Jazz Festival

2024 TCU Jazz Festival

The TCU School of Music and Department of Jazz Studies is proud to announce this year’s festival guest artist is Sean Jones. Please join us the weekend of March 22-23 for the TCU Jazz Festival 2024!

Music and spirituality have always been intertwined in the artistic vision of trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator, and activist Sean Jones. Mr. Jones sang and performed as a child with the church choir in his hometown of Warren, Ohio, and switched from playing the drums to the trumpet at the age of 10.

Mr. Jones is a musical chameleon, comfortable in any musical setting no matter the role or genre. After a six-month stint with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis offered him a permanent position as lead trumpeter of the ensemble, a post he held from 2004 until 2010. In 2015, Mr. Jones was tapped to become a member of the SFJAZZ Collective. During this time, he has managed to keep a core group of talented musicians together under his leadership, forming the foundation for groups that have produced and released eight recordings on Mack Avenue Records. His most recent is the 2017 release Sean Jones: Live from Jazz at the Bistro.

Mr. Jones has been prominently featured in recordings and performances with many major figures in jazz, including Illinois Jacquet, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Gerald Wilson, and Marcus Miller. He was selected by Mr. Miller, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter for their A Tribute to Miles tour in 2011. He has also performed with the Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Youngstown symphony orchestras, as well as Soulful Symphony in Baltimore and a chamber group at the Salt Bay Chamberfest.

Mr. Jones is an internationally recognized educator. He is president of the Jazz Education Network and holds the Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair in Jazz Studies at The John Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute in Baltimore. As well as artistic Director for the NYO JAZZ Program of Carnegie Hall. Previously, he served as chair of the Brass department at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Learn more about Sean Jones.

On Friday, March 22, the TCU Jazz Ensembles and Mr. Jones will have a dress rehearsal that is free and open to the public (7:30PM). On Saturday, March 23, Mr. Jones will perform with the TCU Jazz Ensembles at 7:30PM-tickets are $10/$5/Free with TCU ID. Both events are in Ed Landreth Auditorium.

Festival Concert Tickets
Click Here to Purchase Tickets

Ensemble Participant Registration

Ensemble Registration for 2024 is Full – please join us next spring in 2025!

2024 TCU Jazz Festival Schedule

Middle Schools and 5A Bands

PepsiCo Recital Hall (Warm-up room Walsh 104)

Schedule will be updated in 2024

 

4A and 6A Bands

Ed Landreth Auditorium (Warm up room Walsh 203)

Schedule will be updated in 2024

 

Celebrating over 40 years of TCU Jazz

The annual TCU Jazz Festival has become one of the most prestigious festivals in the state, connecting high school and middle school jazz ensembles with guest artists and TCU’s jazz faculty. Since its inception in 1978, the event has attracted more than 20,000 talented high school players. In addition, bands have attended the TCU Jazz Festival from as far away as Oklahoma, Tennessee, Iowa, and Hawaii.

The TCU Jazz Ensembles have appeared in concert with such notable international jazz artists as Duffy Jackson, John Fedchock, Joey DeFrancesco, Paquito D’Rivera, Peter Erskine, Randy Brecker, Hank Levy, Don Menza, Urbie Green, Mike Vax, Ed Shaughnessy, Pete Christlieb, Ashley Alexander, Frank Mantooth, Roger Pemberton, Roy Hargrove, Willie Thomas, Carl Fontana, Jon Faddis, Shelton Berg, Rich Matteson, Leon Breeden, Patrick Williams, Marvin Stamm, Onzie Matthews, Louis Bellson, Clark Terry, Terry Bozzio, Will Calhoun, Dom Famulara, Chester Thompson, Tony Campisi, Peanuts Hucko, the Hal Galper Trio, Chris Vadala, Conte Candoli, Vince DiMartino, Bill Watrous, Dave Pietro, Allen Vizzutti, Carl Saunders, Wayne Bergeron, Andy Martin, Joe Eckert, SMSGT Joe Jackson, The Four Freshmen, Howard Johnson, Morris Repass, Mario Cruz and Alex Iles.

 

For further information, contact:
Allen Cordingley
Director of Jazz Studies
817-257-5576
a.cordingley@tcu.edu
817-257-5576