Vance Thompson's Five Plus Six at Barking Legs Theater

Fresh arrangements of classic material composed by Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Dolly Parton. Why Dolly Parton? Why ask?

Five Plus Six is a new eleven piece jazz band based in Knoxville, TN and led by trumpeter Vance Thompson, founder and director of the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra. The group is about half way between a small group and a big band. It is essentially a jazz quintet plus six additional horns, hence the name.

With a few notable exceptions (tenor saxophonist Greg Tardy, baritone saxophonist David King and trumpeter Michael Wyatt), the members of Five Plus Six are younger musicians who have “come of age” so to speak since the founding of the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra in 1999....

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Fresh arrangements of classic material composed by Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Dolly Parton. Why Dolly Parton? Why ask?

Five Plus Six is a new eleven piece jazz band based in Knoxville, TN and led by trumpeter Vance Thompson, founder and director of the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra. The group is about half way between a small group and a big band. It is essentially a jazz quintet plus six additional horns, hence the name.

With a few notable exceptions (tenor saxophonist Greg Tardy, baritone saxophonist David King and trumpeter Michael Wyatt), the members of Five Plus Six are younger musicians who have “come of age” so to speak since the founding of the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra in 1999.

Two of the band’s youngest members, trombonists Tylar Bullion and Sean Copeland, are current UT students and recent alumni of Tom Lundberg’s outstanding Knoxville Jazz Youth Orchestra. Others like saxophonist Jamel Mitchell, trumpeter Joe Jordan, pianist Keith Brown, bassist Taylor Coker and drummer Nolan Nevels are recent UT graduates. In all cases, they are full of energy and enthusiasm and it shows when they play!

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