Welcome to Music for Life, enhancing the Armstrong concert experience. I'm your host, Ryan Malone. In today's episode, we begin a three-part series where we play a concert presented in Armstrong Auditorium on February 2nd, 2021, featuring our very own jazz virtuoso and assistant music director here at Armstrong, Mark Jenkins. The concert featured a tribute to the late jazz legend Ellis Marsalis. To do this, Mr. Jenkins was accompanied by six incredible jazz musicians from right here in central Oklahoma.
In this particular episode, we will hear the first half of this fabulous concert, which was designed to introduce us to all the musicians on stage. So stick around as we hear songs like Take the A-Train, On the Street Where You Live, Summertime, Sweet Georgia Brown, and more today on Music for Life. Music for Life has been serving as a podcast to prepare our listeners for events happening in Armstrong Auditorium, but we're also pleased this season to be presenting broadcasts of these concerts after the fact for any who missed the concert. We recently had a stellar event featuring our very own Mark Jenkins, jazz virtuoso and our assistant music director here at Herbert W. Armstrong College. As I said in the episode leading up to that event, Mark Jenkins is one of the most versatile musicians I know, a classically trained pianist and vocalist who specializes in singing and playing both classical and jazz styles. He's been performing since very young, and I know because we actually grew up together and share some of the same pedigree, but he's really crafted an artistic voice for himself through the jazz medium. The program he offered on February 2nd, 2021, featured many of his...
own arrangements and transcriptions, even some of his work as a jazz composer. The program was also designed to be a tribute to the late Ellis Marsalis, which we'll get into in our next two episodes of this three-part series. Today, we'll hear the first half of the program, which was shorter than the second half, and it really didn't contain any of the Ellis Marsalis material, but its purpose was to give a peppering of different jazz standards designed to showcase the six other musicians on stage with Mr. Jenkins. He found a stellar bunch, and in that episode leading up to the concert...
in that episode of Music for Life. He told us at length about these musicians. And I just want to play that for you again before we begin the broadcast of the concert itself so you can hear him talk about who these musicians are. When I put a concert together, I ask myself, if I could play with absolutely anybody, who would I call? That's what we've got here. The best group of guys I could reach. All first choices on my list of people I would call.
First, we have Jay Wilkinson on trumpet. Jay is the coordinator of jazz studies at the University of Oklahoma. He was a graduate student when I was attending OU and doing free jazz classes on his own time even then. After we graduated, he went on to study in the renowned jazz program at North Texas. He played with me on a Clifford Brown tribute concert a few years ago, and he was simply amazing.
Next, we have Jamar Poteet on drums. I first called Jamar almost 10 years ago because he was recommended by everybody at the UCO Jazz Lab. Best call I ever made. Jamar recently relocated to California and was playing for Disneyland in Lion King and working as a musician before the shutdown. He's in Oklahoma until California gets itself moving again, so right now their loss is our gain. We also have Floyd Haynes on clarinet. When I met Floyd, he was playing a Dixieland arrangement I wrote for a recording session at Cornerstone. This was when Floyd played Dixieland music seven nights a week with the Civilized Tribe Dixieland band at a barbecue joint.
He also loves playing big band and toured with the Russ Morgan Orchestra and also Guy Lombardo's Royal Canadians for a few years. The Armstrong audience would have heard him last year with David B. Hooten, and I am very excited to have him back with us this year. Our bass player is Raul Reyes. Raul holds a bachelor's degree in bass performance from the University of Central Oklahoma and a master's degree in jazz performance from the University of North Texas, where he was a member of the seven-time Grammy-nominated One O'Clock Lab Band and appeared on their album Rhythm of the Road. He also found opportunities to perform with Jimmy Heath, John Beasley, Doc Severinsen, Billy Hart. In 2018, Raul was touring the United States as a member of saxophonist John Petruccieli's band.
On saxophone, we have Vince Norman. This is my first time playing with Vince, and I couldn't be more excited to do that. He's played concert tours in Europe, Japan, India, Mexico, Canada, all 50 states except for Alaska. He's performed with Arturo Sandoval, Clark Terry, Phil Woods, Butch Miles, Marvin Hamlisch, just tons of great jazz musicians, even the Four Freshmen, The Temptations, and Joan Rivers. He performed with the National Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, and with the Cincinnati Pops at several venues, including Carnegie Hall. So we're just very thrilled to have Vince Norman with us for this concert.
