Jazz Ensemble will perform Friday, Dec. 14

The Ripon College Jazz Ensemble will perform Friday, Dec. 14, at Ripon College. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Demmer Recital Hall, C.J. Rodman Center for the Arts. Admission is free and open to the public.

Jazz from the 1940s to the present will be featured in the wide-ranging program. Among the selections are Duke Ellington’s “Main Stem”; Neal Hefti’s “Flight of the Foo Birds,” popularized by Count Basie; and Don Ellis’s extravagant arrangement of Charlie Parker’s “K.C. Blues.” More contemporary works will include Pat Metheny’s “Have You Heard,” Wisconsin composer Fred Sturm’s “Circle of Fire” and James Miley’s “What Did You Say?”

Ripon music educator and Ripon College adjunct instructor Bill Nelson will be featured on a number associated with the late Michael Brecker, “Talking to Myself.” A special event on the concert will be the premiere of Wisconsin composer Paul Dietrich’s “Vanishing Point.”

The jazz improvisation group will perform Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father” and a special blues performance.

The ensemble is directed by Professor of Music Kurt Dietrich.