Gold Coast Jazz Presents “From Basin Street to the Big Bands” Bill Allred Classic Jazz Band
Broward Center for the Performing Arts
Amaturo Theater
201 SW 5th Ave.
Ft. Lauderdale FL 33312

Show at 7:45pm
Pre-concert Jazz Riff with Stu Grant – 7:00pm

Individual tickets: $35 & $40 Students $10 with valid Student ID
To charge tickets by phone call 954-462-0222
online at www.browardcenter.org or www.goldcoastjazz.org

March brings to mind thoughts of New Orleans, Mardi Gras and Basin Street. To celebrate jazz during this special time of the year, the Bill Allred Classic Jazz Band will perform a jazz concert titled, “From Basin Street to the Big Bands.” Back by popular demand, Allred and his band will make a return engagement to South Florida as the featured guest artists on Wednesday, March 9, 2011 for the Gold Coast Jazz Society’s jazz series at the Broward Center’s Amaturo Theater. The concert begins at 7:45pm. The Amaturo Theater is located at 201 SW 5th Ave, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Single tickets are $35 and $40 and student tickets are $10 with student ID. Tickets can be purchased through the Broward Center Box Office at 954-462-0222 or online at either www.goldcoastjazz.org or www.browardcenter.org. A pre-concert Jazz Riff jazz talk will be given by WXEL radio personality Stu Grant at 7:00pm in the theater before the show.

Now in its 21st year of existence, Bill Allred’s Classic Jazz Band was born in Orlando, Florida, in 1990 as a group of ex-Rosie O’Grady and Disney musicians when the staff musician roles in both places began to erode. They started essentially as a “kicks” band, collecting and playing the arrangements of Matty Matlock and Billy Maxted. After performing at a few jazz festivals, they realized that there was a real market for their “little big band” type of sound. That was more than 20 years and 13 recordings ago. Over the years, the Classic Jazz Band has added an eclectic collection of written and improvised jazz to its library. After learning of the band’s desire to tour with a classic library, noted pianist and arranger Billy Maxted contributed quite a few of his great charts. Other contributors include Bob Haggart, legendary writer and performer Joe DeWeese, Dave Wolpe, Scott Whitfield, John Bambridge, Terry Waddell and Dave MacKenzie, as well as the band’s own John Allred and Bob Pickwood. The band has appeared at jazz festivals and/or presented concerts in Sacramento, Palm Springs and Mammoth Lakes, California; Davenport, Iowa; Madison, La Crosse, Milwaukee and Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; Elkhart and Indianapolis, Indiana; Sun Valley, Idaho; Seaside, Oregon; the Jazz Café at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.; Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; and at festivals and a wide variety of venues throughout Florida and elsewhere in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Learn more about these artists at www.billallred.com

It all started in New Orleans… Bill’s grandmother was born near New Orleans in the town of Franklin. His Father, John, was a jazz pianist and banjoist on many of the steamboats of the great “Strickfus Line” playing in and around New Orleans as well as up and down the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Bill Allred was also born near the Mississippi River in the town of Rock Island. He played trombone at Rock Island High School, in the United States Navy Band and at St. Ambrose College. Bill has appeared in concerts with Jack Teagarden, Billy Butterfield, Al Hirt, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Mel Torme, Al Cohen, Zoot Sims, Snooky Young, Ross Tomkins, Bob Cooper, Milt Hinton, Bob Haggart, Butch Miles, Tom Saunders, Chuck Hedges, and countless other jazz personalities from all over the world as well as touring with the Wild Bill Davison Jazz Band. For several years Bill was a staff musician for Walt Disney World, Rosie O’Grady’s in Orlando, and still runs his own production company in Orlando.

Tickets are available for the March 9 performance. The Gold Coast Jazz Society is a not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of jazz music through a mainstage concert series, free community concerts, jazz education programs and other events. Go online www.goldcoastjazz.org for more information about the Gold Coast Jazz Society or call 954-524-080

Jazz & Blues Florida
www.JazzBluesFlorida.com