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| Collegiate Jazz Comes to Antioch, CA by Malcolm Hunter The Antioch Music Foundation, created to stage musical entertainment events and seek monetary and musical instrument donations for the benefit of the Antioch Unified School District's music programs, will host its first "Antioch Collegiate Jazz Festival" on Saturday, May 5, 2007. The show begins at the historic El Campanil theatre. There are four small instrumental jazz ensembles from four major California universities who have submitted applications committing to participate in the festival. These include two quartets, one each from Fresno State and San José State, a quintet from the University of the Pacific's Dave Brubeck Jazz Institute, and a sextet from Cal State East Bay. The festival will showcase talented young jazz musicians attending universities offering strong accredited jazz music degree programs. The target audience includes jazz aficionados in general and area high school and junior college musicians in particular who are interested in earning bachelor degrees in jazz. There are also plans to book a professional jazz musician to headline the event, as well as a noteworthy jazz personality to be the master of ceremonies. More details will follow about ticket prices, as well as varying levels of available corporate and individual sponsorships. The idea for the collegiate jazz festival was inspired by the title of the Dave Brubeck Quartet's 1954 record album, "Jazz Goes to College", when the Antioch Music Foundation was inquiring about the possibility of Dave Brubeck's performing at El Campanil. While that album was about professional jazz musicians performing at colleges, Brubeck's being unavailable due to his being booked solid for the foreseeable future soon turned the thinking towards giving collegiate jazz musicians an opportunity to perform outside of college. This event represents a departure in mainly two ways: bands will be small ensembles (from quartets to sextets), compared to usual big-band format totaling approximately 15 band members, and it will not be a competitive event. The Antioch Music Foundation, a California non-profit ) corporation, was founded by Walter and Cynthia Ruehlig of Antioch, CA. It has a Board of Directors totaling 11 members. In its first year of existence, the foundation has distributed nearly $20, 000 and numerous instruments to the various AUSD music programs. AMF has also staged two other musical events: a church choir competition, won by Antioch Church Family, and "East Bay Idol", patterned after "American Idol", which was won by Neyshia Go. AMF hopes to make the Antioch Collegiate Jazz Festival, as well as "East Bay Idol", perennial events. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |