“If you’re a jazz musician and you play standards, you can do two things: You can prove you know what you’re doing, and you can be creative. This group, CENTRAL STANDARD TIME, does both.”
-Erik Schwab, Ekrano Online Magazine
Jazz Who’s Who contributing editor
CENTRAL STANDARD TIME (CST) is a group of four outstanding musicians who have brought their talents together for two purposes: to present the jazz tradition to the public, especially high school and college students, as a musical and educational event, and for the group’s members to do what they love for people who love what they do -
PLAY JAZZ!
ATTENTION EDUCATORS!
CENTRAL STANDARD TIME wants to bring the show to YOUR school.
We would like the opportunity to partner with you in an event that not only raises money for your music program, but gives the students an opportunity to experience live jazz music, up close and in person.
Contact us for more details.
(liner notes from CST’s first recording 3 Days In Evansville)
“I would prefer to play jazz standards rather than anything else besides my original music,” says saxophonist Jeffrey Scot Wills of Central Standard Time. “Jazz standards offer a challenge every time you play them, and since we’re doing an educational thing, we want to present music that is still the heart and soul of the jazz tradition.”
That’s really all you need to know. Jazz has a tradition — but that doesn’t mean it’s just old school. If you’re a jazz musician and you play standards, you can do two things: you can prove you know what you’re doing, and you can be creative.
This group, Central Standard Time, does both. On every tune they play, you hear four musicians who really know how to play their instruments, but not only that: they really know how to play together. That’s because they not only understand the jazz tradition, but also have something of their own to give.
When I first met Jeffrey Scot Wills, we were both 10 years old, and he only knew one instrument: clarinet. By the time we graduated from high school, he’d learned a few more: baritone sax, mellophone, trumpet, tenor sax, French horn, flute, soprano sax, alto sax…even electric guitar. In college he studied saxophone. He knows jazz, but he’s good at rock too, and he’s played country, Christian, reggae, and hip-hop. The guy really loves music.
But jazz is what he loves best, and standards are the heart of jazz.
Erik Schwab
(see the rest of the liner notes on the 3 Days In Evansville page)
The band’s bio is a literal Who’s Who of the entrie music world - from classical to pop and rock, country to jazz. Individually, the members have performed with a long list of world reknown musicians including TAKE 6, Bobby McFerrin, Bela Fleck, Placido Domingo, Donna Summer, Ernie Watts, Chuck Mangione, The Nelson Riddle Orchestra, The Nelson twins (‘Nelson’), Engelbert Humperdinck, The Coasters, The Moody Blues, Michael McDonald, T. Graham Brown, the Phoenix Symphony, the Columbus Symphony, the Louisville Symphony, the Honolulu Symphony, the Iris Chamber Orchestra, Christopher Cross, Brian McKnight, and many, many more, performances on The Tonight Show, The Rosie O’Donnel Show, TBS, HBO, The Grand Ole Opry and also many recordings and soundtracks.
CENTRAL STANDARD TIME
A CENTRAL
STANDARD CHRISTMAS