Name: The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra with Nnenna Freelon
Start: 2026-02-22T15:00:00-08:00
End: 2026-02-22T16:30:00-08:00
Location: Myron's at The Smith Center

The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra with Nnenna Freelon

Scotty Barnhart is an internationally acclaimed Jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger, educator, author, producer, three-time Grammy Winner, and Director of The Count Basie Orchestra. Prior to being selected Director in 2013, he was its featured trumpet soloist for 20 years, and in 2015 was Executive Producer of A Very Swingin’ Basie Christmas!, the very first Christmas recording for The Count Basie Orchestra. It went to #1 on the charts.
Under his leadership, the orchestra won the DownBeat Magazine Readers Poll as the #1 Jazz Orchestra in the world for 2018, and their 2018 recording, All About That Basie, featuring special guest Stevie Wonder, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble. The orchestra’s 2021 recording, Live At Birdland, also produced by Barnhart, immediately became a #1 Best Seller on Amazon, and was nominated for a 2022 Grammy Award. It’s 2023 release, Basie Swings The Blues, also produced by Barnhart, features blues legends Buddy Guy, Bobby Rush, Keb’ Mo’, and George Benson, won a Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble in 2024.
Scotty appears on three critically acclaimed recordings with pianist Marcus Roberts and over twenty others with artists as diverse as Tony Bennett, Diana Krall, and Ray Charles. He has performed with Frank Sinatra, Wynton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, The Duke Ellington Orchestra, Nat Adderley, Aretha Franklin, George Clinton, Buddy Guy, Barbara Streisand, George Benson, and many others, been featured in The Asian Wall Street Journal, performed at The Academy Awards, and is in demand as a soloist and lecturer on jazz history all over the world. In 2009, Unity Music released his solo CD, Say It Plain. It reached #3 on the Jazz Charts.
Nnenna Freelon is a seven-time GRAMMY-nominated jazz vocalist, a published author (Beneath The Skin Of Sorrow, Duke University Press), an arts education advocate, producer, arranger, and Award-winning Podcaster (entitled "Greatgrief with Nnenna Freelon") who has achieved great heights in recording and live performance.
Her new recording, Beneath The Skin (Origin, March 2025), has earned numerous SOLD OUT shows across the U.S., as her third Podcast Season drops in December 2025.
Having recorded and toured with Herbie Hancock, Al Jarreau, Marian McPartland and numerous others, Freelon's recent PBS Special shows what The Washington Post stated, "Freelon is not just building a castle of love, but an expanded repertoire for jazz..." As Downbeat expressed, Hers is an indomitable musical spirit."