An amazing night of dinner & jazz with the MSU Jazz Orchestra 1 (The Be-Bop Spartans) & MSU Jazz Facility featuring guest trombonist Steve Davis as they give the final performance of their recent tour at Lily Pearl’s Lounge!

Family Style Fried Chicken Dinner will be served including green beans, mashed potatoes, cream gravy & beverage (tea, soda, or coffee) with open bar available. Bread pudding for dessert will be served mid-way thru the performance.

Price: $19.99 per adult (plus tax & gratuity = $25.43 total)

$10.99 for kids 12 & under (plus tax & gratuity = $13.98 total)

ONLY 40 seats available. Please call 989-720-5852 or come in to pay for reservations

Jazz Orchestra I (The Be-Bop Spartans)

Rodney Whitaker, Conductor

The 22-piece Jazz orchestra I (the Be-Bop Spartans) is a young, swinging college band playing the repertoire of the great jazz masters as well as a wide range of soul, swing, blues, and gospel. The group’s instrumentation includes saxophone, trombone, trumpet, bass, drums, piano, and guitar. The members of Jazz orchestra I frequently participate in community residencies throughout Michigan and conduct workshops, concerts, and master classes with children in various public schools in the state of Michigan through the College of Music’s outreach and engagement program. This ensemble has been featured at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Detroit International Jazz festival, Notre dame Jazz festival, Elmhurst Collegiate Jazz festival, University of Trinidad & Tobago, Japan tour, and has twice appeared at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago.

Michigan State University Jazz Faculty:

Director of Jazz Studies and Bass – Rodney Whitaker

Trumpet – Etienne Charles

Piano – Xavier Davis

Trombone – Michael Dease

Drums – Randy Gelispie

Guitar – Randy Napoleon

Saxophone – Diego Rivera

About guest artist Steve Davis…

Steve Davis is widely regarded as one of today’s leading improvisers on the trombone. His lyrical, hard-swinging style first gained him broad recognition during the 1990’s while working with the bands of jazz legends Art Blakey, Jackie McLean, Chick Corea’s Origin and the cooperative sextet, One For All. Steve has appeared in Downbeat Magazine’s Reader’s and Critic’s Polls numerous times, winning the TDWR (Rising Star) Trombone Category in 1998. Steve has also been recently nominated by The JJA four years in a row 2010-13 as Trombonist of the Year. Davis’ most recent recordings For Real and Gettin’ It Done (Positone) feature his longtime musical colleagues Larry Willis and Nat Reeves along with drummer Billy Williams, saxophonists Abraham Burton (For Real), Mike DiRubbo and trumpeter Josh Bruneau (Gettin’ It Done). Steve has led his own groups at such venues as Smoke and Smalls Jazz Clubs in NYC, The Greater Hartford Jazz Festival, Baltimore’s Eubie Blake Center, The Richmond Jazz Society and Hartford Jazz Society, to name a few recent gigs. Ever in-demand as a sideman, Davis is featured on over 100 recordings. In recent years, “Stevie-D” (a nickname given to him by the late Jackie McLean) has worked regularly with a broad range of jazz icons including Larry Willis’ Quintet, Freddie Hubbard and The New Jazz Composers Octet, Slide Hampton and The Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Star Big Band (feat. James Moody, Jimmy Heath and Roy Hargrove), The Jimmy Heath Big Band, Ron Carter Big Band, Cecil Payne, Horace Silver and Wynton Marsalis’ Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.