The Howard Payne University Jazz Ensemble will present a concert exclusively devoted to the music of the Swing Era on Monday, April 22, at 8:00 p.m. The concert will be held in Mims Auditorium on the HPU campus.

The Swing Era, which flourished from approximately 1935 until 1945, was the period of time when jazz was the most popular music in America. The Jazz Ensemble will present the original arrangements of Benny Goodman’s 1935 Down South Camp Meeting, Artie Shaw’s 1939 Begin the Beguine, Glenn Miller’s 1939 In the Mood and Moonlight Serenade, and Duke Ellington’s 1940 hits Cottontail and Rumpus in Richmond.

The Swing Era is so closely identified with the music to be presented at Monday’s concert that it is also referred to as “The Big Band Era.” The value of this music to Depression-era America and World War II America, as well as the irony of this music, will be presented live at Monday evening’s concert.

The HPU Jazz Ensemble is an 18-piece big band which received honors as Outstanding Collegiate Jazz Ensemble and several Outstanding Musician Awards at the Temple College Jazz Festival in 2007 and 2008. Four students in the band received Outstanding Musician Awards at the North Texas Jazz Festival in 2009. The Jazz Ensemble also performed for the opening ceremonies of the 2003 Texas Music Educators Association in San Antonio.

The Jazz Ensemble is directed by Stephen Goacher, professor of music, who performed during summer 2012 with the Temple Jazz Orchestra at the Montreux (Switzerland) Jazz Festival; Jazz a Vienne (France) Jazz Festival; America Appreciation Day at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland; and at the Riegen Jazz Club in Vienna, Austria. On April 5 and 6, Goacher played in concert with jazz great Eric Marienthal, considered to be one of the world’s top three jazz alto saxophonists. In his previous professional career, Goacher played big band music with the orchestras of Henry Mancini, Tommy Dorsey, Bob Hope, Rosemary Clooney, Lena Horne, Julie Andrews, Johnny Mathis and Andy Williams.

The concert Monday evening is free of charge and the public is cordially invited.

Pictured above is the Howard Payne University Jazz Ensemble.