April 30, 2018
Story by Micah Oelze
Courtesy Photo
The Barton Community College Jazz Band will perform as a special guest at the annual Flatland Big Band Concert at 7:30 p.m. May 5 in the Scott Community High School auditorium. Admission is $5.
The Flatland Big Band has been performing for 24 years and is made up of band directors and professional musicians from across Kansas. Barton’s Director of Instrumental Music and Jazz Band Director Steve Lueth is the pianist for the Flatland Big Band.
Lueth said he is excited about the opportunity this affords his students.
“This performance allows the Barton Jazz Band to be ambassadors of jazz music in western Kansas where this type of ensemble is not heard too often,” he said.
The Flatland Big Band founder Julie Groom started the band as a way to present jazz music to western Kansas. She was a huge proponent of music in small public schools before her passing in 2012. Her legacy lives on in the members of the Flatland Big Band who come together once a year to rehearse in the morning and then perform their annual concert in the evening.
“We play everything from 1940’s music, Glenn Miller’s ‘In the Mood,’ to contemporary jazz arrangements in all different styles from Latin and jazz-rock to swing,” Lueth said.
Lueth said it is an honor to be selected to perform with the Flatland Big Band.