My friend Zach Lee will be playing trombone for us. He's the instructor of jazz composition, jazz arranging, and music technology at the University of Central Oklahoma. He is also the best jazz arranger I know. His compositions and arrangements have been featured in performances with Kenny Garrett, Delfeo Marsalis, Tony Monaco, Jeremy Thomas, and he's played with the Count Basie Orchestra, Donnie McCaslin, The Temptations, The Four Tops, and just about everyone I know in Oklahoma City. So that was Mark Jenkins himself talking about the musicians he'd selected for this jazz concert that we had at Armstrong Auditorium on February 2nd, 2021. Though billed as a tribute to Ellis Marsalis, Mr. Jenkins used the shorter first half to feature the various musicians on the stage. So let's start to hear that program now. I'll play several songs uninterrupted, and you'll hear Mr. Jenkins' comments.
from that night as he introduces each song. This segment will begin with the Duke Ellington classic, Take the A-Train, followed by Irving Berlin's 1932 hit, How Deep Is the Ocean? Then an original composition of Mr. Jenkins called The Next Day, and an inventive duo for string bass and voice. And that was an arrangement of Mark Jenkins as well, of the My Fair Lady number on the street where you live. It's great to see everybody out here tonight. Great to have all of you out there streaming this on the internet. This is the band tonight. I'll introduce all of these guys individually as we go. I think we heard just about everybody there except for one guy. We'll have to get him up.
So that was Take the A Train by Duke Ellington with Clifford Brown, an introduction that I like to do. This next number is How Deep is the Ocean? Just so you guys know, the Ellis Marsalis tribute, I'm going to do that in the back half. I wanted to use the first half to introduce everybody, so we'll get through the first half a little bit quicker than the second half. So we'll go ahead and do How Deep is the Ocean with a solo on trombone from Zach Lee. Zach Lee on trombone. All right, we have a couple of great saxophone players with us this evening. This next song is going to feature Mr. Vince Norman. This is something I wrote called The Next Day.
We'll get a couple of rhythm section solos in here too. Mr. Vince Norman on tenor saxophone. We've been sending this part back in four or three days. That's an alto saxophone, I know this. Mr. Jamar Poteet on drums. And this next number is something I put together to feature our bass player, Mr. Raul Rias. This is my version of On the Street Where You Live. Raul Rias on bass.
You are listening to Music for Life. I'm your host, Ryan Malone. This is KPCG. In today's episode, we are playing a concert presented in Armstrong Auditorium on February 2nd, 2021. This concert featured our very own Mark Jenkins, along with six other great Oklahoma-based jazz musicians presenting a tribute to the late Ellis Marsalis. And this is the first in a three-part series where we are playing this concert in its entirety. We're listening to the first half of the program in this episode, the half of the program that wasn't intended to feature the tribute to Ellis Marsalis specifically. It was designed to introduce the audience to the musicians on this concert.
We just heard the first four songs, Take the A-Train, How Deep is the Ocean, The Next Day by Mark Jenkins, and we just heard his arrangement of On the Street Where You Live, featuring just vocals and string bass. Coming up, we'll hear the next two songs on the program. The second of these is called Joy Spring, intended to feature the brass players on stage, particularly Jay Wilkinson, trumpeter. Joy Spring was a signature work of the legendary trumpet player Clifford Brown, written in 1954. But before we hear Joy Spring, we're going to hear an absolutely famous George Gershwin tune. It was originally written as a soprano aria in his 1935 opera Porgy and Bess, but it has since been arranged, rearranged, and covered by a variety of singers and instrumentalists over the years. This is, well, I'll just let Mr. Jenkins introduce it.
I recently found myself looking at conflicting stats about what the most recorded song of all time is. I've decided it's this one.
A great trombone solo from Mr. Zach Lee. This next number is a Clifford Brown tune called Joy Spring. It'll feature both of our brass players, our trumpet player Mr. Jay Wilkinson and Zach again.
You are listening to Music for Life. I'm your host, Ryan Malone. This is KPCG. In today's episode, we've been hearing a concert presented in Armstrong Auditorium on February 2nd, 2021. This concert featured our very own Mark Jenkins, along with six other great Oklahoma-based jazz musicians presenting a tribute to the late Ellis Marsalis. More information about upcoming concerts can be found at armstrongauditorium.org and through any of the auditorium's social media accounts.
We just heard two numbers from the first half, the Gershwin hit, Summertime, and the Clifford Brown tune, Joy Spring. We'll conclude today's episode by hearing the final number on the first half, Sweet Georgia Brown. Before we do that, be sure to tune in to our next two episodes for even more programming specifically related to the Ellis Marsalis tribute as we continue this three-part series. In those episodes, we will feature songs like Linus and Lucy, Stardust, Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans, The Very Thought of You, and much, much more. So you'll want to tune in for those. All right, so again, let's close out today's episode with the number that concluded the first half of the Mark Jenkins concert here at Armstrong on February 2nd, 2021. This is the 1925 jazz standard made even more famous 27 years later when it was adopted as the Harlem Globetrotters theme song, Sweet Georgia Brown. I hope you enjoy. All right, so we've heard from just about everybody. We have a feature from one more of our players over here, and that is our clarinetist, Mr. Floyd Haynes. You guys may remember him from David B. Hooten's concert last year. He's a phenomenal clarinet playing on that concert.
So this is for all you clarinet fans and all you Harlem Globetrotter fans. You have been listening to Music for Life, a production of KPCG 101.3 on the FM dial in Edmond, Oklahoma. From the Herbert W. Armstrong College campus, I'm Ryan Malone. Thanks for joining me.