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Jazz Fest 2009

Vincent Gardner, trombonist with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, will be the featured guest artist at Foxboro’s 28th Annual Jazz Fest on Friday, May 15th at 7:00 pm in the Foxboro High School Auditorium. The concert will showcase all of the jazz groups in the Foxboro music program: the Ahern Junior Jazz Band; the FHS Jazz Lab Band; the FHS Jazz Ensemble; the FHS Jazz Choir; and the FHS Small Jazz Choir. “Jazz Fest allows our jazz students to interact musically and personally with a professional guest artist, and to perform a wide range of jazz styles and traditions”, says Steve Massey, Director of Music for the Foxboro Public Schools. Given the excellence of the Foxboro music and jazz program, Jazz Fest also provides a wonderful opportunity for area residents to hear outstanding jazz, right in our backyard. Tickets for Jazz Fest are $10 for adults; $5 for students and seniors; children 12 and under are free when accompanied by an adult; $20 maximum per family.  They are available at the door or by e-mailing berrywild@verizon.net.  Proceeds from Jazz Fest support music scholarships and music enrichment activities for the Foxboro music program. 

A member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra since 2000, Gardner began his career in music at an early age, singing in church and playing piano when he was six.  He soon switched to the violin, saxophone, and French horn before finally deciding on the trombone at age 12. He became interested in jazz in high school, and then went on to Florida A & M University and the University of North Florida.  While in college, he took a summer job performing with a jazz band at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, where he caught the ear of Mercer Ellington, who hired him for his first professional job. After graduating in 1996, he moved to New York to pursue his professional career. Gardner has performed, toured, and/or recorded with The Duke Ellington Orchestra, Bobby McFerrin, The Count Basie Orchestra, Frank Foster, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Chaka Kahn, A Tribe Called Quest, Nancy Wilson, McCoy Tyner, Nicholas Payton, Illinois Jacquet, Wynton Marsalis, Tommy Flanagan, Marcus Roberts, Matchbox 20, Jimmy Heath, Lauryn Hill and others.

The Foxboro Jazz Program, under the direction of Steve Massey and George Murphy, continues to excel. The Foxboro High School Jazz Ensemble is one of the premier high school jazz bands in the New England region, consistently earning top place awards in both regional and national competitions, including their recent gold medals in the Massachusetts unit of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE).  The Jazz Ensemble was also one of only 15 high school jazz bands selected to compete at the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival at Lincoln Center in New York City on May 9th and 10th. 

Past guest artists in the jazz program have included Erica vonKleist, Ernie Watts, Alan Dawson, John Fedchock, Mike Monaghan, Jon Faddis, Jerry Bergonzi, Phil Wilson, Jeff Stout, Cecelia Smith, Andy MaGee, Dick Johnson, Grey Sargent, Ted Casher, Kim Richmond, Jeff Holmes, Clay Jenkins, Herb Pomeroy, Dave Pietro, Tiger Okoshi, Wycliffe Gordon, Bobby Shew, Victor Goines, Greg Hopkins and vocalists Candy Stout and Rebecca Parris.