21st Annual Gulf Coast Ethnic & Heritage Jazz Festival

Legendary jazz artist, composer, and educator, BENNY GOLSON, will headline the 21st Annual Gulf Coast Ethnic & Heritage Jazz Festival concert at 7 p.m. on Friday, August 2, 2019. The performance will be held at the Laidlaw Performing Arts Center on the beautiful campus of the University of South Alabama (5751 USA South Drive). Tickets cost $25 for adults and $15 for youths.  Also performing will be the renowned E. B. Coleman Orchestra, under the direction of  Mobile music icon, Hosea London, who serves as the lead clinician for the annual Marcus Johnson Summer Jazz Camp. Benny Golson is an internationally acclaimed American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger, who came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a performer, before launching his solo career. Few Jazz musicians can claim yo be true innovators and even fewer can boast of a performing and recording career that literally redefines the term “jazz.” Golson has made major contributions to the world of jazz with such jazz standards as: Killer Joe, I Remember Clifford, Along Came Betty, Stablemates, Whisper Not, Blues march, Five Spot After Dark and Are You Real? Golson is the only living jazz artist to have written 8 standards for the jazz repertoire.  The GCEH Jazz Festival is honored to welcome Benny Golson back to Mobile, home of his family‘s roots, to serve as the distinguished artist in residence for the 2019 Marcus Johnson Summer Jazz Camp. The Camp program preceeds the concert during July 22 through August 2, at the History Museum of Mobile. Registration is required and the cost is $75 per student, with an optional Jazz Exploration field trip for an additional $35 per student. For registration information, please visit GCEHjazzfest.org or call (251) 478-4027.