Wilke, along with the KCJO, has been involved with Big Band Christmas since the very beginning. Guests are also encouraged to bring nonperishable food items, which will be donated to Just Food.
Tickets for the concert range from $20 to $300 for a table of 10, and can be purchased at or at the Liberty Hall box office, 644 Massachusetts St. The 17-piece ensemble, along with guests vocalists Ron Gutierrez and Kathleen Holeman, have kept a few holiday classics on the program - and, Irwin writes in an email, “I don’t think it would be an ‘official’ Big Band Christmas if the KCJO didn’t play the anthem of the big band era, Benny Goodman’s ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’!” Saturday will see the premier of new Sinatra arrangements by KCJO conductor and artistic director Clint Ashlock, but Big Band Christmas traditionalists needn’t worry. While previous concerts might have included hits from Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and the like, this year’s Big Band Christmas pays homage to Frank Sinatra, whose 100th birthday (the legendary singer passed away in 1998) happens to fall on the same day. Since the event’s “modest beginning” in 2008, jazz fans and KPR supporters have showed up to dance the night away to holiday tunes and big-band classics - some patrons dressed in 1940s-style clothing, Wilke notes. “I think any arrangement that swings with a big band will get people moving.” “You can take a Christmas song and make it a little piano solo or just a small combo, or you can put it in a big band,” Wilke says. It’s all about the arrangements, the two agree. Saturday, says KPR media manager Phil Wilke. Still, it’s never failed to evoke a “festive mood” among audience members at Kansas Public Radio’s annual Big Band Christmas at Liberty Hall, where the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra is slated to take the stage at 8 p.m. There’s nothing inherently “Christmas-y” about big band music, says Steve Irwin, general manager of the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra. The saxophone section of the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra is pictured here as Holeman sings. Singer Kathleen Holeman first performed at the KPR Big Band Christmas show in 2014 and returns for Saturday night's performance.
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