Music Mondays season opens with big band Oct. 7

King Chapel will be swinging on Oct. 7 as Cornell College’s 2019–20 Music Mondays series kicks off with a performance by the Rod Pierson Big Band featuring Craig Boche. The free public concert begins at 7:30 p.m. 

Nearly all of the members of this eastern Iowa-based band are jazz educators and clinicians, and they include alumni of the Glenn Miller, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Woody Herman, and Guy Lombardo orchestras. The group will perform sounds from today’s big bands, the biggest entertainers from the popular “Rat Pack” period, and classic instrumental big band hits. 

Rod Pierson’s credits include long-term stints with the Miller, Dorsey, and Guy Lombardo bands; backing Aretha Franklin, Burt Bacharach, and The Temptations; and touring with nearly 20 Broadway shows. Singer Craig Boche’s voice has been compared to Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Bobby Darin.