IU alumna and local jazz vocalist Rachel Caswell will perform at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at Bear’s Place, with backing from a quintet that includes an IU student and professors.
Caswell, an adjunct lecturer in the Jacobs School of Music, will be performing with jazz guitarist Dave Stryker, in addition to jazz professors Tom Walsh on alto-saxophone and Jeremy Allen on bass. Senior in jazz music Rocky Martin will be playing drums.
The concert is a tribute to late jazz singer Nancy Wilson, who died in December.
The event will feature Caswell’s own interpretations of some of Wilson’s work, including jazz classics and pop songs. Caswell will also perform songs off of her latest CD release, “We’re All In The Dance.”
Caswell studied classical cello and jazz studies while at IU, graduating in 1995. She went on to receive a Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies in Voice from the New England Conservatory of Music.
Since then, Caswell has performed at various venues across the nation, including New York City’s Bar Next Door, the 2018 Jazz Education Network Conference and the Jazz Cabaret Series at the Kentucky Center of the Arts in Louisville, Kentucky.
Stryker is from Omaha, Nebraska, where he worked in the local music scene until getting a four-night a week job at the Dude’s Lounge in Harlem, New York. Since then, the guitarist has released 28 CDs as an album leader.
The event is open to the public and tickets cost $7 for students and $9 for general admission.
