Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon is one of two special guest performers and clinicians coming to Temple College Jazz Festival 2022. More than 50 bands will be performing, including ensembles from Temple, Lake Belton and Belton high schools, all three Temple middle schools, the Temple College Jazz Ensemble and the Temple College Jazz Orchestra. Courtesy photo

By DAVID STONE, Our Town Temple

Lou Reed once said: “If it has more than three chords, it’s jazz.”

Heavy on emotion and versatility, jazz is an art form that can be extremely complex or as simple as a child’s tune. Whatever the form, it’s sure to stir the soul.

Hundreds of young musicians and dozens of ensembles will be at Temple College from March 31 to April 2 for the 30th Jazz Festival, and the talent level and musical creativity will be off the charts.

More than 50 bands are expected — including the best high school and college jazz ensembles in Central Texas — and after two years of pandemic cancellations, musicians are eager to get back in the groove.

“COVID hit Texas two weeks before the 2020 festival, and it forced us to cancel last year as well,” said Dr. Benjamin M. Irom, director of jazz studies at Temple College. “But now we are back.”

Irom said bands from around Central Texas were quick to respond to invitations for the 2022 event.

“As soon as I sent out invitations, they started rolling back in,” he said. “There’s a lot of interest — this is going to be a great festival.”

Jazz Fest 2022 promises to be an entertaining and educational weekend of outstanding music from top professional artists and clinicians to hundreds of college, high school and middle school musicians.

Joining the students will be two guest professionals — Greg Gisbert, a trumpeter from New York City, and Wycliffe Gordon, a trombonist who is always in high demand.

“I’ve wanted to get Wycliffe here for years, and he had agreed to come in 2020,” Irom said. “Unfortunately, that festival was canceled, but he agreed to honor his commitment and he will be here this year.”

The 2022 festival kicks off Thursday, March 31, with student performances from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Temple College’s Mary Alice Marshall Performing Arts Center. Thursday’s performances will include Temple and Belton middle schools and the Temple Wildcat Combo.

THURSDAY'S SCHEDULE

The Friday, April 1, performances also run 8 to 5 with the exception of the noon hour. That’s when Gisbert will be conducting a special clinic.

Gisbert will be performing with the Temple College Jazz Ensemble and a Temple College Faculty Jazz Sextet on Friday night. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. and there is a $5 charge for students and a $20 charge for non students.

Friday’s local bands of note include the Temple High Blues Band at 4:30 p.m.

After the show, performers will meet at the Hilton Garden Inn for an All-Star Jam from 9:30 until midnight.

FRIDAY'S SCHEDULE

On Saturday, April 2, school jazz bands start performing at 8 a.m. and will continue until about 6 p.m., with the exception of the noon hour when Gordon will be conducting a clinic.

The Belton High jazz ensemble plays at 10:30 a.m., Lake Belton at 4:30 p.m. and Temple High’s award-winning Highlighters take the stage at 5 p.m., followed by the All-Region 8 Middle School Honor Jazz Band.

A highlight of the festival is sure to be the 7:30 p.m. performance by Gordon and the renowned Temple College Jazz Orchestra. Admission will be charged for this performance.

“All day events are free and open to the public,” Irom said.

Throughout the festival, small clinics will be held on subjects such as jazz history and saxophone improvisation techniques. The TC jazz rhythm section also will be holding demonstrations.

“The Temple College Jazz Festival is open to all college, high school and middle school big bands, combos, vocal jazz ensembles and show choirs,” Irom said.

“It’s a non-competitive event. Each group will receive a 20 minute clinic with one of their judges immediately after performing their 30-minute set. Internationally known educators and performers will be judging and running clinics during the festival.”

SATURDAYS SCHEDULE

MONDAY | MARCH 28, 2022

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Our Town Temple has received the following comment regarding THE SUNDAY REPORT: Shadows in the Night

Peggy Odom: Wonderful article; informative. I’ve taken notes adding to my prayer list. I wonder if any churches are involved or are these government-supplemented programs…? Thanks for information.

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In the 1980s, K-Bobs was a popular steak house in Temple. What was unique about the K-Bobs salad bar?

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On this day in 1864, Civil War guerrilla leader William Quantrill was arrested by Confederate forces in Bonham, Texas. The Ohio native, wanted for murder in Utah by 1860, collected a group of renegades in the Kansas-Missouri area at the beginning of the Civil War. He fought with Confederate forces at the battle of Wilson's Creek in August 1861 but soon thereafter began irregular independent operations. Quantrill and his band attacked Union camps, patrols, and settlements. While Union authorities declared him an outlaw, Quantrill eventually held the rank of colonel in the Confederate forces. After his infamous sack of Lawrence, Kansas, and the massacre of Union prisoners at Baxter Springs, Quantrill and his men fled to Texas in October of 1863. There he quarreled with his associate, William "Bloody Bill" Anderson, and his band preyed on the citizens of Fannin and Grayson counties. Acts of violence proliferated so much that regular Confederate forces had to be assigned to protect residents from the activities of the irregular Confederate forces, and Gen. Henry McCulloch determined to rid North Texas of Quantrill's influence. On March 28, 1864, when Quantrill appeared at Bonham as requested, McCulloch had him arrested on the charge of ordering the murder of a Confederate major. Quantrill escaped that day and returned to his camp near Sherman, pursued by more than 300 state and Confederate troops. He and his men crossed the Red River into Indian Territory. Except for a brief return in May, Quantrill's activities in Texas were at an end. Quantrill was killed by Union forces at the very end of the war.

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On this day in 1862, Union and Confederate troops fought the key battle of the Civil War in the Far West at Glorieta Pass, New Mexico. When the Texans of Brig. Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley's Army of New Mexico were defeated by Union forces, Confederate ambitions in the West were checked. In June 1987 a mass grave containing more than thirty bodies, casualties of the battle of Glorieta, was discovered. Only three bodies were identified, among them that of Ebenezer Hanna, the youngest fatality of the battle. All the bodies were reburied in Santa Fe National Cemetery in 1993. Hanna's journal is now in the Texas State Library.

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TODAY’S TEMPLE TRIVIA ANSWER: The K-Bobs salad bar was an actual horse-drawn wagon that was rebuilt as a salad wagon. Plates and soup bowls were stacked on the driver’s seat and soup containers were underneath the seat. The bed of the wagon would outfited as a giant ice container that drained into the floor.