Jazz Per­for­mance Begins UW Cul­tural Pro­grams Fall 2010 Con­cert Series

Sept. 3, 2010 — Uni­ver­sity of Wyoming — Jazz musi­cian Cyrus Chest­nut will start the Uni­ver­sity of Wyoming Cul­tural Pro­grams fall con­cert series at 7:30 p.m. Fri­day, Sept. 10, in the Fine Arts Cen­ter con­cert hall.

Tick­ets cost $22 for the pub­lic and $18 for stu­dents and senior cit­i­zens. Tick­ets can be pur­chased online at www.uwyo.edu/finearts or call (307) 766‑6666. Tick­ets are also avail­able at the Wyoming Union infor­ma­tion desk and Fine Arts box office. The Fine Arts box office hours are Mon­day through Fri­day, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., and one hour before each sched­uled performance.

Accord­ing to the New York Times, “His brand of crisp artic­u­la­tion and blues-inflected har­mony evokes another era … mul­ti­fac­eted and dynamic.” Play­ing a funky brand of jazz that blends blues, R&B and even rock and roll, he has a CD devoted entirely to Elvis hits.

Chest­nut began his career as a gospel pianist for the Mount Cal­vary Star Bap­tist Church in Bal­ti­more begin­ning at the age of six. After grad­u­at­ing from the Peabody Insti­tute, which he entered at the age of nine, and the Berklee Col­lege of Music, he became a side­man for such jazz leg­ends as Wyn­ton Marsalis, Dizzy Gille­spie, Ter­ence Blan­chard, Fred­die Hub­bard, Chick Corea, Isaac Hayes, James Carter and Betty Carter.

He is now an estab­lished soloist with sev­eral top-selling CDs to his credit. He can boast that he has not only played with Count Basie, but he has also played Count Basie in Robert Altman’s flim, “Kansas City.”