The trumpets will sound and the drums will roll this weekend when SIUC’s Jazz Ensembles begin a weekend of music with a spring concert at 8 p.m. tonight at Shryock Auditorium.

The ensembles are directed by trumpet professor Bob Allison and Phillip Brown, associate professor of string bass. These ensembles are composed of SIUC students chosen after an audition. Not all the students, who take part in the ensembles for course credit, are music majors.

A big band is made up of four to five trumpets and trombones, five saxes and a rhythm section of piano, guitar, bass and drums.

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Allison said the ensemble has been preparing for this concert throughout the year.

The several other engagements before included local night time entertainment stages and recordings at Blue Earth studios in Harrisburg and have been preparation points for [the Spring Concert], Allison said.

Just as the echoes of the Spring Concert clear the heads of the listeners, the music returns 1:00 p.m. Saturday when six area high school jazz bands compete in the SIU Jazz Festival.

Prior to the awards presentation Saturday, SIUC’s top jazz band will be joined by Jerry Green, a world-class saxophonist from St. Louis. Green is the co-author of Patterns for Jazz. He and the SIUC Jazz Ensemble I will play at 4:15 p.m. on the Shryock stage.

Green, area jazz pianist Mel Goot and clarinet and saxophone professor Eric Mandat will judge the competition.

Bands will be critiqued on such areas of performance as precision, stylistic authenticity and soloist improvisation, Allison said.

Mandat will sit in with Jazz Ensemble I Thursday and Saturday, and Brown will perform a bass feature with the band Saturday.

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Factoid:The Jazz Ensembles’ Spring Concert takes place 8 p.m. tonight at Shryock Auditorium. Admission is $3, $2 for students.

The SIU Jazz Festival is 1 p.m. Saturday at Shryock Auditorium. Jerry Green and Jazz Ensemble I play at 4:15 p.m. Admission is free.