Published April 9, 2010<\/SPAN> Jeff Hamilton will headline the evening entertainment at this year’s Jazz Unlimited Festival happening April 9-10 and 15-17 at Columbia Basin College in Pasco.<\/P> The festival is a competition that involves 4,500 student musicians from all over the Northwest, including high school and middle school students. Competition categories include concert choirs, jazz bands and jazz choirs.<\/P> There is no fee to watch the daylong competitions, which begin at 7:30 a.m. each day on the CBC campus.<\/P> There is a charge to the Hamilton concert on April 9, but the rest of the festival’s evening entertainment is free. Tickets to the Hamilton concert, which begins at 7:30 p.m., are $15 for adults and $10 for students and senior citizens.<\/P> Hamilton, who’ll perform with his trio that includes Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown, is world renowned as a versatile drummer with a unique style.<\/P> David Badham, music critic with the Jazz Journal International, referred to Hamilton’s recent album, Heart and Soul, as, “the finest modern big band sound I’ve heard.”<\/P> Opening the Hamilton concert will be performances by the CBC Orchestra and the CBC Jazz Ensemble.<\/P> On April 10, Hamilton will play with the jazz ensemble starting at 5:15 p.m. in the Gjerde Center. Then on April 15, CBC’s FreeForm jazz group will sing songs from its latest CD release starting at 7:30 p.m. in the theater.<\/P> For a complete schedule of events, go to www.columbiabasin.edu\/jazzunlimited<\/A>.<\/P>
Dori O’Neal, Tri-City Herald staff writer<\/P>