There is news this week of works from the Columbus jazz scene receiving acclaim in the broader art world. Thanamattapoeia, a jazz-poetry film by Michael Vander Does of The JazzPoetry Ensemble and the Kate Schulte Foundation, will have a world premiere screening in New York City next week. As part of the Magikal Charm Experimental Video Fest, the film will be shown as part in a program with other “strangely beautiful” and “beautifully strange” shorts at Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave, New York City, starting at 7pm on Tuesday, February 21st. The piece was first published in Tryst and can be read and heard here. See below for a trailer of the film. Congrats Michael!
Shows To See This Week
Saturday, February 18th (9am – 5pm): Columbus City Schools JazzFest at Dominion Middle School, Clintonville. This weekend the CCS holds its annual festival showcasing the best middle and high school jazz ensembles in the city as well as a few all-star and OSU bands. This free event is spearheaded by Bruce Carlson, Dominion’s Director of Bands, who was recently honored as the winner of Columbus Symphony Orchestra’s 2017 Music Educator Award for Secondary Education. This year’s event includes clinics by guest professional artists, education for parents by Jazz Arts Group’s Zach Compston, and performances by the OSU Jazz Ensemble at 12:15pm and the OSU Art Blakey Combo at 4pm. See flyer at left for the full schedule, and support jazz in our local public schools!
Sunday, February 19th (3 – 5pm): Columbus Youth Jazz Program: “Swing Sunday” at Clintonville Woman’s Club. Known as the home of Vaughn Wiester’s Famous Jazz Orchestra on Monday nights, the woman’s club will be swinging two days in a row this week for this annual event put on by Jazz Arts Group’s Youth Jazz Program. All four of the program’s ensembles will participate in this concert, presenting big band tunes by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Woody Herman, and more. The suggested donation is $10 for adults and $5 for students, snacks and beverages will be available for purchase, and all proceeds from admission benefit Columbus Youth Jazz scholarships and special events. This looks to be a great showcase of some of the area’s finest young jazz talent.
Wednesday, February 22nd (8 – 10pm): Otterbein Wind Ensemble with Radarhill at Cowan Hall, Westerville. Directed by Dr. Michael Yonchak, a member of Redbird, the Otterbein Faculty Jazz Ensemble, the university’s wind ensemble is collaborating with the ambitious Columbus-based post-jazz quintet for a program blurring modern jazz and concert band material. The program includes pieces by Aaron Copland, Frank Zappa, and Warren Benson, alongside selected works by Radarhill, highlighted by “Lucidrome,” a composition for wind symphony and jazz quintet written primarily by bassist Eli Chambers. “Lucidrome” (listen and buy here) was written for and premiered by the Ohio University Wind Symphony in 2016, so it’s great to see the piece make its Central Ohio debut. This concert is free and open to the public, so come witness Radarhill “bridge the gap between the conservatory and the local dive” live and in color!
Have a great week! Check out “Lucidrome” below: