Archives: events
Jack Arthur McCray, 1947-2011
Sad news came in today from the Jazz Artists of Charleston: founding JAC board member, jazz historian, and longtime producer and emcee Jack McCray has died.
McCray started writing professionally about local jazz clubs and musicians 20 years ago at The Post and Courier. McCray helped establish the
Charleston Jazz Initiative in 2003 as a research project celebrating and documenting the African-American jazz tradition in the Charleston area. In 2007, he examined Charleston’s musical background in the bookCharleston Jazz (Arcadia), a 127-page collection of essays and images.
Over the last four years, McCray worked tirelessly to establish JAC as an independent group of like-minded artists. The JAC has presented numerous big-band and small-combo events at the Charleston Music Hall, Footlight Players Theatre, Voodoo Lounge, and other venues. In 2008, the JAC helped assemble the 20-piece Charleston Jazz Orchestra with Charlton Singleton as conductor. The JAC’s popular Upstairs at McCrady’s and Upstairs at Mistral series coincided with Piccolo Spoleto in recent years. The performances featured many of the finest local jazz musicians in town.
JAC president Leah Suárez issued a press statement on Thurs. Nov. 10:
“It is with a heavy heart and enormous amount of sorrow that we send this news to our JAC family. We have all lost one of the best people to inhabit our world, our jazz angel, Mr. Jack McCray. We wanted to let our JAC family know as soon as possible. Jack adored you all and was so grateful for the opportunity to share his life’s passion and work with each and every one of you. He found victory and unbelievable joy in our ever-growing jazz family. What a gift he was to all of us. Please keep his immediate and extended families and wide-reaching network of friends and colleagues in your thoughts and prayers. We will keep you all informed as we are able. Thank you for your prayers, love and support.”
By T. Ballard Lesemann (Charleston City Paper)
Jazz and Arts Happenings in Charleston/South Carolina
The following are several jazz events happening in Charleston. Check them out!
October 15, 2010 Jazz/Funk Legend George Duke with opening performance by Terence Young Produced by Tammy Greene 8:00-11:00 pm North Charleston Performing Arts Center Information and ticketsOctober 15-17, 2010 The South Carolina Jazz Festival presented by Cheraw, SC (home of John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie) Featuring The Todd Wright Quartet and 3 Mo~La~Dic Divas + 1 with Charleston’s own Annette McKenzie Anderson Information and tickets
October 16, 2010 Jump, Jive and Wail 7:30-11:00 pm Charleston Visitor Center Bus Shed – 375 Meeting Street $20 advance; $25 at the door www.chasoabands.com Purchase tickets. For more information, contact Nancy Mackey at 843-819-9468
October 17, 2010 Ann Caldwell: Singed, Burned, Branded, ‘Buked and Scorned’” A Musical Response to the exhibition Stacy Lynn Waddell: The Evidence of Things Unseen Presented by the Charleston Jazz Initiative/College of Charleston and the Gibbes Museum of Art 3:00 pm Gibbes Museum of Art – 135 Meeting Street, Charleston $10 Gibbes Members $20 Non-Members Advanced ticket purchase is strongly recommended Purchase tickets online, at the Gibbes Museum Store or 843-722-2706 x 22. learn more about the event read Jack McCray’s Jazz Beat(s) Column in The Post and Courier’s Charleston Scene, Oct. 7, 2010
October 23, 2010 Charleston Jazz Orchestra presents Pops! Featuring trombone legend Fred Wesley and Charleston vocalist Amanda Hudson 7:00 pm Charleston Music Hall – 37 John Street www.jazzartistsofcharleston.org Tickets – www.etix.com or the JAC Box Office – 185-B St. Philip Street, Charleston – 843-641-0011 Information or contact erin@jazzartistsofcharleston.org
November 5, 2010 JAZZ for Jenkins: A Benefit Event for Jenkins Orphanage Presented by First Federal and Magnolia Gardens Featuring Charleston native, jazz trumpeter and vocalist Joey Morant with Charleston’s Lonnie Hamilton & Friends and jazz vocalist Lisa Montgomery 7:00-11:00 pm Magnolia Gardens Tickets and information
November 6, 2010 Capital Bookfest 10:00-6:00 pm Charleston County Public Library FREE Information
November 10, 2010 Charleston Jazz Club presents the First Annual Charleston Jazz Jam “Jazz in the Moonlight” 6:00-10:00 pm The Barn at Awendaw Green – 4853 Highway 17 North – www.awendawgreen,com FREE Information or contact Dennis Fassuliotis, Producer - charlestonjazzman@gmail.com
