Legends Festival

June 4-6, 2010

JUNE 4-6, 2010

CJI proudly announces its Legends Festival – a series of exciting events scheduled for June 4-6. A 30-member group of arts, business and cultural leaders in Charleston are working with CJI to host these unprecedented events. Co-chaired by Dorothy Harrison (Chief Administrative Officer for the Charleston Water System) and John Tecklenburg (commercial realtor with Clement, Crawford & Thornhill, Inc.), the Legends Festival offers live jazz, educational events, a master class and original musical, cabaret affair, exhibition, and a Gala — something for everyone! The Legends Festival is an event of the City of Charleston’s Piccolo Spoleto Festival and the College of Charleston’s School of the Arts 20th Anniversary.

To Purchase Tickets

Online www.piccolospoleto.com Phone (843) 724-7295 Purchase tickets by June 1st

Highlights Include:

Florence native, tenor saxophonist, and two-time Grammy nominee, Houston Person will appear in Charleston for the first time in 35 years
An exhibition of CJI’s collection at Avery will be held with a talk by the legendary Heath Brothers
“The Charleston,” an original production performed by 180 4th graders from the Hilton Head Island School of the Creative Arts will tell the story of the Jenkins Orphanage Bands
A cabaret to celebrate the career of Charleston native, clarinetist, and widely-recognized big band arranger, Joseph “Fud” Livingston
The patriarch of THE New Orleans jazz family, Ellis Marsalis will keynote our Gala
Jimmy Heath and Slide Hampton, National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters (the highest award our country gives to jazz musicians) will appear with CJI’s Legends Band – a big band led by Charlton Singleton, a musician with CJI since 2003, and the bandleader of the Charleston Jazz Orchestra
CJI Legends Band, an intergenerational mix of those who helped develop our city’s jazz legacy (Lonnie Hamilton, Joey Morant, George Kenny, Ann Caldwell and others) alongside “the young cats” (Quentin Baxter, Mark Sterbank, Kevin Hamilton, Tommy Gill and others) will perform and record a live concert. The concert will include Heath’s “Without You, No Me,” his tribute to Cheraw native, Dizzy Gillespie, and Hampton’s CJI-commissioned tune. Hampton’s world premiere will be the first time a jazz commission has been composed by an NEA Jazz Master for a Charleston performance!

We’ll see you at the Legends Festival! FULL SCHEDULE »

More Info

To be a sponsor, advertiser or for more information, contact Dr. Karen Chandler, chandlerk@cofc.edu,karen@charlestonjazz.net or 843-953-4843

Fabric + Thread = JAZZ!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 - 6:00 pm

The College of Charleston’s Friends of the Library presents”Fabric + Thread = JAZZ! as part of its Fall 2009 series, ”Hard Luck, Good Times.” Renowned Charleston fiber artist, educator, and jazz advocateDr. Marlene Linton O’Bryant-Seabrook will present the colorful and expertly-crafted quilts that are visual tributes to South Carolina bandleaders and ensemble musicians who became well-known during the jazz heyday of the 1930s. The evening will also feature Charleston Jazz Initiative Co-Founder/Principal Dr. Karen Chandler, Associate Professor of Arts Management at the College of Charleston. She will share stunning photographs and video clips, as well as musical excerpts of musicians featured in Dr. O’Bryant-Seabrook’s quilts.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 - 6:00 pm
Avery Research Center, 125 Bull Street
College of Charleston, Charleston, SC
Free and Open to the Public
For more information: (843) 953-5530 or (843) 953-76

Many of the quilts for Fabric + Thread = JAZZ! are featured inJAZZ! Art Quilts in Performance, a documentary catalog by the Charleston Jazz Initiative of a 2009 exhibition of Dr. O’Bryant-Seabrook’s quilts at the Avery Research Center. The catalog may be purchased during the event or at theAvery Research Center Gift Shop. www.cofc.edu/avery

THE SOUTH CAROLINA HIT PARADE

March 22, 2008

THE SOUTH CAROLINA HIT PARADE, produced by CJI’s Jack McCray, featured musical arrangements, for the first time, by jazz musicians native to Charleston and other places in South Carolina who left an historic jazz legacy. This music was performed by some of the finest musicians who actively work Charleston’s contemporary jazz scene. They make up the Charlton Singleton Orchestra, the debut of a 20-piece big band led by CJI musician, Lowcountry native, trumpeter, composer and arranger, Charlton Singleton.

