From Swing to Fusion With AM Jazz Band


The AM Jazz Band of HSU runs the jazz standard gamut from the tune that launched the Swing Era to a jazz fusion classic, in concert at the Fulkerson Recital Hall on Thursday, May 5.

“It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” was written by Duke Ellington during show intermissions in Chicago. When Ellington’s band performed it in 1931, it was the first song to use the word “swing” in the title. Now a classic, it helped launch over a decade of swing music, through the Great Depression and World War II, often performed by bands about the size of the AM Band.

Chick Corea’s “Spain” from 1971 helped launch the young jazz fusion movement to its decades-long dominance. It remains one of Corea’s best-known tunes, which he recorded several times with ensembles of various sizes.

Also on the AM Band program are “Solar” (made famous by Miles Davis) “Pent-Up House” by Sonny Rollins, and Frank Foster’s “Blues in Frankie’s Flat,” written for the Count Basie Band. The concert finale is Duke Ellington’s jam session standard, “C Jam Blues” in an arrangement created by the AM Jazz Band in rehearsal.

The AM Jazz Band performs on Thursday May 5 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. Directed by Dan Aldag, produced by HSU Music Department.

Media: Humboldt State Now, Arcata Eye