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Jazz Thursday

On the fourth Thursday night of each month, KASU presents the "Jazz Thursday" concert series at The Arts @ 311, 311 South Church Street in downtown Jonesboro.  Shows begin at 6:30 p.m. 

The concerts feature primarily jazz musicians from our region.

There is no admission fee, but KASU will "pass the hat," collecting money to pay the musicians.  The Jazz Thursday concert series is made possible thanks to support from Gregg-Langford Bookout Funeral Home in Jonesboro, Infectious Disease and Control Consultants, and The Arts@311. 

For more information, contact KASU Development Director Mark Smith at 870-972-2283 or msmith@astate.edu.

 

The next KASU Jazz Thursday concert will be a little earlier than usual. While Jazz Thursday is traditionally on the fourth Thursday of each month, in October it’s moving up to the third Thursday. Matt Lucas will be the featured artist for Jazz Thursday, on October 17th. The concert starts at 6:30 p.m., at The Arts at 311 in downtown Jonesboro.

Matt Lucas is a drummer, singer, and songwriter who grew up in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, listening to big band music on the radio and dreaming of becoming a jazz musician. He started his musical career playing jazz, but soon found his way to Los Angeles, where his musical tastes expanded to include doo-wop, soul, and rhythm-and-blues influences.

Lucas started playing rock-and-roll in the mid-1950s in clubs around Chicago and Saint Louis. Then on a trip back to Southeast Missouri in 1956, he met Narvel Felts. By 1960, he was a member of the Narvel Felts Trio. In 1963, Matt Lucas recorded a rocked-up version of the Hank Snow song, “I’m Movin’ On.” The record became a hit on black radio stations, but struggled for airtime on white stations. The song made it to number 56 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart that year.

After struggling with alcoholism and recovering from a heart attack in the 1970s, Lucas spent the next 20 years or so entertaining audiences in clubs, on cruise ships, and on the Delta Queen riverboat, with a mix of rock-n-roll, jazz, and blues. Today, Matt Lucas continues to tour throughout the U.S. and Canada. He is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the International Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Matt Lucas shares his love of jazz, influenced by blues, soul, and rock-and-roll, at The Arts at 311 for this month’s KASU Jazz Thursday concert. The concert will be October 17th, starting at 6:30 p.m.