U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors Bring Free Concert to North Idaho College

A 19-member Army ensemble that has toured the United States and abroad since 1969 brought free world-class jazz to North Idaho College on March 12, filling the Boswell Hall Schuler Performing Arts Center on NIC's Coeur d'Alene campus with veterans, students, and local community members who paid nothing for a seat at a nationally touring show.

The Jazz Ambassadors of the U.S. Army Field Band, the official touring big band of the United States Army, took the Schuler stage at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Army Field Band's national outreach mission. Since forming in 1969, the ensemble has earned international acclaim for performances celebrating jazz, and the Coeur d'Alene stop continued that tradition in front of an audience that rarely gets access to this caliber of live performance without buying a ticket or making the drive to a larger city.

The program ranged across big band swing, Latin, contemporary jazz, popular tunes, and patriotic selections. What distinguishes the Jazz Ambassadors from a standard touring act is that many of the arrangements are written or composed by the band members themselves, giving the ensemble an original voice rather than a polished replay of familiar charts.

The concert was the first of two regional stops the band made that week. On Saturday, March 14, the Jazz Ambassadors moved to Clarkston, Washington, where band director Greg Kolar of Clarkston High School presented the group at the school's auditorium at 7 p.m., also free to the public.

For NIC, hosting the Jazz Ambassadors placed the Schuler stage in a national touring circuit that typically bypasses smaller Idaho markets entirely. The concert drew together military veterans, college students, and Coeur d'Alene residents under the same roof, the kind of cross-section the Army Field Band describes as central to its outreach mission: connecting with Americans, honoring veterans, and inspiring future generations through live performance. Official photographs of the evening, taken by Staff Sgt. Raymond Maldonado Marrero, were distributed through the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. More information about the band and its tour schedule is available at armyfieldband.com.