Jazz in June featues Darryl White Group

The June 12 Jazz in June concert will feature the Darryl White Group, led by UNL trumpet professor Darryl White (right).
The June 12 Jazz in June concert will feature the Darryl White Group, led by UNL trumpet professor Darryl White (right).

The 21st season of Jazz in June continues today with the Darryl White Group and special guest artist Bobby Watson. Organized by the Sheldon Art Association and Sheldon Museum of Art, the free concerts take place every Tuesday in June at 7 p.m. with activities beginning at 5 p.m.

White is a professor of trumpet at UNL.

Concertgoers are encouraged to arrive early to get a spot on the lawn west of the museum. Sheldon Art Association volunteers will sell water, T-shirts and artist CDs. Blankets and lawn chairs are allowed. Pets, with the exception of service animals, are not.

The Jazz in June Market at 12th and R streets begins at 5 p.m. each Tuesday. A wide variety of food and drink vendors are available, and local artists will be selling their wares.

Free walking tours of campus gardens are also offered as part of Jazz at June activities. Organized by Landscape Services, Facilities Management and Planning and Sheldon, the garden tours are offered prior to each concert at 6 p.m. and start at the east entrance to the museum.

Bud Dasenbrock, retired director of UNL Landscape Services and member of the UNL Garden Friends board, will lead today's tour of historic trees on campus. The tour will include 14 of the 39 species that are documented as having been planted by UNL gardeners 100 years ago on the original four-block land-grant campus. The trees that remain today are of historical significance and deserve special maintenance and care.

Super Sleuth scavenger hunts inside the museum will also begin at 6 p.m. every Tuesday. Jazz in June's youngest patrons are invited to pick up activity sheets on the west side of the museum and follow clues through its galleries. Josh the Otter, from the Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation, will be on hand to teach kids about water safety.

Although the Jazz in June concert series is free, those attending are encouraged to make a donation of at least $10 per family to help ensure its continuation.

White has been playing the horn since his youth in Warren, Ohio. Experienced in both classical and jazz, he has performed as a guest soloist with the Omaha Symphony, the Lake Forest Chamber Orchestra, and in a variety of venues, including the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City and Nebraska's statewide NET Radio. His albums include "In the Fullness of Time," "Ancient Memories," and the 2007 classical release, "Resonance," with ECM recording artist Art Lande.

Watson, a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, is a saxophonist, composer, arranger and educator. He was formally trained at the University of Miami and cut his teeth as the musical director of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, commonly referred to as the "University of Blakey" for its role as the ultimate postgraduate school for young musicians. His career has spanned more than 30 years and 130 recordings, including more than 100 original compositions. In late 2010, Watson released "The Gates BBQ Suite," a seven-part composition that climbed the National Jazz Airplay chart to No. 4.

For more information on Jazz in June, go to http://www.jazzinjune.com.