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Jazz

Coming Up in Local Jazz – July 3 through July 16

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image001 (1)What is the USAF Band of Flight?

 

Some of the following may not be 100% accurate but are based on conversations, web surfing and observations that formed my impressions, I apologize for any inaccuracies.

 

The USAF Band of Flight is comprised of active duty Air Force members and is based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio and one of the oldest bands in the Air Force. It is one of the oldest bands in the Air Force; The Band of Flight has an unbroken record of service since its formation and shares with only The United States Air Force Band, Bolling AFB DC, the distinction of having remained at its original location for its entire history.

 

The band was activated on 24 September 1942 at Patterson Field (later Wright-Patterson AFB), Ohio as the 361st Army Air Force Band. Between 1942 and 1948 the Band was redesignated three times: as the 661st Army Band, then as the 661st Army Air Force Band, and finally as the 661st Air Force Band on 2 January 1948, not quite four months after the Air Force became a separate branch of service. The band was redesignated as The Air Force Band of Flight in 1991 with the mission of delivering world-class music that inspires emotions, creates positive impressions and communicates information according to Air Force objectives.

 

Recently I had heard the Band of Flight would be leaving our area due to cut-backs in the military budget but fortunately for us, this is not true. They have downsized into what I have been told is a leaner, meaner group along with a couple of very versatile combos, which are now all led by non-commissioned officers. The New “Band of Flight” under the direction of Chief Master Sergeant Eric M. Strohecker is a 14-member ensemble that provides top-notch, high-energy entertainment for the whole family. The “Wright Brass” led by Master Sergeant Michael Richter is a brass quintet with a percussionist. “Systems Go” is a popular music combo led by MSgt Tom Shriver performing many genres of music.

 

Many Band of Flight members both past and present have made a tremendous impact on our local jazz scene. A couple of years ago I met Cameron at Jazz Central where he was a regular part of their jazz jams for a period of time. One thing led to another and he helped me book the Band of Flight Nighthawk Jazz Combo (one of the groups of which he was a member), for Jazz Advocate’s 2011 Jazz & Peace Festival that we held in Centerville at Stubbs Park. Many of the jazz events that I attend are enhanced and enriched by these wonderful artists.

Jazz Calendar

Here are some (not all) of the upcoming jazz events for the next couple of weeks:
Today Wednesday, July 3 – The USAF Band of Flight has a Summer Concert at Kings Island Amusement Park and Todd Hepburn is at Arnold’s Bar & Grill in Cincinnati.

Thursday July 4 – There’s a Jam Session hosted by Chay Buddah & Hott2def at Bankshots Sports Bar & Grill in Trotwood and a image001-2Band of Flight Summer Concert in Rotary Park in Beavercreek.

Friday July 5 – Teresa Hunt with The  Jazz Patrol will be at De’Lish in Dayton and the Shawn Stanley Trio performs every Friday at Carvers Steaks & Chops in Centerville, Ohio.

Saturday July 6 – You can spend an intimate evening of jazz and coffee at Ghostlight in Dayton and James & Moore will be at the C’est Tout Bistro in Oakwood.

Sunday July 7 – A Funk Tribute to Mark Adams & Mark Drac Hicks of Slave will take place at Gilly’s in Dayton.
Monday July 8 – The John Taylor Trio is at Brio Tuscan Grille in Beavercreek and Vaughn Wiester’s Famous Jazz Orchestra is at the Clintonville Woman’s Club in Columbus.

Tuesday July 9 – The Ron Purdon Orchestra performs at the Blue Wisp Jazz Club in Cincinnati and  the Part St. Tavern Jazz Jam continues in Columbus.

Wednesday July 10 –The US Air Force Band of Flight performs at the Fraze Pavilion and Ricky Nye is at Chez Nora in Covington, KY.

Thursday July 11 – Cameron Voorhees and the Generations Big Band will perform at Hope Community Arts Center located inside Hope Church in the South Park Neighborhood in Dayton.

Friday July 12 – The Different Hats Jazz Jam is at the Earl Heck Community Center in Englewood and the John Von Ohlen Trio is at Dee Felice in Covington, KY.

Saturday July 13 – The Bobby Floyd Trio is at Boudin’s Bistro & Jazz Club and Andrew Waters is at the Eastern Palace Restaurant both in Columbus.

OH.Sunday July 14 – Dayton’s longest running Jazz Jam Session with Kenny Baccus and John Hampton Wagner continues every Sunday at Jazz Central in Dayton.

Monday July 15 – Mark Flugge, Derek Dicenzo & Jimmy Castoe are at Due Amici and Vaughn Wiester’s Famous Jazz Orchestra is at the Clintonville Woman’s Club in Columbus.
Tuesday July 16 – The Ed Moss & the Society Jazz Orchestra performs at the Schwartz Point Jazz Club and The Greenwich has Green Street Jam Session both in Cincinnati.

