MARCH 16-2O, 2026
One week. Six concerts.
World-class musicians on the cutting-edge of today’s scene. Jazz for all palates from avant-garde, to R&B, to straight ahead jazz.
THE LINEUP
Damon Locks & Ken Vandermark Project
Mar 16 | 7 pm | Bedford Concert Hall | Free
Damon Locks and Ken Vandermark began to collaborate as a duo through an invitation to perform at Chicago’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival in September of 2020. Their material is based on their collective histories, which include decades of work with a variety of musical aesthetics and artists that have taken place during hundreds of concerts and dozens of recordings, at home and abroad. Their performances are a unique combination of pre-recorded materials, improvisation, electronics, and reed instruments, and are focused on spontaneous interaction and creation.
Video Link: Chicago Takes 10 performance, April 2021
https://www.chicagotakes10.org/artists/ken-vandermark-damon-locks
Damon Locks is a Chicago-based visual artist, educator, vocalist/musician. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago where he received his BFA in fine arts. Since 2014 he has been working with the Prisons and Neighborhood Arts Project at Stateville Correctional Center teaching art. He is a recipient of the Helen Coburn Meier and Tim Meier Achievement Award in the Arts and the 2016 MAKER Grant. He operated as an Artist Mentor in the Chicago Artist Coalition program FIELD/WORK. In 2017 he became a Soros Justice Media Fellow. In 2019, he became a 3Arts Awardee. He recently completed 4years as an artist in residence as a part of the Museum of Contemporary Arts’ SPACE Program, introducing civically engaged art into the curriculum at Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy High School. In the spring of 2022, he taught his first semester in the Sound Department on improvisation at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Damon leads the Black Monument Ensemble and is a founding member of the band The Eternals.
Ken Vandermark (USA 1964) is an improvising musician and composer who plays tenor and baritone saxophone, Bb and bass clarinet. He moved to Chicago from Boston in 1989, and has worked from the early 1990s onward, both as a performer and organizer in North America and Europe, recording in an array of contexts with many internationally renowned musicians. His current group activity includes the bands Bent Atlas, Lean Left, The DKV Trio, DEK, his large ensemble Entr’acte, the ongoing Momentum projects; duos with Terrie Ex, Christof Kurzmann, Damon Locks, Paal Nilssen-Love, Mars Williams, and Nate Wooley; and work as a solo performer. Ken co-founded Catalytic Sound in 2012, an organization dedicated to the economic sustainability of creative improvising musicians and has been its director since then. In 2014 he began Audiographic Records, an independent music label. Since June of 2015 Ken has been co-curator of Option, a music and interview series held at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago. Half of each year is spent touring in Europe, North America, Latin America, and Japan; his concerts and numerous recordings have been critically acclaimed at home and abroad. In 1999 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in music.
Jennifer Allen and the Heart of Alchemy
Mar 17 | 7 pm | Bedford Concert Hall | Free
Jen Allen is a dynamic pianist, composer, author, and educator, captivating audiences worldwide with her artistry and creative vision. She frequently performs as a leader or collaborator in venues across New York, the Northeast U.S., and internationally.
Jen has shared the stage with renowned artists such as Don Braden, Jimmy Greene, Freddie Hendrix, Camille Thurman, Nat Reeves, and Sarah Caswell. An active recording artist, her discography includes her debut album Pieces of Myself, Sifting Grace, her latest release Possibilities, and collaborative projects like Raise Up by Trio 149.
Jen will be performing the music off her latest album, Possibilities, which unfolds with her signature introspection and melodic richness, inviting listeners into a soundscape where curiosity, truthfulness, and transformation take root. The album explores what becomes available when we soften our grip on certainty and lean into the unknown. Possibilities offers a deeply personal yet universally resonant meditation on change, resilience, and the quiet power of choosing openness over fear.
Featuring: Leala Cyr-vocals | Clark Sommers- bass | Hannah Johnson-drums
Derrick Gardner and the Jazz Prophets
Mar 18 | 7 pm | Bedford Concert Hall | Free
Jazz trumpeter Derrick Gardner, inspired by the finest hard-blowing funky bop bands of the 1960s, is
working to extend that great tradition as a performer, composer and arranger. Derrick quickly made his
mark on the New York City jazz scene after arriving in the Big Apple in 1991. It has enabled him to travel
the world playing top-flight jazz – including five years in the Count Basie Orchestra (1991 to 1996 plus
occasional guest appearances that have continued into the present day), as well as work in Frank Foster’s
Loud Minority Band, Harry Connick Jr.’s Big Band, The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, The
Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and Swiss tenor player Roman Schwaller’s European sextet.
Derrick formed his sextet, The Jazz Prophets, in 1991, and 30+ years later it continues to be the primary
vehicle of his distinctive, hard-driving music. Derrick’s recording by The Jazz Prophets, “Echoes of
Ethnicity,” marked his second Owl Studios release in April ’09 and was named by Music Resource Group
(MRG) as the winner in the 9th annual Independent Music Awards, the influential awards program for
independent bands and fans, for “Best Jazz Album 2009.” This prestigious award adds to the long list of
accolades “Echoes of Ethnicity” has received in 2009. Like his two previous recordings, “A Ride to the
Other Side” and “Slim Goodie,” it bubbles with the long-standing collective’s sheer love of the soulful,
funky jazz sound for which Cannonball Adderley and Horace Silver built solid foundations with their
1950s and ‘60s ensembles. Only they’re taking that sound into new, invigorating territory. The band’s
three-man horn line, consisting of Derrick, tenor saxophonist Rob Dixon and Derrick’s brother,
trombonist Vincent Gardner of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, has been together since the very
beginning.
