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Jazz pianist Skip Wilkins, assistant professor of music at Lafayette, will perform “Colors Everywhere,” a solo concert, 7-11 p.m. Thursday, May 30, at Blue Orchard Inn, 565 State Street, Mertztown, Pa.
Wilkins’ program will feature songs with a color in their title: “Deep Purple,” “Blue Skies,” “Blue Moon,” “On Green Dolphin Street,” “Blue and Sentimental,” “Blue Gardenia,” “Red Sails in the Sunset,” “Am I Blue?” “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “Green Onions,” “When Sunny Gets Blue,” “Red Cross,” “That Old Black Magic,” “Don’t Be Blue,” “Red Top,” “Little Girl Blue,” “Mountain Greenery,” “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “Violets for Your Furs,” “Born to Be Blue,” “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,” “Black Orpheus,” “Blue in Green,” “Blue Bossa,” “Blue Monk,” “Black and Blue,” and “Blue Orchids.”
The Skip Wilkins Quartet performed a free concert at the Williams Center March 21.
For more than 25 years, Wilkins has enjoyed performing with many accomplished musicians, including saxophonists David Liebman, Stanley Turrentine, Bobby Watson, and Plas Johnson; vocalist Mark Murphy; trumpeters Clark Terry and Conte Candoli; trombonist Al Grey; bassist Milt Hinton; drummers Bob Moses, Joe Hunt, and Peter Erskine; and flutist Jill Allen. Recently, he has played at Lehigh Valley venues such as Easton’s Café Aaron and far beyond.
In 2001, Wilkins and Allen released Petty Theft on Cathexis Records. Featuring the Wilkins & Allen Quartet and Grammy-nominated saxophonist David Liebman, the CD received significant airplay and positive reviews nationwide. It received a three-star review from Karl Stark in the Philadelphia Inquirer. It is available in a variety of national retail outlets and independent stores where jazz recordings are sold, as well as from major Internet sources.
Previously, Wilkins & Allen released Two Much Fun! on Eaglear Records. Some of their highlight performances together include New York’s Tavern on the Green and The Wichita Jazz Festival, and tours around the United States.
Wilkins teaches courses in music theory and jazz at Lafayette. Previously, he taught at the University of Northern Colorado, spending many of his eight years there in the nationally acclaimed Jazz Studies program. He earned a bachelor’s degree from College of the Holy Cross and a master’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado. He also studied jazz composition and arrangement with Herb Pomeroy at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and is a former faculty member at Berklee.
Wilkins is a 2001 fellowship recipient from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, receiving an award for excellence in jazz composition. Many of the compositions for which he was recognized are included on Petty Theft.