The Steven Feifke Big Band with the 67th Army Band’s Frontier Brass headline Jazz Festival
The Steven Feifke Big Band, with the 67th Army Band’s Frontier Brass, will headline the 58th Annual Kinser Jazz Festival on Tuesday, Feb. 4, at 7 p.m.
The Tuesday night concert is part of the Casper College Kinser Jazz Festival, which runs from February 3 through 5.
Feifke is a Grammy Award-winning bandleader, composer, and arranger. In 2023, at 31, he won the Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for “Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra” with trumpeter Bijon Watson. At the time of his win, Feifke was the youngest Grammy winner for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.
Feifke is an assistant professor of harmony and jazz composition at the Berklee College of Music. Before turning 30, the award-winning bandleader, composer, and arranger had appeared on over 30 records.
According to his biography, Feifke is … “a Yamaha performing artist, an Avid Sibelius artist, and has appeared on over 45 albums to date. He has written music for hit TV shows like ‘The Masked Singer,’ ‘Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,’ ‘Impractical Jokers,’ ‘Animaniacs,’ and many world-class big bands and orchestras around the globe. He was heralded as a ‘masterful pianist’ by JAZZIZ Magazine. DownBeat Magazine called his music ‘an air of infectious joy.'”
According to its website, “Frontier Brass is a New Orleans style brass band that is a little different from your typical brass quintet or brass choir.” The group is composed of trumpets, saxophones, trombone, sousaphone, and a drummer. Frontier Brass performs many different styles of music, from the Temptations’ “My Girl” to familiar popular tunes like “Thriller” and “Blinding Lights.” The group’s arrangements come from many different Army musicians, including some from their own group. Members of the group are all part of the Wyoming Army National Guard.
“The Casper College Kinser Jazz Festival exists to provide world-class jazz and jazz education to the current and future generations of musicians in the Rocky Mountain Region,” said Joshua R. Mietz, DMA, festival executive director. “Our focus is to present authentic jazz performances by artists of the highest caliber and to offer a variety of educational experiences for jazz ensembles, their directors, and the public at large,” he added.
Nearly 700 college, senior, and junior high school students and their instructors will participate in the festival through their jazz bands, combos, and vocal groups. The festival provides a setting for the groups to perform in a noncompetitive environment over three days.
The headliner concert will be held in the John F. Welsh Auditorium at Natrona County High School. All other events will be held in the Music Building on the Casper College campus. All festival daytime events are free and open to the public.
Tickets for the Tuesday night concert are $30 for adults and $20 for students and can be purchased online or by calling 307-268-2606. All other events are free for the public to attend. A full schedule of events is available here.
The 58th Annual Kinser Jazz Festival is sponsored in part by grants from the Wyoming Arts Council, Enroll Wyoming, Hill Music, the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra, the Board of Cooperative Educational Services or BOCES, ARTCORE, and the Casper College Foundation and Alumni Association.