Friday, February 6, 2026 | Noel Fine Arts Center
Join us for the 34th Annual UWSP Jazz Festival! Our guest artist this year is David Ambrosio, who will be featuring his project “Civil Disobedience.”
Civil Disobedience is a project initiated by New York bassist David Ambrosio, showcasing the works of progressive jazz composers from the late 1960s Blue Note Era. The featured composers include Bobby Hutcherson, Jackie McLean, Stanley Cowell, Harold Land, Joe Chambers, Duke Pearson, and James Spaulding. Remarkably, much of this music, created during a period of significant social change and civil unrest, remained unreleased for decades, preventing these compositions from being heard when they were originally written.
Over fifty years later, in contemporary America, there are notable parallels with the social movements of that era. This context lends a new and heightened sense of relevancy and urgency to the important music featured in Civil Disobedience. The project was conceptualized and convened as an artistic response to current socio-economic and social justice events, both on a domestic and global scale. By performing the politically conscious jazz compositions of the late 1960s Blue Note Era, Civil Disobedience seeks to bring forth the timeless messages embedded in this music and connect them with the pressing issues of today. (davidcambrosio.com)
Civil Disobedience is:
Donny McCaslin – tenor & soprano sax
Ingrid Jensen – trumpet
Bruce Barth – piano
David Ambrosio – bass
Victor Lewis – drums
Band Directors – your Jazz Ensembles and Jazz Combos are invited to join us for this year’s festival. Groups are $150 each; tickets for the performances are available at $15. Click here to register your group.
For questions about this year’s event, contact Brent Turney, Director of Jazz Studies at bturney@uwsp.edu