USU Brings Night of Jazz to Nephi

The best of Utah State University’s students and faculty along with professional musicians presented a free community appreciation concert in Nephi on March 17, 2016. “A Night of Jazz” included numbers by the Caine Jazz Combo (CJC) and Aggie Music Project (AMP). Local students from the Juab High School band also took the stage alongside AMP and USU students for a musical number.

Before the performance, the group performed during an assembly at Juab Junior High School. After the performance student band members had the opportunity to work one-on-one with the musicians.

The CJC is the premiere student jazz combo at Utah State University. All musicians in this group are also members of the Downbeat Award-winning USU Jazz Orchestra. In recent years this group has tackled such projects as recording a CD (Jazz at the Sky Club, Big Blue Records), and recreating the entire Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” album, live. This year, the CJC have been focusing on writing their own arrangements of great jazz compositions.

“All proceeds were donated to the USU-Nephi student scholarship fund.”

Founded in 2012, the AMP was intentionally created to not be a ‘faculty jazz combo.’ While the group does play jazz, the members of this ensemble love all sorts of musical styles, and do not want to be constricted by boundaries. The members of AMP love classical and jazz music, but we also happen to love many of the styles that make up the other 95 percent of music that is consumed in the United States.

While the concert was free and open to the public, all proceeds were donated to the USU-Nephi student scholarship fund. Local scholarships help make a college education a reality for residents of Nephi.

For more information on donating to USU-Nephi’s scholarship fund, please visit usu.edu/advancement/nephischolarships.