Carnival of Soul

This weekend, Grove Music Festival will welcome the Adam Meckler Trio to Midland for its 21st annual Ed Carney Memorial Jazz Concert. The band will perform a mix of modern and traditional jazz music.

“He has the skills and the educational component,” said Grove Music Festival board member Larry Carbary, of Midland. “The concert is going to demonstrate his skills and abilities with his trio.”

Trumpeter and composer Adam is the director of jazz studies at Michigan Technological University and leads The Adam Meckler Orchestra (AMO), an 18-piece big band that plays original compositions. Carbary and the Grove Music Festival board heard of Meckler through a former jazz instructor from Michigan Tech, and they were impressed by Meckler’s repertoire, including the album “Magnificent Madness,” which was released in April.

“We emphasize creativity and improvisation,” Meckler said in a recent phone interview.

Joining Meckler are drummer, percussionist and improviser Andrew Green and bassist Brian Courage, both of Chicago. Meckler met Green when the former was a senior and the latter was a freshman at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin where they performed together. Courage attended the same university, but not until Meckler had graduated. The two met through an alum group when they were living in Minneapolis. Although Courage ultimately moved to New York City before settling in Chicago, the three of them kept in touch.

“The world is relatively small, and you can make music with whomever you want,” Meckler stated.

In addition to the concert on Saturday, the Adam Meckler Trio will host a jazz invitational clinic at Bay City Western High School on Friday, Jan. 10. Meckler will teach students about jazz through “call and response,” where he will play a portion of music and have the pupils recite it back, copying his style.

“It’s really how jazz started. It’s how music started,” he stated, citing how music was first heard and then learned.

Meckler hopes the clinic creates excitement.

“I want everyone to find something they love in jazz. Jazz is such a broad term, it’s a broad music,” he said.

The Ed Carney Memorial Jazz Concert featuring the Adam Meckler Trio will take place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11, at Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church, 5501 Jefferson Ave. in Midland. Tickets are $10 and will be available at the door.

For more information about Grove Music Festival, and to see upcoming events, visit grovemusic.wordpress.com. For more information about Adam Meckler, visit adammeckler.com.