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Performing Arts Center Season Opens with Jazz Festival

Sedona AZ – The Phillip England Center for the Performing Arts Foundation will present the Camp Verde Jazz Festival on August 30 and 31, 2019.

The Bresnan Unplugged Quartet will open the Festival on Friday, August 30, at 7:00 p.m. and present a fun filled evening of swing blues, originals and standards culled from the Great American Songbook. Dan Bresnan, vocals and guitar, is an international recording artist, guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, as well as a revered luthier. His well acclaimed Bresnan Blues Band album “Party in My Backseat” has received rave reviews and is in regular rotation on European radio stations.

​The Bresnan Quartet includes pianist and trumpeter Dave Len Scott, a happy new resident of northern Arizona. Dave formerly worked in the San Francisco Bay Area recording and touring with Concord Records jazz artists such as Rosemary Clooney, Michael Feinstein, and Big Kahuna and the Copa Cat Pack, as well as touring with the Boz Scaggs band from 2004 to 2008. Bassist Troy Perkins started his musical career playing French Horn. Transitioning to bass during his college years, he has since performed throughout the US and Europe. Drummer Dr. Bob Sellani is the founder of the Northern Arizona Blues Alliance and its current Sedona Verde Valley area VP. Bob was recently inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, and is a four-time International Blues Competition competitor and semifinalist.

The Festival continues on Saturday, August 31, at 7:00 p.m. with the return of the popular Don Moio Quintet. Dom brought his quartet to the first Jazz Festival in 2018. By popular demand, Dom is returning with an expanded group to include percussionist Joe Garcia.

Of Cuban descent, Joe Garcia began playing drums and percussion at the age of thirteen in the heavily Latin influenced city of Miami, Florida. With a professional career spanning over thirty years, Garcia has performed many different styles of music from jazz and Latin jazz to Brazilian to country to rock, and records on numerous projects, both live and in-studio. Joe was inspired by iconic musicians Mongo Santamaria, Giovanni Hidalgo, Luis Conte, Roy Haynes and Joe Morello, to name a few. Joe’s professionalism and engaging personality have earned him a stellar reputation in the music business and he is “first-call” with many bands and recording artists.

Drummer Dom Moio started playing drums in the fifth grade. His first teacher, Dick Demers, started Dom on his way both as a player and teacher in 1970 in Maine. In 1975, Dom went to New York to study with studio master, Bernard Purdie. Then, to Boston in 1976 to study with jazz great Alan Dawson. Dom’s first book, “Be Bop Phrasing for Drums,” was dedicated to Alan.

Before leaving the East Coast, Dom had the opportunity to play with jazz greats, Don Doane, Clark Terry, Herb Pomeroy, Dave McKenna, and many other players from the New England area. In 1978, Dom left for Reno, Nevada with guitar player brother Bill, where he soon started working the casino circuit. During 1980-84, he was the house drummer for the MGM Grand and Hello Hollywood Hello Show. While in Reno, other show gigs included Joan Rivers, Tony Orlando, Shirley Jones, and Debbie Reynolds and more. Dom also kept busy with west coast jazz players like Don Menza, Red Holloway, Herb Ellis, Joe Diorio, and Ahmad Jamal. In 1988, Dom made Phoenix his home and has been busy ever since. Now, in his twenty-eighth year at Arizona State University’s Jazz Faculty, Dom keeps a very busy teaching and gigging schedule and over 100 jazz CD recordings.

The rest of the quintet includes pianist Nick Manson, a talented jazz pianist and keyboardist. With two Emmy Awards, the winning multifaceted Nick Manson is also a composer, arranger and producer who has excelled in several fields. His piano playing is swinging, lyrical, consistently inventive, and quite individual. Throughout his career, Nick’s performances are both accessible and creative, appealing to a wide audience yet remaining true to himself. Even during his busiest periods working in commercial music, Nick composed, recorded, and performed jazz everywhere from the Kennedy Center to the Concord Jazz Festival, Telluride Jazz Festival, Paradise Valley Jazz Party, and elsewhere while also touring in Europe, South American and Asia.

Bassist Dwight Kilian’s academic career started with earning a Bachelor of Music degree from Wichita State University (WSU) which led to instructing jazz bass at Hutchinson Community College, Bethel College, and WSU. His pursuit of a jazz bass career led to what he calls his “night schooling” in Denver, Colorado. In 1998, he relocated to Phoenix to perform as the bassist for the Boulders Resort. This move opened doors for him to expand his teaching career, including jazz bass and clinician work at Arizona State University. Kilian has performed with an impressive list of prominent jazz artists including Mose Allison, Richie Cole, Teddy Edwards, Bob Florence, Benny Green, Sheila Jordan, Lee Konitz, Art Lande, Herbie Mann, Mark Murphy, Nicholas Payton, and Ernie Watts. More locally, he freelances throughout the valley, playing and recording with many leading Arizona-based performers.

Saxophonist Andrew Gross had been in bands since 1995. He continued his jazz studies at the prestigious William-Paterson University in New Jersey and at the New School University in Manhattan where he earned a bachelor of fine arts degree. He then moved to Arizona to earn a master’s degree at ASU while actively working as a professional jazz musician.

The Phillip England Center for the Performing Arts is a 424-seat venue located at 210 Camp Lincoln Road in Camp Verde, Arizona, just one mile south of the Cliff Castle Casino Hotel, off Middle Verde Road. Tickets are $20 for center seats or $15 for general admission. Tickets for children and students are always free. No-Fee online tickets for the Festival are available at www.campverdejazz.com. All seats are reserved. Available tickets can also be purchased at the door the evening of either concert. Proceeds from these and other concerts produced by the Foundation benefit the Camp Verde Unified School District’s music and theater programs.

The Phillip England Center for the Performing Arts Foundation is a nonprofit performing arts organization. Its mission is to support the Phillip England Center for the Performing Arts in presenting a rich array of culturally diverse arts programming for the Town of Camp Verde and North Central Arizona in order to educate, enlighten, enrich and entertain students, residents and patrons of all ages, while providing leadership and support to advance cultural/performing arts and nourish appreciation for various art forms in the community. For additional information on the Foundation, visit the website pecpaf.com.

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