The orchestra’s rhythm section included CJI’s popular ensemble, the Franklin Street Five, a Jenkins Orphanage tribute band, led by CJI music director, Quentin Baxter. Rounding out the section was bassist Kevin Hamilton, and pianist Richard White, Jr. They were joined by Robert Lewis on alto saxophone; saxophonist Mark Sterbank and arranger of several concert tunes; trumpeter Chuck Dalton; baritone saxophonist John Cobb; vocalists Tony Burke and Ann Caldwell, Charleston’s first lady of jazz; Fred Wesley, Jr., former bandleader for James Brown; guitarist Lee Barbour, one of the best young jazz guitarists in the country, according to guitar giant, Joe Beck (Miles Davis’ first guitar player); and more!

The repertoire for the evening included the songbooks of the Count Basie and Duke Ellington Orchestras. A highlight of the concert was the 1931 Fud Livingston hit ballad, “I’m Through With Love.” This is one of Livingston’s most lasting compositions that he produced with Matt Malneck. The tune was arranged for CJI and the orchestra by Charleston arranger and musician, John Slate. Also featured were jazz tunes composed by or associated with musicians from Charleston and South Carolina including:

Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993) – Cheraw native and one of the country’s most celebrated jazz musician, composer and bandleader; pioneer of modern jazz namely bebop and one of its master trumpet players; with Dizzy, Charlestonian and jazz historian Dr. Wilmot “Al” Fraser wrote his autobiography – To Be or Not To Bop: The Autobiography of Dizzy Gillespie

Freddie Green (1911-1987) – Charleston native; Count Basie’s rhythm guitarist for 50 years; by Basie’s own account, Green defined American swing; regarded as the greatest rhythm guitarist in jazz history, hands down; his collection was recently donated to the Avery Research Center (CJI Archives)

Fud Livingston (1906-1957) – Charleston native; saxophonist and arranger prominent in the 1920s-40s who arranged for Benny Goodman, among others; he wrote several popular ballads related to Charleston with his musical collaborator, Robert S. Cathcart, Jr. – “Easter Bells” and “Springtime in Charleston”; CJI is currently arranging his collection for online access

Buddy (1915-1977) and Ella (1923-2004) Johnson – bandleader brother and vocalist sister team from Darlington; toured with a large blues band throughout the country, mainly in the south performing to sold-out crowds in the 1940s and 50s; performed at the Cotton Club and Savoy Ballrooms; Buddy’s 1947 hit, “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball” was used in the motion picture film “The Jackie Robinson Story”

Bubber Miley (1903-1932) – Aiken native and Jenkins Orphanage Band musician; trumpeter with the Duke Ellington Orchestra; he created the signature “jungle” sound for the orchestra – his trumpet solos are unsurpassed; he co-wrote several compositions with Duke including “Black and Tan Fantasy” and “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo”

3rd Annual Return to the Source

June 7-9, 2007

June 7th - Jazzin’ the Spirit (A Jazz Picnic) – 5-7:30 pm – Robert Mills Manor - 20 Franklin Street

Click to hear The Post and CourierSpoleto Today Podcast about this event and others with Jack McCray (interviewed by Harriet McLeod).
Scroll down to Podcast 3 (5/23/07) and click on“Thirteen Previous” with Geoff, Dan and Harriet talking to Jack. The interview begins at 2:30 and ends at 7:20.
The City of Charleston’s Housing Authority, Jake McGuire Savage Foundation and the Charleston Jazz Initiative hosted a jazz picnic at the former home of the Jenkins Orphanage.
Music was provided by the Franklin Street Five, a Jenkins Orphanage Tribute Band led by noted drummer Quentin Baxter…Imagination, a local neo-gospel and jazz youth band led by pianist Demetrius Doctor… and featured the debut of CJI’s Jenkins Orphanage Reenactment Band! The band was organized by Rachel Dowling, the daughter of Jenkins Orphanage administrators, the late Sarah and John Dowling, and David Richardson.

June 8th – South Carolina Jazz Diaspora (CJI Symposium) – 6-9 pm New Tabernacle Fourth Baptist Church – 22 Elizabeth Street

