Riffs: Music News from Out and About

By Patricia Myers

The Buzz: The third annual Tucson Jazz Festival has scored a coup: George Benson is the 2017 headliner, performing Jan. 19 at the Fox Theatre. Tickets go on sale later in the fall for one of his rare “home-state” concerts. Benson continues to tour nationally and internationally, especially since the 2013 release of his Nat King Cole tribute-album.

Riffs: Music News from Out and About

Petersen performed with scores of highly regarded musicians, starting in 1957 when he toured Europe with the Hal McIntyre Orchestra and became an in-demand studio musician. At 82, he’s still known for his inventive ability to reinvent chord progressions — and his clever wit. Petersen is considered the architect of guitar labs at three institutions of higher learning, as the first fulltime guitar teacher at Berklee College of music (1962-65), guitar artist-in-residence at the University of North Texas College of Music (1976-1988) and resident artist-associate professor at University of North Florida (1988-1995); he moved to Prescott in 2003.

Riffs: Music News from Out and About

By Patricia Myers

A highly inventive guitar trio will perform exciting improvisation on jazz standards on July 5, a concert that promises to deliver aural fireworks to rival the previous day’s sky-high pyrotechnics. What I’m calling “The Great Guitars of Arizona” will feature the astounding sounds of Howard Alden, Jack Petersen and Madelyn Roberts, performing a free concert from7:30 to 9:30 pm Tuesday, July 5, at the Phoenix Federation of Musicians Hall, 1202 E. Oak St., Phoenix 85006, 602-254-8838.