Jazz Hits San Angelo

The music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Glenn Miller could be heard at the Museum of Fine Arts on Sunday Afternoon, as the West Texas Jazz Orchestra took the stage for their “Play it Again” performance.

The orchestra is comprised of a number of musicians stemming from Marble Falls, Lubbock, and San Angelo. The group performs four “play it again” concerts a year.

“We have all the original arrangements... so you are basically hearing it again as it was first performed,” Jim Bode, director of West Texas Jazz Orchestra, said of how the name of the performance series was formed.

The band has been together for about ten years. Their rehearsal schedule varies because the majority of the musicians are junior and high school band directors and college-level music professors.

“I formed this by searching out the best musicians in West Texas,” Bode said. “We are very informal. We have a lot of fun—there are no rules.”

If the crowd is quiet Bode said he will tell them “to get out of that right away.”

Sunday’s crowd was not quite. People were tapping their toes, clapping to the rhythm, singing along, and hitting the dance floor.

Tom and Nancy Gruse were one of the couples that danced all afternoon.

“We like this kind of music. Its not too often you get to hear jazz in this area,” Tom Gruse said.

His wife said, “It brings a lot of people out, especially the generation that appreciates this type of music. It is nice because it is not too late at night.”

The only requests the two had: more performances from the West Texas Jazz Orchestra.

Valerie Bluthardt, Program Director at San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, said, “The event brings great music. Big band jazz music is popular across all ages.”

The next “Play it Again” concert will be held at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts on Sunday, Feb. 16. For more information contact the museum at (325) 653-3333.