The Fifth Annual Great Bend Jazz Festival will be held March 12 and 13 at the Crest Theater, Great Bend, KS. Concerts begin at 7:30 pm.

The festival will open Friday, March 12 and feature “Measure x Measure”, a group of six young singers from the Lawrence and Kansas City area performing A Cappella Jazz. At 8:30 “The Lisa Henry Quintet” will perform. Members are Lisa Henry vocalist, Frank Mantooth piano, Kim Park saxophone, Todd Strait percussion, and Bob Bowman bass.

The Washburn University Jazz Ensemble from Topeka, Ks.. with Frank Mantooth and leader Chuck Tumlinson and the Great Bend High School Panther Jazz Band will perform Saturday, March 13. The Washburn University Jazz Ensemble will also conduct clinics for interested music students from area schools on Saturday afternoon at Great Bend High School.

Jazz Festival admission for the two day event will be $6 for adults, $3 for students.

Major sponsors for the jazz festival are the Kansas Arts Commission, the National Endowments tor Arts, the Great Bend Kiwanis Club and Quality Music. Several businesses and individuals have also contributed to the sponsorship of this worthwhile youth and community activity.

The annual jazz festival was once part of the Great Bend Community Theatre, but it is now incorporated with the name, Great Bend Jazz Festival, Inc. The officers are Kurtis Koch, president; Joe Boley, vice-president; and Bob Feldt, secretary/treasurer. Board members are; Warren Deckert, Ron Mink, J.B. Webster, Lois Jerke, Lori Underwood, David Weller, Mike Compton, Ralph Raffelock, Mike Walts and Philip G. Hardesty.

Previous jazz festivals have featured, the "Crosswinds" with members from Topeka and Lawrence; the “New Vintage Jazz Band” from Wichita; Tom Fowler, and the Wichita State University Jazz Arts 1; Bryce Luty and Friends from Hutchinson Community College; Kurtis Koch, and All That Jazz from Great Bend and Hays; Karrin Allyson Quintet a local personality now living in Kansas City; the University of Kansas Jazz Ensemble and Singers, the Washburn University Jazz Ensemble 1, the internationally known pianist, composer and arranger, Frank Mantooth; the 312 Army Jazz Band; and James Van Buren and The Group from Denver, Colorado. Other performers at the jazz festival have included; the local Jay Bennett big Band, the Great Bend High School Panther Jazz, the Barton County Community College Jazz Band and the Great Bend Middle School Jazz Band.