TONIGHT UNO PRESENTS FINAL SPRING JAZZ AT THE SANDBAR CONCERT
Jazz Guitarist, Composer Mike Moreno Headlines with UNO Guitar Ensembles

Rising star guitarist and composer Mike Moreno headlines this spring’s final Jazz at the Sandbar concert at the Cove on UNO’s Lakefront Campus on Tuesday, May 1^st

JAZZ @ the SANDBAR
Spring Series 2012 all Tuesdays at 7 pm
All students, UNO community free with ID, general public $5
At the Cove, Founders Road, UNO Lakefront Campus

“Jazz at the Sandbar” Returns to Cove March 6
Brazilian Trumpeter Claudio Roditi Joins UNO Students on New Stage

21-year-old program moves to Tuesday nights

“Jazz at the Sandbar,” UNO’s unique, critically acclaimed jazz performance series, returns home to the newly-renovated Cove Student Center on Tuesday, March 6.  Brazilian trumpeter Claudio Roditi will appear along with UNO Jazz Studies students.  Performance begins at 7 pm; admission is $5 for the general public and free to the UNO community.

In addition to the new building and stage, “Jazz at the Sandbar” is moving to a new night—now on Tuesdays.  The Spring 2012 series runs March 6 – May 2.

A “Jazz at the Sandbar” pair UNO student ensembles on the bandstand with established jazz professionals, and makes a long-awaited return to The Cove with the Spring 2012 season. Originally built in 1973 as a student food and recreation center, the Cove quickly became the center of campus life. In 1990, UNO jazz studies Chairman Ellis Marsalis turned The Sandbar into a living laboratory where UNO students performed with national and international jazz artists. The Cove was badly damaged during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and had to be completely gutted and rebuilt. At long last, the grand opening took place on Friday December 2nd, and it reunited students, faculty and community members with a big celebration.

Grammy nominee Claudio Roditi will join UNO students to inaugurate the series and the stage. After arriving in the United States in 1970, Claudio began to study at Berklee School of Music, where he became musically influenced by Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan. In 1976 he moved to New York and began to establish himself as a formidable jazz figure. Currently he leads his own band and frequently travels as a member of Dizzy Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra. He earned a Grammy Award nomination in 1995 for his "Symphonic Bossa Nova”, and another in 2010 as Best Latin Jazz Album for “Brazilliance.”

 “Jazz at the Sandbar” is presented by the UNO Jazz Studies Program with support from the UNO Student Government Association, WWNO Public Radio, Nate & Priscilla Gordon, The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the UNO International Alumni Association and the New Orleans Jazz Celebration.

All proceeds go to the George Brumat Memorial Scholarship Fund. For more information, call the UNO Music Department at (504) 280-6039 or visit http://www.nojc.org/sandbar

Fall 2011

UNO’s Jazz at the Sandbar series, implemented by Ellis Marsalis in 1990, provides Jazz Studies students with an opportunity to get real life experience performing with professional musicians in front of a live audience.
The Sandbar experience teaches professional etiquette, how to prepare for performances, and to communicate with the audience and with fellow musicians on the band stand. It gives students a real-life environment to exercise improvisational skills as well as the rare opportunity to perform with leading masters of jazz. Students also gain a much wider range of musical perspectives via one-on-one and small group coaching from the visiting professionals

Now in its 3rd decade, Jazz at the Sandbar has become a New Orleans institution and is a leading contributor to UNO’s standing as an internationally-recognized jazz education program. Recent artists include Ellis Marsalis, Larry Coryell, Nicholas Payton, Herlin Riley, Brice Winston, Randy Brecker, Peter Bernstein and Henry Butler.

No other school offers such a program. Indeed, the opportunities provided by the Jazz at the Sandbar experience are repeatedly cited by students and the press as a major advantage of our Jazz Studies program and one that makes us unique among such peers as Berklee, Eastman, and Julliard.