Born in Chicago, IL, Derrick began playing trumpet at age 9 and rapidly developed as a player and soloist,
regarded highly throughout high school and college at Virginia’s Hampton University as an imaginative
and strong improviser. As jazz journalist Ken Franckling points out in the liner notes for A Ride to the
Other Side.., Derrick is “a Clifford Brown disciple with tinges of Freddy Hubbard and Woody Shaw thrown
in for good measure, all in service of a sound and a band that are extending the funky soul-swing
evolution.”
In addition to his own recordings, Derrick has performed on multiple recordings with the Count Basie
Orchestra, including the Grammy-winning The Count Basie Orchestra Live at Manchester Craftman’s
Guild, with the New York Voices in 1997, and four sessions with Harry Connick Jr., including 2007’s
Hurricane Katrina-inspired Oh, My NOLA. His work has brought him to Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Japan,
Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and Africa, as well as many premier venues in the United States.
Derrick has worked with a tremendous litany of artists that includes Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson,
Frank Foster, Joe Williams, Benny Golson, Rufus Reid, Kenny Baron, Stefon Harris, James Moody, Oliver
Lake, Roy Hargrove, and Clark Terry to name a few.
Derrick is a highly sought-after educator, clinician and guest artist at high schools and universities
around the world. He has taught on the jazz faculties of The New School, Julliard School of Music, Long
Island University, The Ohio State University, Michigan State University, University of Manitoba and is
currently Director of Jazz Studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
In 2019-2020, Derrick became the recipient of several artist grants from Canada Council for the Arts,
FACTOR, University of Manitoba and Manitoba Film & Music for the production of a big band recording
featuring Gardner’s arrangements on ten of his original compositions. This recording titled “Still I Rise”
by Derrick Gardner & The BIG dig! BAND was released on the Impact Jazz label in July 2020 to critical
acclaim.
Derrick’s fifth recording as leader, “Pan Africa” by Derrick Gardner & The Jazz Prophets was released
in January 2023 on the Impact Jazz label. This recording draws its inspiration from his tour of Ghana and
is a blending of West African musical culture and Jazz.
The Tom Garling Jazz Orchestra
Mar 19 | 7 pm | Bedford Concert Hall | $10
A steady buzz around Tom Garling’s jazz writing has been building for 30 years. Since its inception in 2020, the Tom Garling Jazz Orchestra has been playing to packed houses around the Chicago area. His first compositions and arrangements were recorded and featured on Maynard Ferguson’s “One More Trip to Birdland” and “Brass Attitude” in the 1990’s, and since then, he has amassed a library of over 100 compositions, arrangements, and orchestrations.
Professional bands are playing his music to enthusiastic audiences around the world, including the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, The Airmen of Note, and bands from Japan to Europe and beyond. Drawing from the deep talent that the Chicago area has to offer, Tom has put together some of the greatest jazz talent you can find anywhere.
Trumpets: Joey Tartel, Derrick Gardner, Pharez Whitted, Russ Johnson Trombones: Steve Duncan, Andrew Meyer, Kirby Fellis, Tom Matta Saxes: John Wojciechowski, Lenard Simpson, Geof Bradfield, Scott Burns, Rajiv Halim Piano: Reggie Thomas Guitar: Mike Allemana Bass: Clark Sommers Drums: Neil Hemphill
UW-Parkside Jazz Faculty
Mar 20 | 12 pm | Bedford Concert Hall | Free
Russ Johnson, trumpet | James Sodke, piano | Tim Ipsen, bass | David Bayles, drums | Dustin Laurenzi, saxophone
UW-Parkside Jazz Ensembles with Local High School Ensembles
Mar 20 | 7 pm | Bedford Concert Hall | $10
The Parkside Jazz Ensembles are joined by special guest ensembles from Bradford, Indian Trail, Tremper and Oak Creek High Schools
Jazz Week is sponsored in part by contributions from Kenosha Community Foundation and the College of Arts and Humanities. Parking for Jazz Week performances is free in Lot B & C in any unmetered, undesignated space.
For more information, contact The Rita Box Office at 262-595-2564.
Tickets are available for purchase online or at the Rita Box Office.
Individual Tickets
General | $10
Parkside faculty/staff | $5
Students | $5
Each music major/minor receives one comp ticket per performance.
Please note that all ticket sales are final and that we do not provide refunds nor guarantee exchanges. We will do our best to exchange individual tickets for other concerts/productions but can make no promises that alternate ticketing will be available.
For your convenience we offer you a number of ways to contact our Theatre Box Office for performance information and to purchase tickets for our theatre productions.
You can also call to 262-595-2564 speak with our friendly staff about available tickets and purchasing, or visit the Rita Box Office near the main entrance to the Rita. Call the Box Office for detailed hours or stop by one hour prior to each performance.
Box Office
262-595-2564
boxoffice@uwp.edu
The Rita | Bedford Concert Hall
Avenue of the Arts
Kenosha, WI 53144
Parking: Lot B, C
About The Rita
Since 1968, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside has continued to build a reputation as an outstanding liberal arts institution with particularly strong fine arts programs. With The Rita Tallent Picken Center for Arts & Humanities, our state-of-the-art instructional facilities and stunning performance venues match our award-winning academic programs and provide even greater community access. Read more about The Rita.
