Tickets are now available for the fourth annual Bob James Jazz Festival.

Separate tickets for each concert of the two-night event may be purchased at The Marshall Democrat-News office, Square Corner and Vox Box, or online at bobjamesjazzfest.org/tickets/2014.

Bob James Jazz Festival will be held Friday and Saturday evenings, May 16-17. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. the first night at Eckilson-Mabee Theatre on the Missouri Valley College campus. Saturday, the concert kicks off at 6 p.m. at Bueker Middle School’s Harold L. Lickey Auditorium, and doors will open at 5:30 p.m.

Tickets for each night are sold individually: $20 for the Friday night concert and $25 for Saturday.

The first night performance lineup includes area favorite Sedville Jazz Company, followed by Metropolitan Jazz Workshop.

Sedville is a Bob James Jazz Festival veteran group, founded by saxophonist Bill Decker and featuring Marshall’s Charles Ferguson on bass.

MJW is part of Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley Music Department, which preserves and promotes Kansas City’s jazz heritage by providing students with an opportunity to study, learn and perform jazz. The Workshop is coordinated by Clarence Smith, a former Marshall resident and teacher, who also leads the Bob James Jazz Festival Clinic.

According to mcckc.edu, the MJW “program adds an important educational piece to complement student performances.” The Workshop is partnered with American Jazz Museum.

Saturday night, the concert begins with the “All-Stars” of the Bob James Jazz Festival Clinic. Music students of all ages participate in the Clinic and have the opportunity to open the Saturday night Bob James Jazz Festival.

Salty Dawg’s COLD SWEAT then takes the stage to add an R&B feel to the jazz concert. Gary Coble, a.k.a. Salty Dawg, is a Marshall-native who now leads the Kansas City-area music group COLD SWEAT, who provide “amazing, unique arraignments accentuated by Exceptional Slide Guitar, Soulful Sax and a Rhythm Section to die for,” according to saltydawgscoldsweat.com.

Headlining the 2014 Bob James Jazz Festival are the Sons of Brasil, a Latin jazz ensemble assembled by trumpeter Stan Kessler.

Based in Kansas City, the award-winning Sons of Brasil have performed every week since their inception in 1991, says thesonsofbrasil.com. A Berman Music Foundation review of the band states Sons of Brasil have a reputation “firmly established in the world of Latin jazz and, in particular, those subgenres of Brazilian samba, bossa nova and choro.”

Kessler has been a major figure on the jazz scene in Kansas City for many years and was voted “outstanding overall musician,” by JAM magazine, the publication of the Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors. Sons of Brasil also features guitarist Danny Embrey, another returning musician to the Bob James Jazz Festival, who also plays with the D.J. Sweeney Quartet.

Audience members can expect a festival finale appearance by Marshall-native and jazz legend Bob James, performing a few select pieces from his repertoire.

More information is available at bobjamesjazzfest.org, or by contacting Jazz Festival Co-Chairman Jacob Hatfield at shamrock.j.isaiah@gmail.com.

The Bob James Jazz Festival is a project of Marshall Cultural Council, partnered in 2014 with KJLU 88.9 radio from Lincoln University in Jefferson City.

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