Wyoming Arts Council

Cyrus Chesnut opens UW fall concert series

Uncategorized | September 3, 2010

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From a UW press release:

Jazz musician Cyrus Chestnut will start the University of Wyoming Cultural Programs fall concert series at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10, in the Fine Arts Center concert hall in Laramie.

Tickets cost $22 for the public and $18 for students and senior citizens. Tickets can be purchased online at www.uwyo.edu/finearts or call (307) 766-6666. Tickets are also available at the Wyoming Union information desk and Fine Arts box office. The Fine Arts box office hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., and one hour before each scheduled performance.

According to the New York Times, “His brand of crisp articulation and blues-inflected harmony evokes another era . . . multifaceted and dynamic.” Playing a funky brand of jazz that blends blues, R&B and even rock and roll, he has a CD devoted entirely to Elvis hits.

Chestnut began his career as a gospel pianist for the Mount Calvary Star Baptist Church in Baltimore beginning at the age of six. After graduating from the Peabody Institute, which he entered at the age of nine, and the Berklee College of Music, he became a sideman for such jazz legends as Wynton Marsalis, Dizzy Gillespie, Terence Blanchard, Freddie Hubbard, Chick Corea, Isaac Hayes, James Carter and Betty Carter.

He is now an established soloist with several top-selling CDs to his credit. He can boast that he has not only played with Count Basie, but he has also played Count Basie in Robert Altman’s flim, “Kansas City.”

Photo: Jazz musician Cyrus Chestnut will launch the UW Cultural Programs fall concert series Friday, Sept. 10, at 7:30 p.m. (UW Cultural Programs)

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