A concert by the Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio through the Great Performance Series on Friday, March 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts will headline the second annual Hope College Jazz Organ Summit.
The three-day summit, running Friday-Sunday, March 9-11, will feature multiple concerts and a variety of workshops and presentations for jazz-organ aficionados.
Five performances during the summit will be available to the public as well as to those attending the summit. In addition to the March 9 concert by Smith, who will be performing with Jonathan Kreisberg and Xavier Breaker, the events will include performances on March 9 and 10 by the Tony Monaco Trio featuring organist Tony Monaco, Derek DiCenzo, guitar, and Jeff Shoup, drums; on March 10 by Gerard Gibbs and ORGANized Crime featuring Perry Hughes and Gene Dunlap; and on March 11 by the Hope Organ Trio.
Tickets will be required for the concerts by the Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio and Gerard Gibbs and ORGANized Crime. Admission will be free for the performances by the Tony Monaco Trio and the Hope Organ Trio. Paid registration, which will include the concerts, is required for the Jazz Organ Summit.
For more than five decades, Dr. Lonnie Smith has been hailed as “Legend” and a “Living Music Icon” by a number of music publications. From 1969, when Downbeat Magazine named him “Top Organist,” to 2017, when he was presented with an NEA Jazz Masters Award, the highest honor in jazz, Smith has excelled as a musician, composer, performer and recording artist on the Hammond B-3 organ. He has been featured on more than 70 albums, and has recorded and performed with a virtual “Who’s Who” of the greatest jazz, blues and R&B giants in the industry. He spent time with the George Benson Quartet in the early 1960s before emerging as a soloist and bandleader in his own right. Younger fans have been introduced to him when he has sat in with The Roots on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show. Jazz Times magazine has memorably described him as “a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a turban!”
Tickets for the Great Performance Series Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio concert on Friday, March 9, at 7:30 p.m. are $22 for regular admission; $16 for senior citizens and Hope faculty and staff; $6 for children 18 and under; and free for Hope students.
The Tony Monaco Trio will perform on Friday, March 9, at 9 p.m. and on Saturday, March 10, at 9 p.m. at Big E’s Sports Grill at the Courtyard by Marriott Holland Downtown. Admission to both performances is free.
Gerard Gibbs and ORGANized Crime will perform on Saturday, March 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the John and Dede Howard Recital Hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts. Tickets are $10 for regular admission, $7 for senior citizens and Hope faculty and staff, and $5 for students 18 and under.
The Hope Organ Trio will perform a Jazz Organ Brunch at New Holland Brewery on Sunday, March 11, at 11 a.m. Admission is free.
Additional opportunities available to those attending the summit will include an individual clinic with the Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio before the concert on Friday, March 9; a clinic led by Gerard Gibbs and ORGANized Crime on Saturday, March 10; two workshops hosted by Gerard Gibbs and ORGANized Crime and the Tony Monaco Trio, after which the two ensembles will perform together; and access to the artists through the clinics and VIP receptions as well as the performances.
Registration for the Jazz Organ Summit is $125 for an all-inclusive pass to clinics and performances and invitation to the opening night artist reception; $95 for an all-inclusive pass to the clinics and performances; and $35 for an all-inclusive student pass to the clinics and performances.
Registration and tickets are available online at hope.edu/tickets as well as at the ticket office in the Events and Conferences Office located downtown in the Anderson-Werkman Financial Center (100 E. Eighth St.). The ticket office is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be called at (616) 395-7890.
The Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts is located at 221 Columbia Ave., between Ninth and 10th streets. Big E’s Sports Grill is located at 121 E. Eighth St. and New Holland Brewery is located at 66 E. Eighth St., both in downtown Holland.