Logan will have two different shows to get jazzed up about
There is an embarrassment of riches for jazz fans in Logan next week with Jane Monheit performing at the Kent Concert Hall on Tuesday and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band playing at the Ellen Eccles Theatre on both Monday and Tuesday nights.
Although both are jazz artists, the two performers offer very different types of music. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band plays traditional New Orleans jazz music, while Monheit is a combination of classical jazz vocals and modern cabaret singers like Micheal Bublé, with whom she has sung duets.
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band is named for the concert hall the band originated in. Preservation Hall was built in the 1750s and became a jazz venue in 1961. According to the hall’s Web site, it was created “to protect and honor New Orleans Jazz.”
“Today it doesn’t look too much different than 1961,” said Ron Villegas, assistant manager of the hall. The hall features sparse decorations of Jazz posters and paintings and doesn’t sell any drinks or food for the show. “It’s a purely musical experience,” Villegas said.
Similar to the hall they come from, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band offers a pure jazz experience. “They are musical ambassadors of New Orleans music,” Villegas said.
The band’s music is steeped in the tradition of New Orleans Jazz – many of the band’s members are second or third generation New Orleans musicians. They aim most of all to make music enjoyable for an audience.
“A lot of [jazz] is heady music. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band is a fun time,” Villegas said. “Expect to be dancing in the aisles by the end of the show.”
This is the second time in the last several years the band has been to Logan. They performed at the Eccles Theatre in 2003 to a large crowd, said Amanda Castillo of the Cache Valley Center for the Arts. She said they have received consistent requests to bring the band back ever since.
“They are idols in the grand scheme of New Orleans jazz,” Castillo said.
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band will perform Feb. 19 and 20 at the Ellen Eccles Theatre located at 43 S. Main. Tickets range from $19-$31, although USU students receive a 25 percent discount with their student ID. The shows begin at 7:30 p.m.
Although Monheit is much newer to the Jazz and music scene than the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, she has an extensive resume for a relatively young performer. In 2000, at age 22, she released her first album, “Never Never Land,” which stayed on the Billboard jazz charts for more than a year.
This year, Monheit will release “Surrender,” the seventh album of her career.
Her music ranges from traditional pop and jazz ballads such as “Over the Rainbow” and Irving Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek” to modern pop songs by artists such as Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins. She performs this somewhat diverse material with a popular and jazz vocal style, although she often mixes in the Brazilian rhythms and music that she is very fond of, according to her Web site.
“As a university student, very rarely do you have the opportunity to see an artist of this category at this price,” said Kyle Milne, Arts and Lectures director in ASUSU. “[The Arts and Lectures Series] takes the liberty to bring in classic, good performing artists that still appeal to mainstream audiences.”
Milne said he believes students will have fun listening to Monheit’s mellow vocal sound with her traveling backing jazz band.
The Concert is held at the Kent Concert Hall in the Chase Fine Arts Center on Feb. 20. Tickets are $5 for students $10 for non-students and can be purchased at the show or before at the USU ticket offices. The concert will begin at 7 p.m.
-tliljegren@cc.usu.edu