Legendary trumpet player famous for his work in “The Incredibles” soundtrack and in Maynard Ferguson’s big band, Wayne Bergeron will headline Long Beach City College’s free spring jazz big band concert on May 31.
The Grammy-nominated musician attended Long Beach City College out of high school after moving from Hartford, Connecticut.
This will be the final concert of the semester for the big band that has been together since fall.
When asked about how the band has improved, sophomore pianist Noah Ishikawa said, “The band has a ton of great individual players that put in the work. All the musicians come together to support each other and bring out the best performances we can.”
The jazz professor Patrick Sheng agreed with the sentiment and touched on how they improved.
“Because we spend a lot of time sight reading. It’s mostly the same band from the fall and I would say the band’s ability level and reading level is way higher now,” Sheng said.
The jazz program has many graduating students, and this will be their final performance at the school.
“We have a lot of jazz students graduating, so I programmed the graduates to be featured all over this concert,” Sheng said.
Soloists to look forward to are guitarist J Cortes, saxophonist Gabe Fernando Lopez Rojas and pianist Kenneth Evangelista.
Before the performance, the jazz program had Bergeron practice with the students, and it was a big moment for the students to play with a legend of his caliber.
“It’s pretty incredible to be able to hear such an incredible musician play with us. Everyone in the room was shocked at how good his sound was,” Ishikawa said.
The jazz program uses ASB funds to get notable jazz artists to play with students at performances, making it a big moment at the end of each semester.
Sheng went on to highlight the culture the students have fostered, “Amongst the students, there is a really strong culture of practicing and being really dedicated which is really cool.”
The spring big band jazz concert promises to be an exciting event for the musicians and audience alike and will be free to attend in front of the auditorium on May 31 at 6 p.m.