Click here to read “Jazz promoter to share her musical legacy,” A celebration honoring the Jenkins Orphanage Bands, Freddie Green, Count Basie’s rhythm guitarist for nearly 50 years, and Jabbo Smith, rival trumpeter of Louis Armstrong…plus the debut of CJI’s Edmund Thornton Jenkins Chamber Society organized by Rachel Dowling
Keynote Address — “Jabbo and Me: One Mo’ Time” with Lorraine Gordon (shown right), Owner of the Village Vanguard (one of the most famous jazz clubs in the world), New York City…plus a booksigning of Alive at the Village Vanguard: My Life In and Out of Jazz Time (Hal Leonard, 2006)
Conversations in Jazz with special guests… Al Green, son of Freddie Green, Palm Coast, FL (pictured bottom left); Michael Pettersen, guitarist, arranger & Freddie Green historian, Evanston, IL (pictured bottom center); Jeffrey Green, biographer of Edmund Thornton Jenkins, West Sussex, England (pictured bottom right)
Other special guests included CJI Advisors — A.B. Spellman, former Deputy Chairman, ,National Endowment for the Arts; Dan Morgenstern, Director, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University; and Larry Ridley, Executive Director, African American Jazz Caucus, New York City, as well as visiting jazz historian, Dr. Rainer Lotz, Bonn, Germany
Encore Screening of “Song of Pumpkin Brown” by filmmaker Brad Jayne…musical score by drummer Quentin Baxter
Music was provided by the Edmund Thornton Jenkins Chamber Society; Celeste Laribo, Associate Pastor, The Net International Ministries, Inc.; Daniel Davis, Concertmaster, Charleston County School of the Arts Orchestra; and Darren Shuler, Minister of Music, New Bethel Sounds of Praise Pentecostal Fellowship Ministries, Inc.

June 9th – Booksigning – Nineteenth Century Freedom Fighters: The 1st South Carolina Volunteers (Arcadia, 2006) – 4-6 pm
Avery Research Center – 125 Bull Street

Booksigning and discussion about the Civil War’s 33rd Regiment, South Carolina’s US Colored Troops from authors Bennie J. McRae, Jr. & Cheryl Trowbridge-Miller
Presentation on black American military bands…influences of early jazz & Jenkins Orphanage musicians by special guest Wolfram Knauer, Director, Jazz-Institut, Darmstadt, Germany

Other Events:

June 2nd – Piccolo Spoleto Festival’s Sister City Jazz Block Party: A Tale of Two Cities – 7-11 pm US Custom House – Concord & Market Streets
Celebrate the jazz legacies of Charleston and New Orleans with Fotos for Humanity, Big Daddy & the Salty Dogs, Quiana Parler & Friends, & Skipp Pearsons’ All-State All-Star Jazz Band

REGRETFULLY CANCELLED TROPICAL STORM BARRY
Special thanks to our 2007 major donors and sponsors … College of Charleston (Arts Management Program; Dean’s Office, School of the Arts; Office of the Provost; and the Avery Research Center); Charleston County Council; City of Charleston Housing Authority; Jake McGuire Savage Foundation; Office of Cultural Affairs/City of Charleston; Arcadia Publishing; Hal Leonard Publishers; National Park Service; First Citizens Bank; Coca-Cola Bottling Company; Herzman-Fishman Foundation; Jeffrey Green; Barbara Burgess and John Dinkelspiel; Charleston Place Hotel; and New Tabernacle Fourth Baptist Church.

2nd Annual Return to the Source

May 29, 2006

Sister City Jazz: A Gullah and New Orleans Dialogue
May 29, 2006 – Blacklock House and Gardens, College of Charleston

The program included live music by students from Charleston County School of the Arts Jazz Band, unveiling of “CJ,” an original painting by artist, Jahsun, guest presentations, and “Conversations in Jazz” with oral history accounts from:

Quentin Baxter (Charleston), Jazz Percussionist; Adjunct Professor of Jazz Percussion, College of Charleston; drummer with Rene Marie and Monty Alexander; CJI Resident Musical Director
Jonathan Bloom (New Orleans, LA), Jazz Percussionist; Music Educator, New Orleans Public Schools; former Director, New Orleans All City Jazz Outreach
Jeffrey Green (West Sussex, UK), Historian and Author; biographer of Edmund Thornton Jenkins: The Life and Times of An American Black Composer, 1894-1926

CJI Official Launch Return to the Source

June 2-4, 2005

Robert Mills Manor and Avery Research Center, College of Charleston

A Jazz Tribute to William Blake (June 2) at Robert Mills Manor, 20 Franklin St. (home of the former Jenkins Orphanage) honoring former Jenkins Orphanage band director, William Blake with Quentin Baxter and the Franklin Street Five; commissioned work (“Brother Blake”) by Baxter; and the jazz debut of LaToya Smith
CJI Jazz Symposium and Exhibition Opening including “Charleston Cradle of Jazz” (June 3) with Carolyn Jabulile White, viewing of Jenkins Orphanage Band outtakes by University of South Carolina (USC) Newsfilm prepared by Julie Hubbert of USC Music Department; unveiling of “Baby James,” an original painting inspired by artist, John Carroll Doyle; live jazz by the Quentin Baxter Jazz Ensemble Conversations in Jazz with Jenkins Family and Friends; scholarly presentations; Photojazz, an exhibition by documentary photographer, Jim Alexander featuring 33 photographs of celebrated jazz musicians and Charleston sidemen; and the inaugural gathering of the CJI Circle with a presentation by Kathleen Wyer Lane, collector of family source material on the Avery Normal Institute, Jenkins Orphanage, and several Charleston jazz musicians.