November 11-13, 2010 Earl Klugh’s Weekend of Jazz at Kiawah Island Golf Resort Join Grammy-winning guitarist Earl Klugh and his “Weekend of Jazz” featuring Earl Klugh, Fourplay, Boney James, Kyle Eastwood, Jessy J, Joe Gransden, and more! Weekend of Jazz Package information
November 24, 2010 Charleston Jazz Orchestra presents Holiday Swing 7:00 pm Charleston Music Hall – 37 John Street www.jazzartistsofcharleston.org Tickets – www.etix.com or the JAC Box Office – 185-B St. Philip Street, Charleston – 843-641-0011 Information or contact erin@jazzartistsofcharleston.org
Charleston Jazz Initiative Legends Band – CD Release
Jazz History in the Making: Release of the CJI Legends Band CD
CJI’s first recording scheduled for release in December 2010 features music from the early 20th century to 2010 that documents Charleston’s influence in the jazz performance traditions of many of this country’s big bandleaders, sidemen, and soloists. It will mark the first CD recording of tunes composed, arranged or performed by musicians of Charleston and South Carolina’s rich jazz legacy!
In June 2010 during CJI’s Legends Festival, the CJI Legends Band, an eighteen-piece big band, performed and completed a live and studio recording. The concert was recorded live at Sottile Theatre on June 5, and the next day, musicians completed a studio recording at Charleston Sound in Mount Pleasant, SC, the area’s premier recording studio.
A $40,000 Access to Artistic Excellence grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), has helped to fund the CD and is a significant national distinction for CJI’s efforts, Charleston’s flourishing jazz scene, and the city’s rich jazz legacy. It marks the first time that the federal arts agency has awarded funds to promote, record, document and preserve the jazz performance and historic traditions of Charleston.
The recording is scheduled for release in December (watch this website for details). A highlight of the CD are compositions, solos, and performances by several Legends Festival guests including NEA Jazz Masters Slide HamptonTM and Jimmy Heath; Florence, SC native and tenor saxophonist Houston Person; drummer/percussionist Tootie Heath; John Williams, baritone saxophonist, 25-year veteran of the Count Basie Orchestra and Orangeburg, SC native; Joey Morant , trumpeter, touring musician and Charleston’s jazz ambassador; and Charleston jazz legends, Lonnie Hamilton III, George Kenny, Oscar Rivers Jr., Ann Caldwell, Quentin Baxter, and Charlton Singleton.
CD selections will include features by Slide Hampton and Jimmy Heath — Hampton’s world premiere, “Gullah Suite: A Tribute to Buddy Johnson & John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie,” a CJI-commissioned tune in three movements, and Jimmy Heath’s “Without You, No Me,” his tribute to Dizzy Gillespie. Hampton’s premiere and Heath’s composition will be the first time compositions by these two NEA Jazz Masters have been performed and recorded live in Charleston with local and nationally-recognized musicians.
Other featured new music will include “437 Race Street,” a big band composition by Joey Morant that highlights a familiar street on Charleston’s east side; “Brother Blake,” a 2005 CJI-commissioned work by Quentin Baxter that is a tribute to William Blake, Jenkins Orphanage Band director from 1920-1958; and “Step Lightly,” composed by Grammy award-winning producer, composer and former A & R head of Blue Note Records, Bob Belden, a former resident of Goose Creek, SC.
Other CD selections will include jazz standards popularized by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Erskine Hawkins, and Cab Calloway in which many Charleston/South Carolina musicians were featured as sidemen (Cat Anderson, Freddie Green. Jabbo Smith), and those that have been composed, arranged, and performed by South Carolinians’ Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Johnson (“Since I Fell for You”), Fud Livingston (“I’m Through With Love”), Julian Dash (“Tuxedo Junction”) and Freddie Green (“Corner Pocket”).
The musicians of the band are professional local and internationally-recognized instrumentalists, several featured soloists, musicians of the Franklin Street Five, a Jenkins Orphanage Tribute band debuted by CJI in 2005, and featured guests. Charlton Singleton, a CJI musician since 2003 and artistic director of the Charleston Jazz Orchestra (CJO) – Charleston’s new resident big band orchestra under the auspices of the Jazz Artists of Charleston (JAC), served as bandleader.
