Winterlude Jazz Festival

Schedule

Friday, February 23 (Yardley Hall)

Free, no reservations required.

Saturday, February 24

Tickets are $25. (Combine with tickets to Delfeayo Marsalis and save!)
Tickets will go on sale October 2.

Purchase tickets for Saturday afternoon

Saturday Night (Yardley Hall)

Tickets start at $25. (Combine with afternoon show to save!)

Purchase tickets for Saturday night

JCCC Jazz Ensemble

Under the JCCC Music Department and the direction of Ryan Heinlein, the JCCC Jazz Band performs several free concerts throughout the year. Students also play at events around the metro area and participate in educational opportunities to play with professional musicians such as the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra and Hanover Big Band. They’ve also participated in master classes with saxophonist Benny Golson, trumpeter Roger Ingram, saxophonist Jaleel Shaw and trumpeter and composer Sean Jones. In 2023, they played at the Jazz Education Network conference in Orlando.

Zak Pischnotte will be the guest leader for the February 23 performance. Zak is a highly versatile musician and educator in the Kansas City metro. He has been an instructor at Johnson County Community College for six years and can be heard in a wide variety of musical situations, most regularly with Chris Hazelton’s Boogaloo 7. Other groups he has performed with include the Marcus Lewis Big Band, Boulevard Big Band and Topeka Symphony. He has played musical productions as a woodwind doubler at Music Theater Heritage, New Theatre Restaurant and Starlight Theatre. His improvisations can be heard on recordings with his trio ensemble as well as an upcoming release from NYC-based free jazz guitarist Cubby Phillips.

Joe Cartwright Quartet

Pianist Joseph Lafayette Cartwright makes his home in Mission and is recognized as a proponent of Kansas City jazz. He is a graduate of the UMKC Conservatory of Music and currently serves as music director for Unity Village Chapel in Unity Village.

Cartwright has performed on and produced numerous recordings, many on his own label, Lafayette Music. They include the 2017 release "Out of This World," featuring vocalist Molly Hammer. He has worked with jazz luminaries Eddie Harris, Christian McBride, Jeff Hamilton, John Clayton, Karrin Allyson, Jimmy Witherspoon, Kevin Mahogany and Mel Torme. 

Cartwright has performed for audiences in Africa, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia as part of the USIA/Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassador Touring Program. In the fall of 2012, the Joe Cartwright Quartet headlined the CCPA Jazz Festival in Asuncion, Paraguay, as representatives of Kansas City jazz.

For the MTC performance, he will be joined by Rod Fleeman (guitar), Ben Leifer (bass) and John Kizilarmut (drums).

Brad Gregory Septet

Tenor sax player Brad Gregory has been in Kansas City for more than 20 years after playing in the famed One O’clock Lab Band at the University of North Texas. He has played with the Houston Jazz Orchestra and spent years in New York City playing jazz. Locally, his septet features that Kansas City sound audiences know and love.

For the February 24 concert, he will be joined by David Chael (alto sax), Clint Ashlock (trumpet), Steve Decker (trombone), Roger Wilder (piano), James Albright (bass) and John Kizilarmut (drums).

Earlie Braggs Quartet

Earlie Braggs is a freelance trombonist and vocalist living in Kansas City. He is a member of the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra and the history-based jazz ensemble the Vine Street Rumble. While living in Kalamazoo, Michigan, he was a member of the Gull Lake Jazz Orchestra which produced a CD entitled "Timeless."

Braggs has also performed with the Kalamazoo Big Band, the Jazz Septet from Battle Creek, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, his own jazz quartet, as well as concert, symphonic and jazz ensembles at Western Michigan University, where he completed his master’s degree in music in 2001. He spent many years traveling the U.S. performing with various music ensembles, including Cab Calloway, Steve Allen, “Master of the Sax” Richie Cole, Cat Anderson, the New York Voices, and Kansas City favorites pianist Jay "Hootie" McShann, Claude "Fiddler" Williams and pianist Frank Smith. From 1997 to 1999, Braggs toured parts of Europe and the U.S. with the New York-based Illinois Jacquet Big Band.

He is a founding member of the Jazz Heritage Orchestra (formally based at Cleveland State University), a 17-piece professional jazz orchestra located in Cleveland. The JHO has featured internationally acclaimed artists, including Clark Terry, Nancy Wilson and Benny Golson. He has a quartet CD called "It's About Time" and a Jazz Heritage Orchestra CD called "Steppin Out."

He will be joined by Rod Fleeman (guitar), James Albright (bass) and Sam Wisman (drums) for the February 24 concert.

Will Matthews Trio

Will Matthews has been the Count Basie Big Band guitarist for 28 years, playing around the world and across the U.S. He will bring that Kansas City sound to Winterlude with his trio, featuring Brian Ward on Nord organ and Marty Morrison on drums – two performers with distinguished histories.

Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra

Featuring up to 18 accomplished musicians, the Uptown Jazz Orchestra sets the global standard for celebrating jazz in its authentic musical form, inspiring the next generation of jazz musicians and promoting a culture of diversity, inclusion and accessibility in the arts. Learn more here.