Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Feb. 16, 2005

Wilmington, N.C. – University of North Carolina Wilmington music faculty Steve Bailey and Bob Russell will perform at 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22 in Kenan Auditorium.

Bailey, bass guitar, and Russell, guitar, will be joined by another member of the music department faculty, Jerald Shynett, trombone, and local percussionist Tony Pierce for an evening of incredible jazz. The group will perform such favorites as “Well You Needn’t” by jazz great Theoloneous Monk, “Giant Steps” by the legendary John Coltrane, and many more. It is an event any lover of jazz will not want to miss.

The Department of Music at UNCW offers a comprehensive jazz curriculum that includes two levels of jazz improvisation, jazz history, jazz arranging, jazz pedagogy and a modern jazz performance practice course that combines historical perspectives and improvisational practices in jazz from 1940 to the present.

Bailey, a pioneer of the six-string bass, has toured and recorded with a wide range of artists, including Dizzy Gillespie, Jethro Tull, Rippingtons and Willie Nelson. He attended both the University of North Texas and the University of Miami, where he graduated with a BM in Studio Music and Jazz. Twice named Bass Player magazine’s Bass Player of the Year runner-up, he has been featured in many international music magazines and journals. Author of six instructional books and three videos, Bailey performs clinics and concerts worldwide and co-leads the “cutting edge” group Bass Extremes with Victor Wooten.

Russell teaches guitar at UNCW and has been a professional guitarist for 28 years. He began full-time with the music faculty in fall 2003. He also coaches jazz recitals and manages the departmental recording service. Russell’s jazz CD “Watch This!” was recently released and is currently available at www.cdbaby.com/bobrussell. He graduated with honors in composition from UNCW in 1977 and has appeared on motion picture and TV sound tracks and on stage with Henry Mancini, Bob Hope, Rich Little and many other entertainers.

Kenan Auditorium in located on the UNCW campus. General admission to this event is $5, and free to UNCW affiliates with a valid I.D. Tickets are available through the Kenan Auditorium Box Office (910/962-3500) and can be purchased one hour prior to the show. For additional information about this or any other event sponsored by the UNCW Department of Music, call the Music Events hotline at 910/962-7416 or visit the Web site www.uncw.edu/music.