Charleston Jazz Initiative Legends Band CD Dr. Karen Chandler, Executive Producer Jack McCray, Producer; Author, Liner Notes Quentin Baxter, Engineer and Producer Charlton Singleton, Bandleader Tony Bell, Photographer Colin Quashie, Graphic Design Reeds Oscar Rivers Jr. George Kenny Mark Sterbank Lonnie Hamilton III John Williams John Cobb Trumpets Joey Morant Chuck Dalton Cameron Handel Charlton Singleton Trombones Teddy Adams Timothy J. Robinson Mitchell Butler Phil King Rhythm Tommy Gill, piano Kevin Hamilton, bass Quentin Baxter, drums and percussion Joe Wilson, guitar Vocals Ann Caldwell Tony Burke“Ann Caldwell: Singed, Burned, Branded, ‘Buked and Scorned’”
Sunday, October 17, 2010 – 3 pm Gibbes Museum of Art – 135 Meeting Street Charleston, SC $10 Gibbes Members $20 Non-Members Purchase tickets online
CJI and the Gibbes Museum of Art present “Ann Caldwell: Singed, Burned, Branded, “Buked and Scorned’”: A Musical Response to Stacy Lynn Waddell: The Evidence of Things Unseen on Sunday, October 17 at 3 pm at the Gibbes Museum.
In The Evidence of Things Unseen, visual artist Stacy Lynn Waddell burns, singes, and brands paper and fabric to create works that explore differing perceptions of American history and culture. The exhibition is on view through December 5, 2010.
In the Rotunda Gallery surrounded by Waddell’s innovative works, Charleston jazz vocalist Ann Caldwell will perform the music of Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight,” Paul Webster and Sonny Burke’s “Black Coffee,” Abel Meeropol’s “Strange Fruit,” and enslaved African ancestors’ “Poor Pilgrim, Lord How Come Me Here?” Waddell’s creative technique and the Negro spiritual “I’ve Been Buked and I’ve Been Scorned” serve as the inspiration for Caldwell’s musical selections, all of which will be performed a cappella and interwoven with Caldwell’s thoughtful commentary.
Tickets are $10 for museum members and students and $20 for non-members (museum admission is included in the ticket price). Tickets can be purchased online, at the Gibbes Museum Store, or by calling 843-722-2706 x22. Advance ticket purchase is strongly recommended.
Read Jack McCray’s Jazz Beat(s) Column in The Post and Courier’s Charleston Scene, Oct. 7, 2010
Legends Festival
June 4-6, 2010
LEGENDS MAIN | SCHEDULE | SPONSORS | HOTEL | FLYER [PDF] | SUPPORT [PDF]
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
Modern Jazz in Charleston: 1950-2000
Saturday, June 6, 2009 – 12:00-3:00 pm
Hot Jazz…Hot Charleston!
CJI’s 4th Annual Return to the Source event explored the social and musical perspectives of Charleston’s contemporary jazz scene with two events.
JAZZ! Art Quilts in Performance
Juke boxes, disc jockeys and live artists were woven like threads in Harlem and Charleston nightclubs. Renowned quilter, educator and jazz advocate, Dr. Marlene O’Bryant-Seabrook, presented her quilts to celebrate this cultural heyday of art, music and craft in an exhibition and artist talk. The quilts are featured in a documentary catalog by the Charleston Jazz Initiative and may be purchased at the Avery Research Center Gift Shop. www.cofc.edu/avery
Conversations in Jazz
CJI’s niche program, Conversations in Jazz, featured jazz producer, columnist, author and CJI’s co-principal Jack McCray with those who experienced Charleston’s rollicking Golden Age of Jazz. On stage were musician Calvin “Piano Calvin” Alston; community historian Walter Rhett; former broadcasters Theron Snype and Philip LaRoche ; former club owner Ernest Pinckney; and musician-educator George Kenny. Playing bebop at the gig was Charleston drummer and CJI music director Quentin Baxter and his ensemble.
Saturday, June 6, 2009 – 12:00-3:00 pm
Avery Research Center, 125 Bull Street
College of Charleston, Charleston, SC
Free and Open to the Public
For more information: (843) 953-5474 or (843) 953-7609
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.