More info and jazz listings can be found at JazzAdvocate.com

 

 

Coming Up in Local Jazz – July 18-31

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Happy July 18, the day RCA Victor recorded When I Hear That Jazz Band Play by Marion Harris from Ziegfeld’s “Midnight Frolic.

It occurs to me that many people in our area may not know who some of the better jazz artists who perform locally on a regular basis. In an attempt to rectify this shortcoming I’ll be writing articles from time to time featuring a different jazz performer:

Classic Jazz Stompers at Crowne Plaza

Who are the Classic Jazz Stompers?

(A politically correct question, who are Dave Greer’s Classic Jazz Stompers?)

They call themselves a territory band from Dayton, Ohio and claim to be magnetized by the moment in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s when classic jazz evolved into small band swing. Dave Greer aside from being one of Dayton’s leading attorneys is one of the fine gentlemen of jazz. He has been leading his band, the Classic Jazz Stompers and expounding on the history of their chosen style of music from bandstands in our area since 1981 (33 years) and have played at different times through out the Unites States and Europe but they are mainly a hometown commodity and our local standard bearer of what we call Traditional Jazz (Dixieland and Ragtime jazz styles) today. This kind of music leaves lead players free to explore their individual creativity with the support of a “modern” rhythm section. My first exposure with the group was through Mama Jazz, (15 – 20 years ago) who’s theme song for her regular Tuesday Trad Jazz program was “Hello Central Give Me Mama Jazz by Dave and the Stompers. This has to be one of the most talented groups going today and we’re so lucky to have them in our area. You can catch them this Friday at Jay’s Seafood 8:30 to 11:30pm and at Neil’s Heritage House from 7:00 to 10:00 pm every Wednesday.

Jazz Calendar

Here are some (not all) of the upcoming jazz events for the next couple of weeks:

Thursday July 19 – Riverscape Metro Parks continues their Big Band Series with the Tom Daugherty and the Tommy Dorsey Tribute. and Jazz Central presents the nineteen member Generations Big Band.

Friday July 20 – Jazz Alive presents a Tribute to Larry Kinley at The Redmoor in Cincinnati and Doc. Broadnax presents The Norman Connors with Tom Browne and Azar Lawrence is at the Thompson House in Newport, KY.

Saturday July 21 – Trumpeter Mike Wade and the Jazz Ambassadors will be at the Blue Wisp and the NEW Ed Moss Trio will be at Schwartz’s Point in Over-The-Rhine in Cincinnati.

Sunday July 22 – Phil DeGreg Trio will be at Dee Felice inCovington,Ky. and Jazz Central’s regular (for 34 years) Jazz Jam continues in Dayton.

Monday July 23 -Vaughn Wiester’s Famous Jazz Orchestra is at the Clintonville Woman’s Club in Columbus and the John Taylor Trio is at the Brio Tuscan Grille in Beavercreek.

Tuesday July 24 –the Park Street Tavern holds their ongoing Jazz Jam in Columbus and Recording Artist Ron Enyard is at the Blue Wisp in Cincinnati.

Wednesday July 25 – Blue Wisp Big Band performs at the Wisp and John LaIacona will be at Eddie Merlot’s in Cincinnati, while Dave Greer’s Classic Jazz Stompers will be at Neil’s Heritage House in Dayton.

Thursday July 26 – Riverscape Metro Parks presents the Swing Era Big Band in Dayton and Triage w/Vocalist/Percussionist Eugene Goss and Keyboardist Billy Larkin will be at the Blue Wisp in Cincinnati.

Friday July 27 – The John Tesh Big Band will perform at Fraze Pavilion in Kettering and the Shawn Stanley Trio is at Carvers in Centerville.

Saturday July 28 – April Aloisio sings! at the Park Square Hyde Park, OH.

Sunday July 29 – Phil DeGreg Trio performing at Dee Felice inCovington,Ky. and the Hoo Doo Soul Band plays the Rumba Café in Columbus.

Monday July 30 – Sandy Suskind continues their long running jazz jam at the Blue Wisp inCincinnati and the John Taylor Trio does likewise at the Brio Tuscan Grille in Beavercreek.

Wednesday August 1 – Ricky Nye with Liz Pennock & Dr. Blues @ Chez Nora in Covington, KY.

More info and jazz listings can be found at JazzAdvocate.com

 

Dayton Art Institute Announces 2012 Vectren Jazz & Beyond Series

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Fareed Haque

The Dayton Art Institute has long been a home for jazz in the Miami Valley with the Vectren Just Jazz series performances taking place on the first Thursday of March – November (save for July when they take a month off).  This year the series is being renamed the Vectren Jazz & Beyond Series and will feature performances from some established favorites as well as some newer artists.  All performances are 5:30-830pm in the Dayton Art Institute’s Shaw Gothic Cloister. Admission is free for museum members or $8 for non-members.

