Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra with Vaughn Wiester: The Music of Stan Kenton at Center for the Arts at George Mason University

Audience favorite Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra returns to celebrate the music of Grammy Award-winning jazz bandleader, composer, and pianist Stan Kenton. Known for his innovative and brassy approach to big band jazz, he developed what became known in the 1940s as “The Wall of Sound.” Many great artists passed through the Stan Kenton Orchestra, one of the best-known West Coast ensembles, including saxophonists Art Pepper and Stan Getz, singer Anita O'Day, and trumpeter Shorty Rogers. The Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra, comprised of some of the area’s finest musicians and led by founder, artistic director, and virtuoso saxophonist Jim Carroll, will be joined by featured vocalist Darden Purcell, director of George Mason Dewberry School of Music Jazz Studies Program, and by inimitable trombonist Vaughn Wiester, a veteran of groups including the Woody Herman band, the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, and his own Famous Jazz Orchestra. This performance is appropriate for all ages.