Lexington, KY - April is the official Smithsonian Jazz Appreciation Month, but Lexington has another reason to celebrate jazz this month - the 20th anniversary of Lexington's Jazz Arts Foundation (JAF), a non-profit that has worked diligently over the past two decades to promote the art form on a local level. President Dave McWhorter founded the organization in 1990, after being struck by the notion that jazz was under-represented in Lexington's arena of organizational arts.
"We had the philharmonic, we had the Lexington Singers," McWhorter said. "We had lots of things, but we didn't really have a jazz non-profit."
The Smithsonian and many other national organizations have readily embraced jazz as an art form, in no small part because of its immense contributions to American culture and heritage (Congress has officially declared it to be "a rare and valuable national American treasure"). But for McWhorter, a drummer who has played with a number of groups around Lexington, the task of promoting jazz on a local level was of personal interest as well.
"Over the years, playing disco and rock-and-roll and country seemed to grow stale to me," he said. "I wanted to do more jazz, and this became kind of an offshoot."
The "offshoot" has turned into something much greater than McWhorter or any of the original board members imagined. Though its specific focus has shifted to various projects over the years, the group has never let up on its mission: "to enhance the awareness of jazz as a performing art." To that end, JAF has initiated a number of concert series, artist residency programs, scholarships and various jazz-related community initiatives - many of which have grown to become independent organizations themselves. The Jazz Arts Foundation Youth Ensemble, an intensive annual workshop experience for talented high school musicians from across the central Kentucky region, was born under the JAF umbrella in 1996. Fourteen years later, the program continues to provide an opportunity for students to perform in professional local settings, including the Lexington Opera House and Ecton Park, even though the program has since been adopted by the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra.
"(The ensemble) has continued to grow under a different umbrella," said McWhorter, "but it's still our baby."
Being a catalyst for community initiatives wasn't necessarily part of the Jazz Arts Foundation's original script - but then again, the program didn't really have an original script.
"We just knew that collectively we could do something better than just sitting back waiting for it to happen," McWhorter said.
The organization's programs have attracted the attention and support from a number of partners and sponsors over the years, including the Lexington Public Library, LexArts and the Jamey Aeborsold Jazz Foundation. Aebersold, a musician based out of New Albany, Ind., is the founder of a successful series of music training tools and publications (including the widely popular Musical Play-A-Longs, a series of recordings used to develop improvisation skills with various instruments). His foundation is currently JAF's key benefactor.
In recent years, the primary focus of the Jazz Arts Foundation has been hosting a monthly concert series called Live at the Library. On April 8, the group will host its 36th consecutive free monthly show at the Lexington Central Library Theater. The show will be a reunion concert, bringing back many of the musicians who played the very first concert hosted by the organization in 1990, an event that brought Vince DiMartino's big band and five other smaller jazz groups together on the stage of Memorial Hall.
Though the series typically focuses on local and regional musicians, the roster has seen a handful of national and international players, including two Russian ensembles (Open World Jazz Quintet and Open World Jazz Quartet) and Brazilian piano player Renato Vasconellos.
"We're able to bring in a lot of really good professional talent. The musicians love it," McWhorter said of the 144-capacity theater where the shows take place. "There's great acoustics, the piano stays tuned - it's a great atmosphere."
"Minus the coffee, it's a bit like playing in a coffee house," added Greg Davis, the marketing and communications manager for the Lexington Public Library, and a key component in organizing the Live at the Library series. The crowds that attend the monthly shows average around 100 people, including students, musicians, young children and more seasoned jazz lovers. Also, Davis says the library's partnership with the foundation is reciprocal -
the library provides a great venue for the series, and in return, the series aids the library in its mission to be a cultural commons for the community.
JAF has also created an invaluable relationship with another important Lexington resource -
the University of Kentucky. Under the direction of JAF treasurer and UK professor John Clark, the university's School of Journalism and Telecommunications has been overseeing the audio/visual aspects of the series since 2008. Around 15 students have participated, and Clark said the students have gotten "a lot of really cool experience, because the videos are really nice, and they get their name on the credits." As an added bonus, the musicians each come away with a DVD of their performances, which are also aired on Insight Cable's Library Channel.
According to McWhorter, the jazz scene in Lexington has waxed and waned a number of times over the years, with blows including the discontinuation of the Coach House, which hosted live jazz every weekend for eight years (McWhorter booked the shows, and played many of them) and the discontinuation of the Singletary Center's Spotlight Jazz Series.
"You don't find jazz clubs like you used to anywhere, and I think a lot of that is because there are so many other diversions," McWhorter said. "But with a lot of help and patience, we have found a way to nurture jazz and keep it in the community."
In addition to the April 8 Live at the Library event, the Jazz Arts Foundation will celebrate its anniversary with a bash at Natasha's Bistro and Bar on the afternoon of April 25. The show will feature acclaimed Lexington-born violinist Zach Brock, who now lives in New York City, as well as the Jamey Aebersold Quartet and local jazz pianist Orville Hammond. Proceeds will benefit the Live at the Library Production fund.