Jazz quartet performs on campus

JoJo Brinkhoff
Managing Editor

 

The Randy Hamm Quartet Jazz Concert will perform at 7:30 tonight in the Elsie Plaster Community Center on the Neosho campus. The concert is a free event for the public and students, however, the quartet will be selling their albums at the concert.

The Quartet

According to Randy Hamm, member of the quartet, although their quartet is new, some of members has not only known each other for a few years, but also has performed together before. Along with teaching at Missouri State University (MSU), some of them has performed and toured either with other jazz artists or solo.

Future Plans

Even though the Randy Hamm Quartet is new, Hamm plans on touring the Mid-West. The reasoning behind this is because most of them still teaches full time at MSU which makes it hard for them to travel too far.

Meet the Members

Randy Hamm is a professor of Music and Director of Jazz Studies at MSU. He has been playing the saxophone since his childhood and now travels, teaching jazz as well as performing. His first two albums were released in 2010 in which one of the albums, “Abstract,” features Kyle Aho as the pianist.

Kyle Aho is part of the jazz studies faculty at MSU. He has played the piano for several jazz performers including Bob Brookmeyer, George Garzone and Joe Lovano and has been features in recording labels. Aho and Hamm has known each other and occasionally perform together for five years.

Marty Morrison also teaches jazz music and its history at MSU. He has played for many well-known jazz artists and has toured countries such as Canada, Japan, Germany and many more. From time to time, he has played the drums with Hamm.

Bob DeBoo is the newest “member” of the group since the fall of 2013. For 15 years, he has played the electric bass and has performed with many well-known jazz artists who include Jeremy Pelt, Willie Pickens and Logan Richardson.