Ray Charles Alumnus, Trumpeter Jeff Helgesen, Brings 'Jazz Mayhem' to Walden Inn Thursday

August 31, 2005

August 31, 2005, Greencastle, Ind. - Jeff Helgesen and his Jazz Mayhem septet will perform this Thursday, September 1, as a part of DePauw Jazz at the Duck. Running from 9 p.m. until midnight at Walden Inn's Fluttering Duck, the show is free and open to the public.

Jazz Mayhem is a four-horn group that combines spectacularly original arrangements with open post-bop improvisation. Led by noted trumpeter Jeff Helgesen, an alumnus of the Ray Charles band, the group includes Tom Wirtel (trumpet), Chip McNeill (tenor sax), Morgan Powell (trombone), Tom Paynter (keyboard), Paul Musser (bass) and Gary Peyton (drums).

"Jeff is a great trumpeter, who really builds on the work of people like Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan," says Musser, director of DePauw Jazz at the Duck. "The group is heavily rooted in the sounds of medium sized groups like Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers."

Based in Champaign, Illinois, Jeff Helgesen has appeared with such jazz legends as Louis Bellson, Clark Terry, Jimmy Heath and Anthony Braxton. He also spent three years with the Ray Charles Orchestra in the late 1980s and has also appeared with Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.

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