Tuba Bach Week 4 – Dave Bennett and the Alvin Waddles Trio

Saturday, October 5, 2019 — 7 PM
Sunday, October 6, 2019 — 4 PM
Big Rapids High School Auditorium
21175 15 Mile Rd, Big Rapids

Saturday, October 5 – 12 PM Lunch Bachs Family Concert at Three Girls Bakery (106 N Michigan Ave, Big Rapids, MI 49307)

Dave Bennett doesn’t fit the mold.

For starters, you don’t find many jazz clarinet players who name Alice Cooper, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Chris Isaak among their influences. You also won’t find many musicians who are equally conversant with the music of Benny Goodman (the “King of Swing”) and Roy Orbison (“The Soul of Rock and Roll”).
Bennett is a clarinet virtuoso who plays electric guitar, piano, drums, AND vocalizes.  Saluting Swing to Rock: covering music from the Swing Era to early Rockabilly and Country, to Elvis Presley and more.  Leading His Tribute to Benny Goodman, Dave has been a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall with The New York Pops (2013) and has played the show with 35 other US and Canadian orchestras including Nashville, Detroit, Rochester, Omaha, Toronto, Vancouver, Orlando, San Antonio, Jacksonville, Portland, OR and Portland, ME, and Houston. Fifty performing arts centers across the USA have had success with his presentations.

An annual fixture at several American music festivals, Dave’s “Rockin the ‘50s” show always brings down the house!  Dave pays tribute to Jerry Lee Lewis (piano and vocals), and Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley (electric guitar and vocals). Dave’s original compositions are influenced by the style of Roy Orbison, the “Soul of Rock and Roll”. Some of his annual “roots music” presenters include The Elkhart Jazz Festival, The Suncoast Classic Jazz Festival, The Arizona Classic Jazz Festival, The Southeast Clambake Music Festival, and The Redwood Coast Music Festival.

Dave has been featured on NPR Radio’s “Jazz at Riverwalk.” He made his European debut in 2008 at the The Bern Jazz Festival (Switzerland) in a combo with jazz legends and Benny Goodman band alumni guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli and vibraphonist, the late Peter Appleyard.

Dave is a Mack Avenue Records artist. His 2013 CD “Don’t Be That Way” met with critical acclaim.
His second release, Blood Moon, which features five originals and six pop/jazz covers, hit the No 24 on the Billboard Jazz chart in 2018.

The Alvin Waddles Trio

Pianist, singer, composer, director, Alvin Waddles began studying the piano at the age of eight in his hometown of Detroit. He continued his studies at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the University Of Michigan School Of Music. After returning home to Detroit he immediately immersed himself in the rich musical culture of the city, benefiting from the diverse influences that would eventually shape his own unique style.

Mr. Waddles has worked in the Detroit and Ann Arbor Public Schools and currently serves as Musical Consultant/Musical Director for the Mount Vernon Public Schools, Performing Arts Dept in New York. He has also served as Music Ministries of several churches; among them, the historic New Bethel Baptist Church, Hartford Memorial Baptist and Hope United Methodist in Southfield, Michigan where he has served as the Director of Music since 1995.

He has been musical director and/or pianist for numerous theatrical productions including: The Wiz, The Color Purple, Dreamgirls, Chorus Line, West Side Story, Sophisticated Ladies. He served for a decade as Musical Director for The Three Mo’ Tenors, aka Cook, Dixon & Young and their touring productions and recordings.

He received rave reviews as a featured performer in the Detroit Music Hall’s long running production of Ain’t Misbehavin’. During the 2010-2011 season his diverse gifts were on full display when, within a two week period, he sang the role of Crown for Bolling Green University’s production of Gershwin’s ‘Porgy and Bess’ and played the composer’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ with the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra.

Mr. Waddles has delighted Detroit music lovers with performances in a variety of musical events including the international Detroit Jazz Fest and the Detroit Festival of the Arts. He is the featured piano soloist in the often-sold-out annual productions of “Too Hot to Handel” in both Detroit and Chicago and can be found performing wherever music is celebrated from festivals to jazz clubs, and performing arts venues. Waddles received the 2010 Excellence Award from Detroit Musicians Association and the Detroit City Council’s 2015 Spirit of Detroit Award. This year he was the 2018 Artist in Residence at the Tuba Bach Festival in west Michigan.

Mr. Waddles’ engagements as a soloist and featured artist have taken him to a variety of destinations including Barbados, Beijing, Paris, Barcelona and Ghana, West Africa. He has been blessed to work with some of the world’s finest musicians including Robert Shaw, Margaret Hillis, Brazeal Dennard, Minister Thomas Whitfield, Aretha Franklin, Anita Baker, Placido Domingo, George Shirley, Marcus Belgrave, Jack Jones, Haley Westenra, Stephanie Mills and Tramaine Hawkins.

Marion Hayden grew up in the industrial West Side of Detroit; Her father Herbert Hayden is a jazz pianist . At the age of nine she started taking piano lessons before switching to the double bass at the age of twelve. In the summer program of the Metro Arts she met Wendell Harrison and Marcus Belgrave , who became her teachers; At the age of 15 she already performed with experienced musicians like Charles Boles. Hayden attended Cass Tech High School and graduated from Henry Ford High School, took classes at Michigan State University and then the University of Michigan, gaining a liberal arts degree with a minor in entomology. She took a position with the Michigan Department of Agriculture while working the nightclub circuit playing jazz with Belgrave, pianist Charles Boles, Teddy Harris, Jr., the Jimmy Wilkins Orchestra, Buddy Budson, LaMonte Hamilton, saxophonist George Benson, Marvin “Doc” Holladay, Randy Gelispie, Donald Walden, Kenn Cox, and Stan Booker.

Marion is a founding member of the band Straight Ahead and is a Adjunct Assistant Professor of Jazz & Contemporary Improvisation at The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

With Straight Ahead she has performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and released three albums at Atlantic and two on their own label Straight Ahead Recordings.

David Taylor studied percussion performance at the University of Cincinnati/College-Conservatory of Music where his principal teacher was William Youhass.  Other teachers include Salvatore Rabbio, Gordon Stout, and Tim Hagans.  Since returning to Detroit, David has performed shows at the Fox, Masonic, and Fisher Theatres.  In addition, he performs regularly with the Michigan Opera Theater Orchestra  and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.  David has been a member of Wayne Sate University’s jazz faculty since 1991 and has toured Europe and South Africa with saxophonist Chris Collins.  He has been on countless recordings, including work with Emmy award winning composer/producer Joseph LoDuca.  David has taught at the Interlochen National Music Camp.  He is a Vic Firth Artist.