Friends, family, former students and colleagues of the legendary Jack Mouse gathered inside of the Emporia Granada Theatre to celebrate his life, music and impact Sunday afternoon.
The Jack Mouse Legacy concert featured several world-class jazz musicians taking to the stage to perform various arrangements in Mouse’s honor. The list of selections included LaPorta written in memory of one of Mouse’s “musical fathers” John LaPorta and performed by the Jack Mouse Legacy Concert Band consisting of Mike Steinel, Mitch Paliga, Fareed Haque, Mark Foley and Tom Morgan.
Mouse died Aug. 8 at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas, at age 78. Mouse was born in Emporia in 1946 and graduated from Emporia High in 1964. He then turned his education at the famed Berklee College of Music into time with the US Air Force’s Falconaires band as a featured soloist and then his musical career.
Mouse’s love was always jazz, and he worked with several greats in the field for performances and CDs — including his wife, Janice Borla, a noted vocalist. During Sunday’s concert, Borla stated she and Mouse were together nearly every minute of every day and in that time their love for one another grew and grew.
She adds there relationship, which began on a professional basis and blossomed into one of a personal nature, “worked on so many levels.”
In addition to Borla, Mouse’s career saw him share the stage with the likes of Stan Kenton, Clark Terry, Herb Ellis, Joe Williams and many many more. Mouse was inducted into the Emporia High School Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Frank A. Beach Hall of Distinction. Additional performers and speakers Sunday included Amy Beth Kirsten, Tracy Freeze, Riley Day, Adrian Ingles, Scott Robinson, John McLean, Bob Bowman, Alma Jones, Mike Gann and Max Popp.
