From combos to ensembles to a Duke Ellington birthday bash, the University of Oregon will have it all during Jazz Appreciation Month in April.

The university’s School of Music and Dance marks the 12th annual jazz appreciation month with a roster of concerts celebrating jazz as an American art form. Established in 2001 by John Edward Hasse, curator of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Jazz Appreciation Month is a nationwide celebration designed to engage and educate communities about jazz as a historical and living form of music.

Admission for many concerts is free of charge. A complete schedule, including locations and ticket prices, is available online or by calling 541-346-5678. Local events include:

• UO Jazz Combos, Friday, April 12, 5:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 21, 7:30 p.m., at The Jazz Station, 124 W. Broadway; admission free.
• Annual Duke Ellington Birthday Bash Featuring UO Jazz Faculty Members, Sunday, April 14,
  2 p.m., Aasen-Hull Hall, Frohnmayer Music Building; $7 general admission, $5 students and seniors (Tickets are available at the door or in advance from the UO Ticket Office, 541-346-4363). Eugene radio host and UO jazz historian and performer Carl Woideck assembles an all-star tribute concert featuring faculty and students in the UO’s Jazz Studies Program to celebrate the birthdate of music icon Duke Ellington.
• UO Music Festival in Bend Featuring the Oregon Jazz Ensemble: "The Big Bands: Past to Present," Wednesday, April 24, 7 p.m., Tower Theatre, 835 NW Wall St., Bend; admission free but a ticket is required (free tickets are available at the door or in advance from the Tower Theatre box office, or by phone at 541-317-0700). The award-winning ensemble will play songs that gave birth to the Big Bands, from Fletcher Henderson to Maria Schneider.
• Public Lecture: Stephen Kelly, "'Lipstick's' Traces: A Jazz-age Chronicle," Tuesday, May 7,
  7:30 p.m., Salon, Collier House, Eugene; admission free. The lecture by Kelly, a 2013 Robert M. Trotter Visiting Professor, revisits the writings of Lois Long, who under the pen name "Lipstick," produced over 100 richly textured descriptions of the entrainment and social worlds of the Roaring Twenties.
• Refuge Trio, Tuesday, May 14, 7 p.m., Beall Concert Hall, Frohnmayer Music Building; $10 general admission, $8 students and seniors. Featuring John Hollenbeck on drums, the singing of Theo Bleckman and Gary Versace on keyboards, the trio explores delicate and playful music and their voices are essential to the ensembles of Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk and others.

-- from the UO School of Music and Dance