Josh Hawkins / UNLV Creative Services
The UNLV Jazz Ensemble 1 big band tied for first place in 2017 at the Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival. It will compete again this year in the festival’s College Big Band Division.
Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018 | 2 a.m.
Last year, UNLV’s Jazz Studies program won bragging rights for life when its Jazz Ensemble 1 big band tied for first place in the highly regarded Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival. This year, it’ll get another chance to come out on top.
The mighty Jazz Ensemble 1 will compete once again in the festival’s College Big Band Division, which features six university bands.
Also joining the student-musician fest this year: UNLV’s Honors Trio, which will compete — also against five other bands — in the College Combo Division.
Both will be joined by Jazz Studies director and professor Dave Loeb, and Jazz Studies professors Nathan Tanouye and Adam Schroeder.
Prior success in the festival doesn't guarantee placement in the future, Loeb said. “Each year is different because the group or ensemble earned the invitation through a blind audition process. The ensemble or combo submit a recording that is on an unmarked MP3, so they are judged completely on the recording that has to fit into very rigid criteria," he said.
To sweeten the Las Vegas showing at the festival, which takes place March 9-11 in Monterey, Calif., the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts Jazz Band has been chosen to compete against 12 other bands in the High School Big Band Division. LVA’s band will be led by Patrick Bowen.
Jazz Ensemble 1’s victory last April earned the band a performance slot at the main Monterey Jazz Festival in September, where it joined a lineup topped by jazz luminaries Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Dee Dee Bridgewater.
