SILER CITY, N.C. — Jazz musicians at Jordan-Matthews High School will have an opportunity to explore Latin jazz, learn directly from professional musicians and perform with them in a free public concert — thanks in part to a 2021 Grassroots Arts Grant awarded by the Chatham Arts Council.

Gregg Gelb and La Fiesta Latin Jazz Sextet will begin the day’s activities on January 28 with an afternoon clinic attended by members of the JM Jazz Ensemble and selected eighth-grade musicians from Chatham Middle and Silk Hope schools. Sessions will be conducted for trumpet, trombone, woodwind and percussion musicians.

After the clinic, Gregg Gelb and La Fiesta Latin Jazz Sextet will perform a free, public concert at 7 p.m. in the JM Auditorium with student musicians joining the professionals for one of their numbers.

Gelb is a professional saxophonist, clarinetist, jazz composer and jazz band leader who leads The Heart of Carolina Jazz Orchestra and has performed with many different groups, including the North Carolina Symphony. He currently directs the award-winning Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble, which has been selected five times for the finals of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition and festival, and has served as an interim assistant professor of jazz at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C. State University and UNC Greensboro.

La Fiesta Latin Jazz Sextet includes players from North Carolina, one of whom is originally from the Dominican Republic. The ensemble teaches jazz history, the improvisation process and performs at events all across the state — drawing for its repertoire on music by jazz greats Louis Armstrong, Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea and Horace Silver.

“I’m excited that our students will have the chance to learn from and perform with musicians of this caliber,” said JC Harper, JM’s band director. “This experience will give them a great introduction to playing jazz.”

The clinic and concert are being supported by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. The 2021 Grassroots Arts Grant for $1,550 covers half of the program cost; the rest will be matched by JMArts through member contributions and fundraising project like the current sale of JMArts greeting and holiday cards.

JMArts President Rose Pate, who developed the program and grant application, wanted to do something to bring the entire community together. “We are thrilled to partner with the Chatham Arts Council to bring this opportunity to current and future Jordan-Matthews musicians,” she said. “We also wanted this free Latin jazz concert to be a wonderful event for our entire community."

More information about JMArts, including a schedule of all upcoming arts events and information on membership, is available online at JMArts.org.

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