Five-day JazzFest Michigan underway in Lansing’s Old Town

JazzFest Michigan opened this week with a kickoff concert at the UrbanBeat venue in Lansing's Old Town, launching a five-day run of performances across three stages that continues through the weekend. The festival mixes jazz with funk, folk, pop, world music and gospel, reflecting the eclectic booking style of UrbanBeat, and organizers asked each act to perform an original song or arrangement they had never played before.

The Lansing Concert Band's affiliated LCB Big Band, formed in 1993 by trumpeter Jim Kasprzak, is scheduled to play the festival's Fish Ladder stage with a set spanning 1930s big-band standards from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald through Frank Sinatra-era arrangements to music from the 1970s rock group Chicago. The set also includes a new ballad by a Michigan State University composition student and a Chuck Mangione tune Kasprzak plans to play on flugelhorn.

Vocalists Rick Templin and Kelly Sandula-Gruner, who perform together as Clique Vocals, are set to appear on the UrbanBeat stage, and Detroit saxophonist Mark Hershberger's band is booked for the Cold Plunge stage Saturday. The festival is set to close Sunday with a gospel brunch featuring vocalist Twyla Birdsong. A full schedule is available at michiganjazzfest.com.

Read the full story at Lansing City Pulse.