35th Annual ASU Jazz Festival returns to the VCC

VICKSBURG, Miss. - March 20, 2015 - PRLog -- The Vicksburg Convention Center  is proud to host the   35^th Annual Alcorn State University (ASU) Jazz Festival.  The festival will be held on Saturday, April 18, 2015.  The times for the performances are scheduled for 9:00 am-3:30 pm, High School and University Jazz Ensembles; 4:00 pm-5:00 pm, Ron Carter Workshop; 7:00 pm-7:45 pm, Mississippi Jazz Educators; 8:00 pm-9:30 pm, Ron Carter and the “Golden Striker” Trio in Concert.  All events are free and open to the public.

For three decades the Department of Fine Arts at Alcorn State University, with funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, the Southern Arts Federation and the National Endowment for the Arts, has sponsored what has become Mississippi's longest-running and most prestigious jazz festival. The day-long festival features performances by some of the most outstanding professional jazz musicians and university, college and secondary school jazz ensembles from throughout the United States. Highlights of the festival are the afternoon workshops and evening concerts by some of the world's greatest jazz artists.

Ron Carter is among the most original, prolific, and  influential bassists in jazz.  With more than 2,000 albums to his credit, he has recorded with many of music's greats: Tommy Flanagan, Gil Evans, Lena Horne, Bill Evans, B.B. King, the Kronos Quartet, Dexter Gordon, Wes Montgomery, and Bobby Timmons.  In the early 1960s he performed throughout the United States in concert halls and nightclubs with Jaki Byard and Eric Dolphy.  He later toured Europe with Cannonball Adderley. From 1963 to 1968, he was a member of the classic and acclaimed Miles Davis Quintet.  He was named Outstanding Bassist of the Decade by the Detroit News, Jazz Bassist of the Year by Downbeat magazine, and Most Valuable Player by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.  In 1993 Ron Carter earned a Grammy award for Best Jazz Instrumental Group, the Miles Davis Tribute Band and another Grammy in 1998 for Call 'Sheet Blues', an instrumental composition from the film 'Round Midnight.