The sounds of jazz music will fill the Northwest Missouri State University campus during the Department of Fine and Performing Arts’ annual Northwest Jazz Festival, Friday, February 21 which will feature the Doug Talley Quartet.

All of the performances are free and open to the public.

The festival will host more than 20 middle school and high school ensembles from Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri. The festival performances begin at 8 am and continue throughout the day in the Charles Johnson Theater as well as the Mary Linn Auditorium at the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts. At 8:30 am, the Maryville High School Jazz Band will perform at the Charles Johnson Theater.

In addition to a performance by the Northwest Jazz Ensemble to close the festival at 5 pm in the Charles Johnson Theater. The Doug Talley Quartet will headline the festival by performing with the Northwest Jazz Ensemble at noon and leading a jazz improvisation clinic at 1 pm.

Formed in 1995, the Doug Talley Quartet has performed at a variety of festivals, concerts, clubs and schools throughout the Midwest. All four members of the quartet compose and arrange music, and contribute to the group’s repertoire for recordings and live appearances. Talley, a saxophonist, has performed with numerous jazz luminaries and is a familiar face throughout the Midwest as a jazz performer and educator. His discography includes four recordings on the Sea Breeze label for the Trilogy and Boulevard Big Bands as well as the Doug Talley Quartet’s four CDs, “Town Topic,” “Night and Day,” “Kansas City Suite” and “By Request,” which offers the ensemble’s most requested music.