Get your taste of winter with ECC jazz

The Elgin Community College Jazz Ensembles, directed by Mark Bettcher, present "Winter Taste of Jazz" at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the ECC Visual and Performing Arts Center's Blizzard Theatre, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin.

ECC's own dazzling jazz musicians will heat up a cool December night with the smooth rhythms and melodious strains of the ECC Jazz Ensembles' winter performance.

ECC Jazz Ensemble director Mark Bettcher, a music teacher in Community Unit District 300 and past Kane County "Educator of the Year" winner, has worked with some of the top names in jazz and pop music, including Phil Collins, Tony Bennett, Joe Williams, Gladys Knight, The Temptations, Louis Bellson and Frank Mantooth. Art Davis, one of Chicago's leading jazz trumpeters, joins the group as special guest.

Davis has toured with Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney and performed with many of the biggest names in jazz including Maynard Ferguson, the Woody Herman Orchestra, Natalie Cole, Diane Schuur, Bill Cosby, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett, and Michael Feinstein. He is currently an assistant professor of jazz studies at Northern Illinois University.

Tickets to "Winter Taste of Jazz" are $10 for adults and $8 for students and seniors. Tickets are now available online at www.elgin.edu/arts or at the ECC box office located in the Arts Center. Box office hours are noon to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and noon to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

To purchase tickets by phone, call (847) 622-0300. Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express are accepted. For information about the ECC Arts Center's season, visit www.elgin.edu/arts.