General Admission tickets are $45 each or purchase the entire series for $120.  Attendees must be age 21 and over.  Drink responsibly.

“Across The Field: College Fight Songs Reimagined” CD release tour with the 7-piece Butler-Fasig band

Sam Bio

Sam Butler is a professional jazz trumpet player, composer, arranger and educator based in Indianapolis, IN. He has performed all around the Midwest with various ensembles including the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra, Sean Dobbins and the Modern Jazz Messengers, and his own Folklore Sextet. As the winner of the 2023 International Trumpet Guild Jazz Solo Competition and with his debut album “Folklore” out with positive reviews in May of 2023, Sam has “an abundance of jazz success coming his way.” (Debbie Burke) He is immersed in the blending of musical styles including rock, classical music, folk, and jazz, and is creating a unique voice as he enters the modern jazz scene.

Sam began work as a jazz education curriculum developer, transcriber, arranger, and composer with Playbook Music in July of 2023. He was also an Associate Instructor in the Jazz Studies Department of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University while completing his Master’s degree in Jazz Studies, and graduated in May of 2024. Following the release of Folklore in May of 2023, Sam toured with his Folklore Sextet in the summer of 2023 at venues all around the Midwest, including Cliff Bell’s in Detroit, the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis, and Fulton Street Collective in Chicago.

Sam quickly flourished as a performer, composer and arranger after beginning his academic career at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in 2018. He was named a semi- finalist in the Jazz Division of the 2019 and 2020 National Trumpet Competition, and performed with the Plummer Jazz Sextet, a select group of musicians that writes original music, plays shows around the Midwest, and records. Sam has also recorded and performed a dozen of his own large ensemble compositions and arrangements with ensembles at IU, and during his undergraduate tenure, recorded an EP of all original compositions with his sextet “Spoken Thoughts,” which was released in early 2022. Sam completed his undergraduate studies in 2022, and accepted an Associate Instructor position in the jazz department to earn his master’s degree.

Garrett Bio

Garrett Fasig is an emerging composer and saxophonist originally from Defiance, Ohio. In his short career thus far, Garrett has written several original jazz ensemble compositions that have been recorded by the Brent Wallarab Jazz Ensemble, a full program of music for jazz sextet and string quartet and has been commissioned for both jazz ensemble and orchestral works by the New York Youth Symphony and Brianna Thomas, respectively. He has also learned and performed alongside world-class musicians Walter Smith III, Steve Houghton Dayna Stephens, and Greg Ward.

The first eleven years of Garrett’s musical journey were devoted to his development on the saxophone. This led him to the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University where he would go on to complete both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in jazz studies. While spending most of his time studying saxophone. This changed in early 2020 when a neurological disorder, dystonia, would prevent him from spending long amounts of time playing. Garrett turned his focus towards composition, and by the next year was awarded the David N. Baker Jazz Composition Scholarship from BMI.

Across the Field: College Fight Songs Reimagined Description

In the summer of 2023, Garrett and Sam were approached with an idea by the Timeless Music Project: what if we arranged college fight songs for a jazz ensemble? What would that sound like? From then until October, much brainstorming and writing was done to find out how to incorporate this unique American tradition of university pride with another great American tradition: jazz and improvised music. Garrett and Sam collaborated on a set of 12 arrangements for their Visions Ensemble, choosing from the absolute best of college fight songs, and created original arrangements that kept the melodies at the center, but provided new and fresh takes on songs that alumni would know for the rest of their lives.

After a successful premiere in October of 2023 at the SILO Club in Indianapolis, planning began to record the collection of arrangements, the project was set into motion. In March of 2023, the music was recorded in Bloomington, IN, with one special addition. Garrett and Sam co-wrote one more arrangement to feature trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, who met with the Visions Ensemble and offered advice on arranging and performing in 2023. The project aims to bring up memories for listeners, and offer exciting versions of songs they love.