Jazz concerts return to county

A Saturday concert soon will usher in a month of jazz in Columbia County.

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Waynesboro, Ga., native and jazz trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and pianist Eric Reed will begin the month of music with a concert on Saturday as part of the Augusta Symphony's Columbia County Music Series.

The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Jabez Sanford Hardin Performing Arts Center at the library in Evans. It will feature many musical genres, including "gospel, jazz, show tunes and works by American composers, such as Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, (Stevie) Wonder, Thelonious Monk, Jimmy van Huesen, Thomas Dorsey, and many traditional favorites," Gordon said in a statement from the symphony.

Tickets for the concert cost $30 and can be purchased online at www.augustasymphony.org, or by calling (706) 826-4705.

Columbia County's Community Events department will keep the jazz installments coming through mid-February with its Sounds of Jazz series, which begins at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 26 at the Performing Arts Center and will feature a performance by Mood Indigo.

"We got a great response," Community Events Specialist Brooke Willis said of the county's two previous jazz series held in March 2007 and summer 2006.

The series will continue Feb. 2 with Kari Gaffney, Feb. 9 with Fred Williams, and Feb. 16 with Preston and Weston.

Tickets cost $10 per concert or $30 for the four-part series, Willis said. Tickets are available in advance by calling (706) 312-7194, or at the door. For more information, visit www.columbiacountyga.gov.