Jazz greats will rock Scottsdale
by Jim Crawford

SCOTTSDALE – Two luminaries of the jazz music community are set to take the stage in a much‑anticipated performance in one of the final events of the 2007 Arizona Musicfest.

Trumpet virtuoso Byron Stripling and jazz trombonist Wycliffe Gordon will join a crack team of musicians to rock the house during “The Music of New Orleans, with a Tribute to Louis Armstrong” concert beginning at 7:30 p.m., March 2, in the Scottsdale First Assembly Dream Center.

Carefree resident Buzz Katzen is a Musicfest volunteer who works closely with artistic director Robert Moody to present exceptional performances from world‑class jazz musicians.

Moody suggested Stripling, who has soloed with with orchestras such as the Boston Pops, Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony and The American Jazz Philharmonic.

Stripling regularly records and tours with the Lincoln Center Classical Jazz Orchestra led by jazz great Wynton Marsalis. As a recording artist Stripling has performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton, Clark Terry, Louis Bellson and Buck Clayton.

“Byron Stripling is a big, good‑looking man who can blow the roof off a house,” Katzen says. “One of the five best trumpets in the country.”

A faculty member of The Juilliard School, Gordon has soloed extensively and tours with the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet, having been a member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Gully Low Jazz Band. He has appeared on the PBS documentaries, “Swing with the Duke” and Ken Burns’ “Jazz.”

It’s a match made in jazz heaven, giving two jazz superstars the opportunity to perform together, Katzen says. With a can’t‑miss concert brewing, Katzen assembled one of the best jazz ensembles anywhere.

Pianist Derek Smith, an alumnus of Doc Severinsen’s “Tonight Show” orchestra, will handle keyboard duties; Columbus Jazz Orchestra’s Bob Breithaupt the drums; Phoenix’s “first call” bassist Dwight Kilian; and Benny Goodman devotee Dan Levinson will round out the group on clarinet.