City : San Marcos
Venue : Evans Auditorium
Address : Texas State University School of Music, 601 University Dr. San Marcos, Texas 78666
Time : 7:30pm

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Texas State University is proud to announce the 29th annual Hill Country Jazz Festival. The festival will be held on Saturday, February 9, 2019, on the beautiful Texas State University campus. In addition to our excellent facilities, our outstanding adjudicators, clinicians, and performers promise to make this a memorable experience. As a non-competitive event, The Hill Country Jazz Festival does not select winners but does recognize exemplary big bands, combos, and individual instrumentalists with “Outstanding Performance Awards.”

This year’s guest artist is the world-famous Count Basie Orchestra! 2018 marks the 83rd Anniversary of The Count Basie Orchestra. William “Count Basie” (1904-1984) started his orchestra in Kansas City in 1935, and proceeded to develop and maintain one of the greatest jazz orchestras in music history. With Mr. Basie’s meticulous attention to detail, selecting the very best musicians, and making sure that every tune could be danced to, The Count Basie Orchestra soon became the favorite for everyone to listen and dance to with it’s irresistible Kansas City Swing beat. Count Basie was able to get many of the greatest instrumentalists and vocalists in jazz to be a part of his orchestra, including Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Sweets Edison, Joe Jones, Joe Williams, Snooky Young, Frank Foster, Thad Jones, Frank Wess, and Clark Terry amongst others. Today, under the leadership of it’s Director, Scotty Barnhart, The Count Basie Orchestra is traveling the world celebrating it’s 83rd anniversary and continuing the excellent standards in swinging and shouting the blues with precision, and continuing to be “The Most Explosive Force In Jazz”.

Bands will perform throughout the day on Saturday, February 9th around 5 p.m., There will be an hour-long clinic, presenter TBA. Following the clinic, the Texas State University Jazz Ensemble will present a short performance followed by the Count Basie Orchestra

Jazz ensembles wishing to participate in the Hill Country Jazz Festival should complete the enclosed application and return it by mail with the non-refundable $200 by January 15.

In addition to the above activities, an all-star big band will play a free concert on Friday, February 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Evans Auditorium as part of the Eddie Durham Celebration. The band will feature members of the Count Basie Orchestra, and include a talk by director of the National Jazz Museum Loren Schoenberg. We hope you can attend both events, but all school performances are only on Saturday, February 9.