As with the previous spring, the two UMKC Jazz Ensembles held back-to-back concerts in April 2005. This year, however, there was the added bonus of a Trombone Ensemble concert as well! We took a 3-day holiday to KC to catch all of the concerts, and we were definitely not disappointed!
(click on a thumbnail to see the full-size photo -- as is my practice, I limited the resolution of the photos to keep the download times reasonable -- as usual, let me know if you want a higher-resolution version of any photo)
April 17 - Trombone Ensemble, Directed by Dr. JoDee Davis.
April 18 - UMKC Jazz Ensemble, directed by Bobby Watson. The Latin Combo played a few numbers prior to the Ensemble. The fourth photo was taken during Geremy's solo (his first with Bobby's band, I believe).
April 19 - 11 O'Clock Jazz Band, directed by Paul McKee. A combo entitled "UMKC Jazz All-Stars" played prior to the Ensemble. The third and fourth photos were taken during Geremy's solo.
(Photos by Greg Grote. I used a f1.8 lens for the second and third concerts, which helped me take better-exposed photos but of course the down side was a very tight focusing distance so some of the shots are not well focused across the entire shot. Other than asking UMKC to turn up the lights, I'm not sure what else I could do to get decent shots.)