The creative spirit of jazz music comes to the Greencastle Summer Music Festival as Steve Snyder and Friends grace Gobin Church for this week’s free program on Wednesday, June 9 at 7:30 p.m.
While Steve will show his finesse on the keyboards, he will be joined in a jazz tour de force by Sophie Faught on the saxophone, Jason Tiemann on drums, and Joel Tucker on guitar.
This exciting performance will include recognized tunes as well as original material. The aim is to emphasize the freedom of improvisation that jazz is built upon. Stories, though, move the music.
“The songs contain stories,” Steven explained. “Those stories are told either in the lyrics or in the feelings the tunes create. We use those stories and feelings that are created as inspiration for improvisation.”
The GSMF’s programs are a gift to the community from individual donors, The Doc and The Dandelion: Your Local Bed and Breakfasts, and an endowment at the Putnam County Community Foundation. As its major sponsor, The Inn at DePauw hosts the festival’s out-of-town guest artists. Audience members are invited to join the performers after the concert at The Fluttering Duck, which is located at the Inn and serves until 10 p.m.
For those unable to attend in person, performances are livestreamed on the GSMF’s YouTube page at gsmfvideo.com.
About the performers:
Steve Snyder is a pianist and organist who maintains an active playing schedule locally, nationally, and internationally. He has performed in France, Portugal, Brazil, Sweden, Taiwan, as well as throughout the United States and Canada. His work as an organist and pianist is documented on over 20 recordings found on various independent releases since 1992. The Austin Chronicle has called his work “superb,” while noted organ empresario Pete Fallico has commented that he can “get around those keyboards nicely and solo magnificently at both slow and quick tempos.” He teaches large and small jazz ensembles, applied improvisation, jazz theory, jazz arranging and jazz history at DePauw University. He has presented clinics and recital performances at numerous academic institutions and conferences.
Sophie Faught is an improviser, composer, bandleader, and teacher. Raised up by some of Indiana’s great jazz musicians and educators, she speaks the jazz language with creativity, wit, passion, depth, and soul. She has performed in venues across the country and the world, including Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City and the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands. She has headlined at the nationally recognized Portland Jazz Festival, leading her own group in original compositions and jazz standards. She has toured as a member of the Nicholas Payton Jazz Quintet and has also appeared with Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Terrell Stafford, and Dick Oates. She currently leads her own jazz trio and performs periodically in Bloomington and Indianapolis.
Jason Tiemann is a New York City-based jazz drummer, where he maintains a busy schedule as a freelance performer and educator. Admittedly drawing influence from the great Philly Joe Jones, Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, and Billy Higgins, he is quickly forging his musical voice on the New York scene by fusing his depth of historical foundation with crisp technique and propulsive, intuitive swing. He previously taught at the University of Louisville for 12 years as professor of jazz drums and percussion. Additionally, he has been an artist and clinician for Jamey Aebersold’s Summer Jazz Workshops since 1998. He has performed and/or recorded with the likes of musicians including Benny Golson, David Liebman, Harold Mabern, Eric Alexander, Mike LeDonne, Peter Bernstein, Slide Hampton, and others on the New York scene.
Joel Tucker is an active performer with the Tucker Brothers Group, Clint Breeze and The Groove, Eliot Bigger, and Prime Vintage, among other projects. He has been featured in various local and national publications for his guitar playing, including NUVO, The Indianapolis Star and DownBeat. He has traveled across the country and abroad with various groups, but most notably with Ritmos Unidos led by Michael Spiro for performances as well as clinics centered around the progression of the jazz tradition. He has also shared the stage with notable artists such as Chris Potter, Randy Brecker, APA finalist Zach Lapidus, and APA winner Sullivan Fortner. Joel is a lecturer on jazz guitar at Ball State University, and he also regularly plays with his brother, Nick, at the Chatterbox Jazz Club on Massachusetts Avenue in Indianapolis.
You may also like the following events from Greencastle Summer Music Festival:
Also check out other
Entertainment events in Greencastle,
Music events in Greencastle,
Performances in Greencastle.