Presentations and oral history accounts by:

Keynote Speaker, A.B. Spellman (Washington, DC) (pictured below), Poet, former Deputy Director, National Endowment for the Arts; author of Art Tatum: A Critical Biography and Four Lives in the Bebop Business
Dan Morgenstern (Jersey City, NJ) (pictured left), Director, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University; former editor of Downbeat; six-time Grammy-award winner for his liner notes; author of Jazz People and Living With Jazz
Jeffrey Green (West Sussex, UK) (pictured below), Historian and Author; biographer of Edmund Thornton Jenkins: The Life and Times of An American Black Composer, 1894-1926
Larry Ridley (New York, NY) (pictured below), Bassist, Executive Director, African American Jazz Caucus,Inc., an affiliate of the International Association for Jazz Education, and Jazz Artist-in-Residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City
Wolfram Knauer (Darmstadt, Germany) (pictured below), Director, Jazz-Institut Darmstadt, Germany; author of several books including Jazz in Europe and essays for the International Dictionary of Black Composers
Alvin Batiste (Baton Rouge and New Orleans, LA) (pictured below right), Clarinetist; Educator at New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts; author of several scholarly articles including “Charleston: Another Cradle of Jazz?”
Rachel Dowling (North Charleston), organist and daughter of former Jenkins administrators, John and Sarah Dowling
Barbara Braithwaite (Charleston), granddaughter of Reverend Daniel Jenkins
Stanley White (Charleston), grandson of Reverend Daniel Jenkins
Jomo Zimbabwe (Boston), grandson of Reverend Daniel Jenkins and nephew of Edmund Thornton Jenkins
Elizabeth Carter Prioleau (Charleston), 1920s resident of Jenkins Orphanage; played piano at the orphanage and her brother, Wilbur, played trumpet
Rollins Edwards (Summerville, SC), Jenkins era musician; drummer; alumnus of the Count Basie, Buddy Johnson and Willie Jackson bands
Kathleen Wyer Lane (New York, NY), Marketing Consultant; collector of family source material on the Avery Normal Institute, Jenkins Orphanage, Arthur Briggs and Tommy Benford
Jim Alexander (Atlanta, GA), Documentary photographer; photographs include those of Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Eartha Kitt and sidemen from the Jenkins Orphanage Bands including Cat Anderson, Freddie Green and Speedy Jones.

From Avery to Erskine Hawkins: Remembering St. Julian Bennett Dash

July 2, 2004

(A Program of the Avery Grand Reunion) – July 2, 2004
Avery Research Center, College of Charleston

The program included live music by the Quentin Baxter Jazz Ensemble including“Tuxedo Junction,” co-written by Julian Dash, a media display of source material donated by the Dash Family, and Conversations in Jazz with oral history accounts from:

Brothers of Julian Dash — Roger Dash (Palm Desert, CA), Avery graduate, 1945 — John Thompson Dash (Charleston), Avery graduate, 1948 — Ernest Dash (Inglewood, CA), Avery graduate, 1951
Clifton Smalls (Brooklyn, NY), native Charlestonian; pianist and jazz band leader who recorded with Dash; former member of the Carolina Cotton Pickers; relief piano player for Earl “Fatha” Hines;
recorded with, and served as musical director for the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra, Billy Eckstine, Eartha Kitt, Ella Fitzgerald and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Return to the Source: Remembering Legendary Bassist, James Lee Jamerson

September 18-19, 2003

Avery Research Center and Sottile Theatre, College of Charleston

A two-day tribute honoring Motown and Funk Brothers bassist and Edisto Island native, James Jamerson. Programs included music by the choirs of the New First Baptist Church of Edisto Island, The McKnight Brothers, and the Black Velvets; the Charleston premiere of the Grammy-award winning documentary, “Standing in the Shadows of Motown;” a display of Jamerson source material acquired from donors, Anthony and Felix McKnight; a James Jamerson Proclamation from the City of Charleston; and “Conversations in Jazz: James Jamerson” with oral history accounts from:

Ann Jamerson (Detroit, MI), James Jamerson’s widow
Anthony McKnight (Charleston), First Cousin of James Jamerson; President, South Carolina Chapter, Motown Alumni Association Bob Lee (Los Angeles, CA), Jamerson historian-bassist

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