UCSB Jazz Ensemble will present a program of music tailored especially for the Santa Barbara Jazz Society, including music from our entire academic year and prominently featuring vocalists chosen as part of our 2nd ever Vocal Jazz Competition.
Jon Nathan, currently in his 31st year as director of UCSB’s Jazz Ensembles, brings the University’s best musicians to perform standards from the big band catalogs of such famed composers and arrangers as Nelson Riddle, Bill Holman, Bob Mintzer, Maria Schneider, and John Kirby, performing music originally written for Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O’Day, and Benny Godman. Featured vocalists are winners of the January 2026 UCSB Vocal Jazz Competition and include long time UCSB Jazz Ensemble.Combos vocalist Julianne Verona (10 Cents a Dance, How Insensitive, I Feel the Earth Move), newcomer Marissa Abaya (All of Me, I Won’t Dance), and showstopper Brooke Aron (In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning, Let’s Face the Music and Dance). Also featured are second year vocalist Kyla Becker vocalising on the haunting Maria Schneider composition Choro Dancado as well as performing with the rhythm section on a tune of her choice, and double threat vocalist/tenor saxophonist Maile Quinn singing and soloing on Dancing on the Ceiling. We are proud of our large contingent of women jazz players, including women in all sections of our big band and in every one of our eight combos.
Rounding out the program are instrument works from our first two concerts of the year. In the fall we featured the music of Los Angeles area composer/arranger/bandleader Bill Holman, and our afternoon begins with a number of works by this master musician. We will also perform music from our winter concert “Let’s Dance”, featuring works with dance as inspiration such as Bob Mintzer’s Latin Dance, John Kirby’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, and the rocking Freedom Jazz Dance, originally recorded by Miles Davis, and recognize and celebrate the 100th anniversary of Miles Davis’ birth with this performance.
Please join us for this special not to be missed event!