The 2012 Vectren Jazz & Beyond Season Lineup:

March 1: Fareed Haque Trio
April 5: Kick-N-Flava
May 3: Chicago Afrobeat Project
June 7: Soul Express
August 2: Dayton Jazz Orchestra
September 6: Rob Dixon Quartet
October 4: MathGames!
November 8: Puzzle of Light

Meet Jean Howat Berry – Building Culture Through Community at Cityfolk

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Pandora, one of artists in residence during the 2011 Culture Builds Community program, works with students (Photo by Rodney Veal)

Jean Howat Berry is the new education and outreach manager at Cityfolk.

Cityfolk is the Dayton-based “only full-time, professional presenter of traditional and ethnic performing arts” in Ohio, according to the Cityfolk website.

Berry’s main responsibility is overseeing the Culture Builds Community program, which is in its sixth year.

“The main thrust of the job is this huge project that happens in the spring,” said Berry.

The CBC project, which culminates in April, focuses on engaging participating elementary students in research and practice of specific cultural activities. The project incorporates local ethnic centers and national and local artists of music and dance.

This year’s Culture Builds Community project is called Sole Rhythms and five neighborhood schools are participating. The schools are Ruskin, Edison, Cleveland, Kiser and Fairview elementary schools.

Each school has its own team that focuses on an assigned specific cultural tradition.

Berry said this year’s theme is percussion music and dance. The traditions of focus include Turkish dance, Mexican folk dance, traditional American spirituals and the roots of jazz, the African American fraternity step dance tradition and old time clogging of Appalachia mixed with Irish step dance.

“The whole idea, and what City Folk strives to do with this, is build community,” she said. “There’s so many different facets to Dayton, because we are so immigrant friendly and because we have tremendous gifted artists that work here, we’re able to pull all those folks together to build a team that can go out and connect with those many communities. Because we’re all really one big community.”

Within the context of the schools, CBC helps kids learn new skills, new information about culture and practice physical activity, since this year’s project is a danced based program.

“Kids have the opportunity to use all facets of themselves within the project,” Berry said.

She said from the kids perspective, the project is completely voluntary. CBC provides a few teasers informing the students about their school’s cultural focus. They will then take 15 students 5th through 8th grade and another 10 participants at 16 and older.

Big Mijo teaches students the basics of krump dancing during the 2011 Culture Builds Community program (Photo by Rodney Veal)

According to Berry, last year’s project only encompassed three schools and took ten students from each. So this year’s project is taking on two-to-three times as many participants.

She wants participants to be educated in their specific cultures, but more so she wants them to learn the importance of commitment.

“We want it to be at will, we want a particular age group, but we mostly want commitment, and that’s something this project really seeks to develop in the young people,” Berry said.

Berry said her previous job working at East End Community Services, which sponsors Ruskin Elementary afterschool programming, prepared her well for her new position. Her theatre background will also be helpful in her new role. She said she’s played the role of the artist educating kids in the classroom, just as the artists she’s assigning to the five groups will do.

Berry said CBC has a fairly broad funding base for this project that includes Sinclair Community College, Dayton Power and Light, Target and Arts Midwest.

“It’s a really exciting program,” Berry said. “I just think that it has the capacity by what it’s goals are to continue to grow and to be a real force for bringing folks together in Dayton and that’s what we really want to reach out and do.”

For more information visit Culture Builds Community online at http://www.cityfolk.org/cbc.htm.

Kim Waters brings smooth jazz to Gilly’s

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Friday night marks the return of smooth jazz saxophone player Kim Waters to the Miami Valley.  Waters and his band combine jazz, R&B and soul with original compositions and new interpretations of classic songs.  Kim Waters will perform two shows on Friday, September 9th at Gilly’s in downtown Dayton at 7 and 10pm.  There are still some tickets available for each show at the following locations: Omega Music, The Record Gallery (both in the Oregon District), Half Priced Books and Huber Music and Video.  Tickets may also be available at the door (depending on advanced sales).

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Kick-N-Flava Play DAI’s Just Jazz

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Thursday, June 2nd marks the latest in the Dayton Art Institute’s Vectren Just Jazz series.  The concert will feature contemporary jazz/R&B act, Kick-N-Flava.  The six member band features Mike Allamby on saxophones, Jerry Hawes on keyboards, Claude Coatie on lead guitar, J.D. Williams on bass guitar, Brian Smiley on drums and percussionist David Matthews.

“We’re a high energy band. We’re feeling it, and we let you know we’re feeling it. Our music is like a breath of fresh air coming through an old cracked window on a lovely summer day,” says the group.

The Just Jazz series will take a break in July, but resumes on August 4th. The second half of the 2011 series includes:

  • August 4: Mark Lomax II
  • September 1: The Kathy Wade Quartet
  • October 6: Ed Clay & The Patrol
  • November 3: Khalid Moss & Michael Bashaw

All performances begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Shaw Gothic Cloister at The Dayton Art Institute. Admission is free for museum members and $8 for non-members. General admission tickets may be purchased at The Dayton Art Institute the night of each performance