NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

4/10/2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES -The Third Annual Northwestern Jazz Festival will be held at NSU on Friday, April 21.

Middle school, high school and community college jazz bands from throughout Louisiana and Texas will perform throughout the day.

At 7:30 p.m., the University Jazz Orchestra, directed by Galindo Rodriguez, will perform in Magale Recital Hall. Featured artist for the concert will be tenor saxophonist Mike Tomaro, director of jazz studies at Duquesne University.

Tomaro, a noted performer and composer, has played with many of the biggest names in jazz.

Jazz bands performing on Friday morning are Parkway High, Haughton High, Byrd High, the NSU Jazz Combo and Catholic High. The Shreveport All-City Jazz Ensemble will perform during the lunch break.

In the afternoon, the Baton Rouge Honor Jazz Band will perform along with jazz bands from Tyler Junior College, Dutchtown High, Mandeville High and Archbishop Rummel.

The University Jazz Orchestra will perform Wind Machine by Sammy Nestico, Splanky by Neil Hefty and A Little Minor Booze by Willie Maiden. The orchestra will also perform several Tomaro compositions and arrangements including Tomaro's arrangement of Speak Low by Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash, In a Sentimental Mood by Ellington, Kurts and Mills arranged by Tomaro and Sugar by Stanley Turrentine and arranged by Tomaro.

Also on the program are 3 a.m. Lonely City from the second movement of the Nightowl Suite composed and arranged by Tomaro and 6 a.m. The City Awakes, the Nightowl Sleeps, from the third movement of the Nightowl Suite composed and arranged by Tomaro.

Tomaro has been the Director of Jazz Studies at Duquesne University since 1997. Prior to his appointment at Duquesne, he lived in the Washington, D.C. area for 17 years as a member of the Army Blues Jazz Ensemble, a unit of the prestigious "Pershing's Own" U.S. Army Band. While a member of this group, he served as its Enlisted Musical Director and performed for Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton as well as heads of state from around the world. He also composed and/or arranged much of the Army Blues repertoire and was featured as a soloist on several of the group's albums and CDs.

Tomaro has four nationally released recordings under his own name that showcase his talents as both performer and writer - Forgotten Dreams (Seabreeze Jazz), Dancing Eyes (Seabreeze Jazz), and Home Again (Positive Music). His latest CD, Nightowl Suite was released in March 2005 on the Seabreeze Jazz label.

As a composer and arranger, Tomaro's music has been performed by the likes of jazz greats Nancy Wilson, Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, Ernie Watts, Bobby Shew, Claudio Roditi, New York Voices, Al Vizzutti, and many more, as well as high schools, colleges and universities around the world.

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