Hotel Congress will be in full swing at the end of April when it plays host to the International Jazz Day Celebration, a boogie-woogie bash with live music and swing dancing.
Festivities take place on Wednesday, April 30 — named International Jazz Day by UNESCO in 2011 — and star the award-winning Tucson Jazz Institute Ellington Big Band, Naomi Uyama & Her Handsome Devils and the Arizona Swing Cats. A collaboration between the Tucson Jazz Music Foundation, the Century Room and Hotel Congress, the celebration will feature music, dance performances and lessons on the Plaza Stage. With International Dance Day commemorated on April 29, it’s the perfect opportunity to kick up your heels.
Tickets to the event are $10 for students with ID, $20 for adults and $30 for preferred seating. Tickets are available through DICE or the Hotel Congress Plaza venue.
The International Jazz Day Celebration marks the first time that the Tucson Jazz Institute Ellington Big Band will perform for a dancing audience. That group will be followed by Naomi Uyama, an award-winning singer, dancer and band leader, who brings her seven-piece Handsome Devils to the stage. To start things off, a beginner swing dance lesson, led by Uyama, will be held at 6 p.m. The dance floor will be provided by the University of Arizona dance club Arizona Swing Cats, whose members will assist and encourage attendees to dance.
Krystyna Parafinczuk, treasurer of the Tucson Jazz Music Foundation, said the original idea for the music and dance event came from Arthur Vint, artistic director of the Century Room.
“So he was able to secure the plaza outside, and he booked it. And he also thought of the perfect guest, which is Naomi Uyama,” she said.
Brice Winston, co-owner of the Tucson Jazz Institute and director of the Tucson Jazz Institute Ellington Big Band, said he and the other musicians will provide plenty of swing music with the right tempo for dancing.
“Some very typical dance songs, a lot of Glenn Miller type things,” he said.
This is Winston’s third year teaching the band, and he says there are a lot of emotions when he thinks about everything the band has accomplished. “A lot of these kids I’ve seen for a number of years, and so I get to watch their growth over time. At times it’s very frustrating, you know, seeing potential in them that they’re not able to rise to just because of certain challenges in their lives.”
David Nguyen, a 17-year-old member of the Ellington Band who attends University High School, plays the saxophone, clarinet and trumpet and said he is trying to pick up even more instruments including the flute, bass and violin.
“I think one of my favorite instruments that I ever got to play, that I have, is my banjo,” he said.
He originally started playing instruments just for fun so he could hang out with his friends.
“Something clicked when I heard the Ellington Band when I was super young,” Nguyen recalled. “They were playing this one song, this older chart by Duke Ellington. It was called ‘Old Man Blues,’ and I had never heard anything like that. I was amazed.”
Nguyen will soon attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas after receiving a scholarship offer. He plans to study jazz and commercial music — although he admits that nothing is set in stone.
“I was thinking about getting a degree in journalism,” he said. “But if I’m being honest, I don’t like dealing in the future too much. I’ll see when I get there.”
Daniel Valenzuela, 16, a sophomore at Desert View High School, also plays in the band. He was drawn to jazz after taking drum lessons around 2018.
“I’m really excited to be able to play for a different crowd,” Valenzuela said of the International Jazz Day Celebration. “You know, I’m usually used to playing for people that are sitting and listening with their ears…so I think it’ll be a fun experience on the 30th playing for some dancers.”
Spring will be a busy season for the Ellington Band. The group is heading to New York City in May for the Essentially Ellington High School Big Band Competition and Festival held at the Lincoln Center May 7-11. The Tucson musicians have attended eight times, consistently placing in the top three and earning first place five times.
“I’m really excited about that because it’s just an incredible opportunity,” Valenzuela said. “Not just me, but everyone else in the band has been presented to be able to go to New York and play for the biggest musicians, the biggest and greatest jazz musicians around right now.”
The Tucson Jazz Music Foundation isn’t just helping to put on the April 30 event. The organization helps students in the Ellington Big Band with travel and provides scholarships for seven of the 18 students in the band.
“We play an important role in keeping the band whole, helping them perform, helping them travel to New York, which is where they’re going for, you know, like, the Super Bowl of competitions, May 7 through 11,” Parafinczuk said.
The foundation is also accepting donations to support scholarships for jazz education for middle and high school students. Donations may also be given to the Century Room Jazz Education Program fund to support workshops by national jazz artists performing at the Century Room. Donations can be made online at tjmfdn.org or mailed to Tucson Jazz Music Foundation, P.O. Box 87736, Tucson, AZ 85754.
Parafinczuk said that she hopes that young people, such as local high school students, will be interested in checking out the International Jazz Day Celebration.
“I wanted to encourage the TGI Ellington band peers to attend, because it’s University High School, Tucson High School, they all have dance programs, and I wanted to encourage the peers to participate, because the younger, the better,” she said.
International Jazz Day Celebration
WHEN: 6 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, April 30
WHERE: Hotel Congress Plaza, 311 E. Congress Street, Tucson
COST: 18 and under free, $10 for students with ID, $20 for adults and $30 for preferred seating
INFO: hotelcongress.com and jazzday.com/listing/international-jazz-day-celebration-4/
This article appears in Apr 17-24, 2025.