Experience meets youthful exuberance in this SMF original double bill! Bassist Rodney Whitaker is the Director of Jazz Studies at Michigan State University (MSU) and longtime clinician at SMF’s Swing Central Jazz (SCJ). Whitaker is the Artistic Director of this all-star seven-piece ensemble, all of whom are Professors of Jazz at MSU, including Etienne Charles (trumpet), Diego Rivera (tenor saxophone), Michael Dease (trombone), Randy Napoleon (guitar), Bruce Barth (piano) and Randy Gelispie (drums). The Professors of Jazz are all about swinging as they perform standards, jazz classics and original compositions.

 

Sharing this bill is acclaimed trumpeter and Georgia native Marcus Printup, a 25-year veteran of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. A gifted educator and performer who has been a regular clinician at SCJ, Printup brings together his new cadre of up-and-coming jazz musicians called Youngbloods, featuring the exciting young saxophonist Patrick Bartley, a former SCJ student who is making quite a name for himself.