwaukee, Rochester, and Green Bay.

Along with Encarnacion, the Jazz Ensemble will perform big band works by jazz greats Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie and Gerry Mulligan, Lawrence University’s Fred Sturm and Chicago composer Thomas Matta. Also featured will be the Group Improvisation Class.

Jazz Ensemble is directed by Kurt Dietrich, professor of music.

Admission to the concert is free.