Jazz Band makes jaunt to Texas music festival
Issue 14 - 04.13.06

Kelsey Creed, Laura Durham, and Meagan Martinson were the three big winners of the night, each taking home a trophy. Photo by Jessica Demel

More Jazz The Jazz Band will appear in concert Tuesday, April 25, at 7 p.m. in the Robert Brown Theatre. The Jazz Band will also play the Friday Nooners concert on Friday, April 28, at noon in the Galle-Johnson Theatre.

BY RHONDA ROSS
Staff Writer

On their tour of the Lone Star State March 30-31, members of the Cowley College Jazz Band played for almost 1,000 people – though not at one time.

The band had a whirlwind schedule playing three public schools and one university in two days.

Instrumental Music instructor Gary Gackstatter said the band tours for several reasons. The first is for recruitment purposes; another is to help area bands build their programs; and finally, a tour spreads the word about Cowley and its instrumental music program.

Gackstatter believes a college that offers a jazz band is attractive to prospective students. “The Jazz Band presents a very cool aspect of the music department,” he said.

The band attracted a large crowd for an outdoor concert on the Midwestern State University campus in Wichita Falls.

A Jazz Festival in Dallas was a real “eye-opener” for the students, Gackstatter said.
“It’s a three day festival of big bands, combos, and vocal groups,” he said. “The kids got to hear some of the finest college and professional jazz musicians in the world.”
Gackstatter said he was proud of his band.

“It’s not easy to do this kind of playing and traveling and pull it off like they did,” he said.

Gackstatter said that no musicians would currently exist if it wasn’t for the influence and inspiration of those who preceded them.

“We are all playing today because, at one time, we saw someone else playing and we thought to ourselves, ‘I’d like to do that,’ he said. “For my students to have that effect on other students and to be inspired like that themselves all in one trip… not bad.”