Rick Simerly

GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Greensboro College Jazz Ensemble will perform its final concert of 2016-2017 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 2, in Gail Brower Huggins Performance Center in Odell Building on campus.

Admission is free, and the public is invited.

The performance will feature a special guest, jazz trombonist Rick Simerly, currently associate professor of  music at Milligan College in Tennessee.

The Online Trombone Journal has written of him, “Rick Simerly is in the upper ranks of contemporary trombonists, while the International Trombone Association Journal wrote, “Rick leaves no doubt about his mastery. Rick is scary!”

Simerly has toured with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra under the direction of David Baker and has played in the bands of Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Nelson Riddle, Les Elgart, Bob Crosby, Jimmy Dorsey, Buddy Morrow, and the last band of Charlie Spivak.

He has performed with jazz artists including Billy Taylor, James Moody, Slide Hampton, Rufus Reid, Jon Faddis, Bobby Shew, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Milt Hinton, Eric Alexander, Dave McKenna, Butch Miles, Adam Nussbaum, Plas Johnson, Jake Hanna, Tommy Newsom, Joe Wilder, Pat LaBarbera, Steve Wilson, and Bobby Watson

He also has performed with such entertainers as Frank Sinatra Jr., Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Danny Thomas, Vic Damone, Lou Rawls, Gladys Knight, The Temptations, The Spinners, The Four Tops, The Commodores and The O’Jays.

He has recorded two CDs, “Simple/Complexity” on Bone-Appetite Records and “Obscurity” on Double-Time Jazz. He wrote and recorded the “Volume 54 Maiden Voyage Jazz Solos for Trombone” book and CD set, published by Jamey Aebersold Jazz Inc.

Simerly has also served as a faculty member at the renowned Brubeck Institute in Stockton, Calif. He has been a featured soloist for the International Association of Jazz Educators, The International Trombone Association and the Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago.

Greensboro College provides a liberal arts education grounded in the traditions of the United Methodist Church and fosters the intellectual, social, and, spiritual development of all students while supporting their individual needs.

Founded in 1838 and located in downtown Greensboro, the college enrolls about 1,000 students from 29 states and territories, the District of Columbia, and seven foreign countries in its undergraduate liberal-arts program and four master’s degree programs. In addition to rigorous academics and a well-supported Honors program, the school features an 18-sport NCAA Division III athletic program and dozens of service and recreational opportunities.