RED BANK, IN A BLUE STATE
Flash of red: Star attractions at this year’s Red Bank Jazz & Blues Festival include (clockwise from top left) Deanna Bogart, Houston Person and the ubiquitous TJ Wheeler.
By DOROTHY CREAMER
Ever hear the legend of Brigadoon? In the old Broadway musical, it’s an enchanted village that appears out of the mists of the Scottish Highlands once every hundred years, only to vanish back into the mist as the chimes of the next day strike.
For just about 72 hours on the first full weekend in June, a village rises up in Red Bank’s Marine Park — a place filled with music, food, crafts and countless people enjoying them all. Then, just like the fabled Brigadoon, it all disappears before midnight on the third day.
“It is almost like magic,” muses Ira Rosen, spokesman for the Red Bank Jazz & Blues Festival, which kicks off its two days and nights of sounds, sights, sensations and wonderful smells on the evening of Friday, June 5.
Now in its 23rd year, the RBJBF has become a legend in its own right, beckoning like a pied sax player to the expected 75,000 people who will come from near and far to experience it. And, at the risk of dissipating some of that magic, it’s the work of the Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation and its 100-plus dedicated volunteers who, from setup to breakdown, make the event a reality — and whose only compensations are a free meal and a t-shirt.
With more than 30 musical acts on thee stages, plus a whole village square’s worth of crafters and food vendors, the festival promises affordable family entertainment for three days, rain or shine.
“In difficult economies, people are always looking for good value for their entertainment dollar — and nothing is better than free,” Rosen boasts, reminding that there is no charge for admission. “In theory you could enjoy three days of music, and not spend a nickel.”
It should be pointed out that there’s also plenty of cool stuff on which to spend that nickel and his presidential cousins. And the level of entertainment is, as they say, priceless.
Touch of blue: Friday night lights at the RBJBF include (clockwise from left) Bradford Hayes, Outside the Box, Poppa John Bug and the Atlantic Jazz Company.
Headlining Friday’s inaugural night of the festival (in the now-traditional Friday hometown-hero slot) is the legendary blues guitarist Sonny Kenn — about whom more here in oRBit later this week.
The Maryland-based Deanna Bogart Band takes over main stage duties on Saturday night at 8:30pm, regaling the crowds with its dynamic frontwoman’s dazzling skills on boogie piano and sultry sax. The 74 year old tenor sax legend Houston Person (Etta Jones, Lena Horne, Lou Rawls) and his New York-based Quartet will see the festival out on Sunday, going on at 4:30 p.m.
Also appearing on various stages throughout the weekend are The Soul Project, the R&B/funk/jazz infused band from New Orleans, as well as returning favorites Jazz Pollution, Nine Below Zero, plus a variety of local veterans (Sandy Mack, Poppa John “Bug”, Chuck Lambert’s A Cool Blues Duo, Jerry Topinka) and a whole new generation of homegrown talents Quincy Mumford, Outside The Box, Atlantic Jazz Company).
Sounding the keynote to the whole event with the singing of the national anthem on Friday evening is another member of that new generation — Rumson’s Phoebe Holiday Ryan, the Red Bank Regional senior whose successes (a lauded performance in Two River Theater Company’s production of Melissa Arctic, and a Basie Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in Romeo & Juliet) and famous near miss (she went to Hollywood as a contestant for the eighth season of American Idol, only to have her audition scenes relegated to the cutting room floor) have been closely followed here in oRBit.
The youth contingent is also well-represented by the Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation Youth Project, which will be performing throughout the festival on the kid-oriented BackBeat Stage. Also making an appearance at the festival is Divine Jazz Quartet, a group of talented teens that performs, you guessed it, favorite jazz standards. Appearing every day of the festival will be jazz performer, storyteller and educator TJ Wheeler, whose work with kids throughout the year pays crowdpleasing dividends at festival time.
“The educational mission is to preserve this genre of music for kids,” says Rosen of the JSJBF’s educational outreach. “The goal is to get people to understand that the music we listen to today has its roots in jazz and blues.”
While the Red Bank Jazz & Blues Festival has come to enjoy a national reputation, with loyal fans making the trip each year from all different parts of America, Rosen admits that the location doesn’t hurt either.
“The Jersey shore in early June is a great place to vacation and hang out anyway,” Rosen concedes. “We get attendees who started out coming as teens and now are married, pushing their kids around in strollers. ”
For his part, Rosen doesn’t have time to revel in what is sure to be another hectic and successful installment of the fest. The committee starts soliciting new sponsors and grants in August and September — “So, we take a breath and start all over again,” Rosen says with a laugh. “Every year we try to do things better.”
Making improvements on a nonprofit event when costs are consistently skyrocketing isn’t always easy, and the RBJBF relies on donations from attendees, the help of sponsors (including Super Foodtown, Verizon, Smoothie King and Bank of America), plus a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
“With the challenging economy it’s always tough,” Rosen acknowledges. “But the public has always been very supportive of this festival and we hope they will continue to be generous with their donations.”
The Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation has set up an excellent website dedicated to the festival, featuring a detailed schedule, lists of food vendors and crafters, directions and more. Go to it, for the answers to all your questions — and keep watching this space for more coverage of the big event as it unfolds.
Posted
June 01, 2009
in
under
