"Things About Spring" Performed by Jazz Ensemble
KEENE, N.H. 3/9/06 - The Keene State College Jazz Ensemble, directed by KSC artist-in-residence Don Baldini, will perform an evening of songs about springtime on Wednesday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Theatre of the Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond. Tickets are $7 for the general public and $5 for KSC students, senior citizens, and youth age 17 or younger. Call the box office at 603-358-2168.
“Things About Spring” will feature many popular, seasonally appropriate pieces, including It Might As Well Be Spring, Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most, Cotton Tail, Ornithology, and Feels So Good. Drummer Greg Caputo will join the KSC Jazz Ensemble on stage, and Walpole School music director Walt Sayre returns to solo on trombone.
Caputo is a freelance drummer who specializes in “versatility within ‘traditional’ drumming styles,” according to Modern Drummer Magazine. He is a graduate of the Hartford Conservatory of Music Jazz and Pop Program and was a faculty member for the 2001 and 2003 Jazz in July summer music program at Mount Holyoke College. His professional credits include drumming for the Gene Krupa Big Band, Les Brown Big Band, Count Basie Big Band, Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Harry James Big Band, Sammy Kaye Orchestra, Benny Goodman Big Band, Artie Shaw Orchestra, and Nelson Riddle Orchestra.
Sayre has been the music director at the Walpole School for 15 years and the organist/choir director of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Walpole for 11 years. He has been featured on piano, organ, trumpet, trombone, and voice. He has performed with Urbie Green, Lionel Hampton, Clark Terry, Woody Herman, Sy Oliver, the Raylynmor Opera, and the Royal Academy of Dance.
In addition to conducting the KSC Jazz Ensemble, Baldini directs the KSC Chamber Orchestra. He came to Keene State after a professional career as a studio musician in Los Angeles. He appeared for 13 years with the “Tonight Show” Orchestra and toured with Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, Peggy Lee, and the Harry James and Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabakin bands. He can be heard on the soundtracks of “The Little Mermaid” and “St. Elsewhere” and broadcasts at Disney World and the Epcot Center. He currently performs with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Dartmouth Symphony, Opera North, the Keene Chamber Orchestra, and several local chamber music and jazz groups. With the Cincinnati Symphony, Baldini recently recorded the music of Nelson Riddle for a CD released on the Telarc label.
