TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Today at 7:30 p.m. in Evans Auditorium, Texas State University Jazz will present the annual Eddie Durham Celebration. For the last 22 years they have presented this tribute to the San Marcos native. Eddie Durham was a composer, arranger, trombonist and guitarist with the Count Basie Orchestra, the Glenn Miller Band, Jimmie Lunceford and many other bands of the 30s and 40s. He was also the first musician to record electric guitar in 1935, with Lunceford’s band. Documentary filmmaker Kris Hendrickson made the film Wham Re-Bop-Boom-Bam: The Swing Jazz of Eddie Durham in large part because of the annual celebration. It was released nationwide on PBS in 2024 and features some of the Texas State jazz faculty as well as clips of the Eddie Durham Celebration band recorded at Parker Jazz Club in Austin.
The Celebration band is led by Count Basie Orchestra tenor saxophonist Doug Lawrence, who played with Eddie Durham in the 80s and Butch Miles in the 90s, and will also include:
• Mike Smith— former lead alto for Frank Sinatra • Gregg Field — former drummer with Count Basie and Frank Sinatra
• Adam Schroeder — Count Basie Orchestra alumnus, Associate Professor of Jazz Studies at UNLV, and the first jazz performance graduate from Texas State
• Texas State Jazz faculty and alumni
• Loren Schoenberg — Director of the National Jazz Museum At 6 p.m. on Feb. 8, Texas State Jazz will host The Butch Miles Jazz Festival in Evans Auditorium. Parking available in the Pleasant Street Garage. In its 37th year, the former Hill Country Jazz Festival was renamed this year to honor drum legend and former Texas State jazz faculty Butch Miles. Eighteen high school jazz bands will come to campus to perform and receive comments from judges. It is a non-competitive festival, though there are Outstanding Soloist certificates and six to seven Outstanding Band plaques given out. There will be a clinic by current Count Basie Orchestra drummer Robert Boone Jr. at 5 p.m. in Evans Auditorium, followed immediately by the feature concert with the Texas State Jazz Ensemble and guest artists. They are going all out this year to celebrate the renaming of the festival and have a great slate of artists, including: Robert Boone, Jr. — current Count Basie Orchestra drummer Lynn Seaton — Woody Herman and Count Basie alumnus, Professor of Jazz Bass at the UNT Gregg Field — former drummer with Count Basie and Frank Sinatra Doug Lawrence — current lead tenor sax in the Count Basie Orchestra Adam Schroeder — Count Basie Orchestra alumnus, Associate Professor of Jazz Studies at UNLV and the first jazz performance graduate from Texas State.
All events are free and open to the public. Parking is available in the Pleasant Street Garage.
