Colleagues and friends of musician Dave Spring will gather on September 10 for a special concert in honor of Spring, who is recuperating from a stroke he suffered in May.
The Benefit Concert for Dave Spring will take place at 8 p.m. on Friday, September 10, at the Loosemore Auditorium, DeVos Center, on GVSU's Grand Rapids Campus, 401 W. Fulton St. Admission is free; however, donations to the Dave Spring Fund will be accepted at the door, with all proceeds going to Spring for medical expenses.
The evening of jazz will feature the GVSU Faculty Jazz Ensemble (in which Spring has played bass) with Kurt Ellenberger, piano, Tim Froncek, drums, and special guests David Renter on saxophone and David Morgan on bass. The concert will open with music by area teens Keaton Royer and Chris Bardolph -- both students of Spring.
The benefit concert marks the first anniversary of the release of Spring's first CD, "It's a Spring Thing." It also marks the release of a new CD, "A Tale of Three Cities," recorded with Spring in May, three days before he suffered a debilitating stroke. All receipts from the evening's sale of the new CD will be donated to the Dave Spring Fund.
Spring, 47, an artist-faculty member at GVSU since 1999, has performed on bass in a wide variety of musical settings with many of the world's great jazz musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie and Arturo Sandova, and was a featured member of the renowned New Orleans group, The Meters. His 25-year career has also included work with such varied artists as Bob Hope, Red Skelton and Mickey Rooney. Besides teaching at GVSU, Spring has also taught in jazz programs at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and Aquinas College, and is an adjunct faculty member at Grand Rapids Community College. He and his wife, Charlotte, and their children live in Comstock Park.
