Dr. John

 The Mississippi River bends in a crescent shape as it makes its way around and through New Orleans, giving rise to one of the city’s nicknames. This year, the Crescent City will be honored as the birthplace of jazz at the Carolina Jazz Festival, Feb. 24-28 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Taking the theme “Crescent City Connections,” the festival will offer eight performances, three educational events and two late-night jam sessions at Chapel Hill’s West End Wine Bar. Many of the sessions will be free to the public. New Orleans musicians will perform; works by the city’s jazz composers will fill the air. In a sold-out opening concert, New Orleans’ the Neville Brothers and Dr. John will rock Memorial Hall on Fat Tuesday, Feb. 24. Tickets remain for the second marquee concert, by the Branford Marsalis Trio on Feb. 27. The 8 p.m. show in Memorial will feature the New Orleans native and three-time Grammy winner, a saxophonist, composer and bandleader. These two concerts also are part of this year’s Carolina Performing Arts season.

Events between the two will include a one-day festival featuring high school jazz bands from across the state; UNC jazz band and jazz combos concerts with artists in residence for the festival, saxophonist Joel Frahm and trumpeter Joe Magnarelli; a clinic with the two to which anyone may bring his or her horn and learn from the pros; and a performance by the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra.

UNC music professor Jim Ketch, director of the festival and of jazz studies at UNC, said it will mean the world to budding young musicians to mingle with the likes of Frahm and Magnarelli.

 “It’s a real source of pride for our students to have these artists here on campus for four days,” Ketch said. “To rub shoulders with these artists and gain feedback from our shared performances will be wonderful.”

Besides teaching about creating jazz and mastering instruments, the musicians will speak with the students about the lifestyles of professional musicians.

Soon after the festival, another Crescent City Connection will surface for UNC. March 7-14, during Carolina’s spring break, 20 members of the UNC Jazz Band will volunteer for Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans. They’ll join rebuilding efforts that have been under way since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the city in 2005.

“We hope to be assigned to the Ninth Ward, where the New Orleans Habitat Musician’s Village is being built,” Ketch said. The development of 70 houses, which recognizes that numerous musicians lost their homes in the disaster, was started by city natives and musicians Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis. For more information, visit www.nolamusiciansvillage.com.

The UNC band aims to work for Habitat during the day and play concerts at night, Ketch said. So far, they have four bookings and several other possibilities. They will stay with other volunteers at Camp Hope, a converted middle school that acts as a kind of dormitory for visitors who come to help rebuild the city. “Our last night there, we will play a concert/dance for all those volunteers,” Ketch said.

Their songs will echo those heard in clubs around the French Quarter some 100 years ago, as strains of French, Spanish, Caribbean and African-American music began to blend together to produce something new.

“It was sort of this perfect gumbo that had elements of blues, ragtime, brass band and other traditions that were distilled in the first two decades of the 20th century and became a music known as jazz,” Ketch said.

Listen for the spirit of New Orleans natives Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet and other jazz pioneers and innovators throughout the 2009 Carolina Jazz Fesitval at UNC. For more information, call (919) 962-1039.

The schedule for the 2009 Carolina Jazz Festival, Feb. 24 to Feb. 28 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, follows.

Feb. 24
The Neville Brothers with Dr. John, 7:30 p.m., Memorial Hall. Sold out. Grammy-winning New Orleans artists The Neville Brothers and Dr. John blend blues, funk and other musical styles in a Fat Tuesday concert. For more information, call Carolina Performing Arts at (919) 843-7776 or visit http://www.carolinaperformingarts.org.

Feb. 25
Meet the Artists: Jazz Jam, 4 p.m., Hill Hall Auditorium. Free. Festival artists in residence Joe Magnarelli, trumpet; and Joel Frahm, saxophone, join UNC music department faculty members James Ketch, trumpet; Stephen Anderson, piano; and Thomas Taylor, drums, and music faculty member Steve Haines of UNC-Greensboro on bass, in a jam session.

Feb. 26
Essentially Ellington Regional High School Jazz Festival at UNC-Chapel Hill, in conjunction with Jazz at Lincoln Center, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Free. Frank Porter Graham Student Union Great Hall and Cabaret. Jazz bands and combos from high schools perform and take clinics with professional jazz musicians. The UNC Jazz Band will perform at approximately 3:30 p.m. in the Great Hall. For more information, visit http://www.jalc.org/jazzED/ee/f_regionals.html.

Feb. 26
“The Jazz Sound!” concert, 7:30 p.m., Memorial Hall. The North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra and 2009 festival artists in residence Joe Magnarelli and Joel Frahm perform compositions by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and other jazz greats. For tickets – $15 to $20 for the public, $12 to $15 for seniors, $10 for UNC faculty, staff and students – call the Memorial Hall Box Office at (919) 843-3333 or visit www.carolinaperformingarts.org.

Feb. 27
UNC Jazz Combos, 4 p.m., 107 Hill Hall. Free.The UNC Jazz Combos, directed by Stephen Anderson and Ed Paolantonio, perform with festival artists in residence Joe Magnarelli and Joel Frahm.

Feb. 27
The Branford Marsalis Trio, 8 p.m., Memorial Hall. Three-time Grammy Winner Branford Marsalis showcases his skills as a saxophonist, composer and bandleader in a performance with his ensemble. For tickets – $40 to $75 for the public, $10 for UNC students – call the Memorial Hall Box Office at (919) 843-3333 or visit www.carolinaperformingarts.org.

Feb. 27
Jazz After Hours Jam Session, 11 p.m. Free. West End Wine Bar, 450 West Franklin St. Festival artists perform.

Feb. 28
Guest Artist Clinics, 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Kenan Music Building Rehearsal Room. Free and open to the public for participation or observation. Festival artists in residence Joe Magnarelli, trumpet; and Joel Frahm, saxophone lead clinics from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., then share in conversation.

Feb. 28
UNC Jazz Band, festival artists in residence, concert, 8 p.m. Memorial Hall. The 20-member band, directed by music professor and festival director James Ketch, performs with festival artists in residence Joe Magnarelli, trumpet; and Joel Frahm, saxophone. Part of the music department’s Music on the Hill Series. For tickets – $15 for the public, $10 for UNC faculty, staff and students – call the Memorial Hall Box Office at (919) 843-3333 or visit www.carolinaperformingarts.org.

Feb. 28
Jazz After Hours Jam Session, 11 p.m., West End Wine Bar, 450 West Franklin St. Free. Festival artists perform.

For more information, call (919) 962-7560 or (919) 962-1039 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or visit: http://music.unc.edu/calendars/jazz-festival

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