On Friday, Texas State will host a free concert honoring the life and legacy of a San Marcos native who various jazz experts call “the unrecognized genius” of his genre.
The 15th annual Eddie Durham Celebration, which will be held in Evans Auditorium at 7:30 p.m., will take part alongside the following evening’s Hill Country Jazz Festival. Both events will feature musicians who played with Durham: at the celebration, an all-star big band made up of various world-renowned jazz musicians. At the festival, the distinguished Count Basie Orchestra, which Durham was once part of.
Additionally, Loren Schoenberg will be the celebration’s featured speaker. Schoenberg is the former executive director and current senior scholar of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. He was an 18 year-old saxophone student when he met Durham in New York and joined his quartet.
