The bass boomed and the rhythm section rocked at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at the C.L. Hoover Opera House in Junction City as the Junction City High School Jazz Band opened for the Doug Talley Jazz Quartet.
The high schoolers invited members of the quartet to assist them in a few numbers, and ended their time on the stage with Mike Carubia’s 2009 arrangement of “Buffalo Wings.”
After a brief intermission, the Doug Talley Jazz Quartet took the stage with Cole Porter’s “Night and Day.” Doug Talley, the quartet’s charming leader and humble saxophone player, introduced his fellow musicians: Wayne Hawkins, the pianist, James Albright, the bassist, and Keith Kavanaugh, the drummer. The concert carried on with performances of jazz tunes the audience had selected during Junction City High’s time in the spotlight.
Most of the concert consisted of classic jazz pieces from composers like George Gershwin, Paul Desmond and Cole Porter, but the third tune was a piece by Talley himself, a movement from his “Kansas City Suite,” a Latin-inspired melody about the Plaza.
A series of Duke Ellington pieces, “Take the A Train,” “In A Sentimental Mood” and “Caravan,” which the K-State Marching Band performed with the Boston Brass during a halftime show, ended the concert.