PORT TOWNSEND — Big band music returns to Fort Worden State Park this Saturday as celebrated bandleader George Stone presents Centrum’s Big Band Intensive musicians in a free, public concert.
Show time is 7:30 p.m. in the Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden, 200 Battery Way, for a concert that will roam around Stone’s catalog, from tunes such as “Call Me Irresponsible” and “Close Enough for Love” to “Buckethead Shuffle” and “May I Have This Dance.”
“There’s really nothing like the excitement of a big band,” said Gregg Miller, jazz programs manager for Centrum.
“When 17 players get together, especially when they’re led by someone like George Stone, they can play anywhere from a whisper to a roar and everything in between.”
Saturday’s concert is the crescendo of a three-day big band workshop in which Stone led jazz players from around the Northwest. The band will perform a full program of Stone’s compositions and arrangements, which include “The Good Life,” “D-Bop” and “The New Generation.”
“There’s a good reason why the best writers and arrangers are invariably drawn to writing for big band, and George is one of the best,” said Miller. Stone’s arrangements are what jazz musicians call “tasty,” he added.
Stone has enjoyed a 25-year career composing for Disney, HBO and other television networks, teaching and performing with artists such as Maynard Ferguson, Dave Grusin, the American Jazz Philharmonic and the Tonight Show Orchestra with Doc Severinsen. He now teaches music theory and composition and audio technology at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
For details about Saturday’s concert, phone Centrum at 360-385-3102 or see centrum.org.
