UNCG Jazz Ensemble I with Tim Warfield

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro presented the Miles Davis Jazz Festival which featured the UNCG Jazz Ensemble I with special guest Tim Warfield. UNCG Jazz Ensemble I is regarded as one of the premier jazz ensembles in the nation and the flagship of the Miles Davis Jazz program. The ensemble performs big band arrangements spanning the entire history of jazz, from the 1920's to the modern era. Tim Warfield, a native of York, Pennsylvania began studying the alto saxophone at age nine. He switched to tenor saxophone during his first year at William Penn Sr, High School where he participated in various musical ensembles winning many jazz school awards. Warfield currently serves as an Artist in Residence at Messiah College in Grantham, PA as well as Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Jazz Masters of Music Graduate Program at Temple University in Philadelphia.

The jazz ensemble I is directed by Thomas Heflin who serves as Assistant Professor of Jazz Brass and Steve Haines who serves as Director of the Miles Davis Jazz Studies Program. Song selections performed during the concert were; "Origins," "Prayer for Uthman," "Tune #2," "A Tinge of Melancholy," "I've Never Been Blue Before," and "Waltz for the Ordinary" all with arrangements by students of the ensemble and were taken from many of Warfield's albums such as; Inspire Me, Jazz Is, A Cool Blue, and Tim Warfield Sextet. Additional songs performed included "Come Back To Me" the original arrangement by Frederick Loewe and "I Ain't Got Nothing But The Blues" the original arrangement by Duke Ellington, Don George, and Larry Fontaine.

Members of the UNCG Jazz Ensemble I: Reeds: Franco Romero, Sam Uhrlass, Angel McCray, Jalen Vann, Nathan Mothershed; Trumpets: Ian Rood , Luke Childress, River Prescott, WIlliam Hawkins; Trombones: Jim Lane, Jayvan Washington, Brandon Hamrick, Ka'Sheila Sturgis; Rhythm: Julian Kennedy, Cecilia Richardson, Tyson Baker, Alston Harris.