College hosting big-band concert

Big-Band Blanton is back.

Fronting a jazz ensemble from the College of Southern Nevada and sharing the stage with Tom Ferguson's community jazz band, Walter Blanton, a CSN music professor and jazz-man-about-town, will drop the downbeat at a double big-band concert at the college at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"We'll be doing original arrangements of big-band songs," Blanton says, "and if people don't know the name of a specific piece, they'll certainly know the style."

Ah yes, the big-band era, when music swung before it rocked and brass instruments trumped electric guitars. Blanton's swingin' students will dip back in time for tunes such as "Big Dipper," which famously featured trumpeter Thad Jones, from the ouevre of the legendary Count Basie Band, out of which Blanton's plucked another gem, the barn-burner "Front Burner," arranged by longtime Basie buddy Sammy Nestico.

The set list also will include durable standards "All of Me" and "Kansas City," bassist Charles Mingus' classic tribute to saxophonist Lester Young, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," and sax man Sonny Rollins' "Airegin."

CSN's Nicholas J. Horn Theatre will host this big-band blast at the college's Cheyenne Avenue campus, 3200 E. Cheyenne Ave., in North Las Vegas, and five bucks gets you on a journey back to a cherished musical era. For reservations and info, call 651-5483.

Wait for that downbeat to trigger a night of upbeat memories.

-- By STEVE BORNFELD