Gene Knific, the son of two Western Michigan University music professors, began studying jazz at the college level while still in high school.
After four years at the University of Miami, he moved back to Kalamazoo this summer, re-introducing himself to the region with a performance at the Fontana summer festival.
Gene Knific, with bassist Geoffrey Saunders and drummer Evan Hyde, talked with Cara Lieurance in the Takeda performance studio, and performed arrangements of Ravel's Sonatine, mvt 1 and Sufjan Steven's "Romulus." The trio also played "In F," a Knific original.
