Every Tuesday night, students can walk uptown to hear the soulful jazz of The Paul Elisha Band or go to Tony’s Tavern to hear live, improvised classic jazz rattle the tavern walls.
Few students, however, are eager to flock there.
“Outside of the School of Music, there isn’t much of a jazz scene in Athens,” Paul Elisha, lead vocalist for The Paul Elisha Band, said. “The local bands aren't really jazz bands. ... The jazz enthusiasts are the older crowd.”
This weekend, though, jazz will flood the bars of Athens and Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium for the annual Athens Jazz Festival. Friday starts the jazz pub-crawl, followed by Saturday’s performance at Mem Aud and an aftershow at Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery, 24 W. Union St.
On Saturday, Gary Wittner and Tim Hagans will hold a meet-and-greet at The J Bar, 41 N. Court St. Later that afternoon, they will lead workshops with students at Athens High School. One of the high school jazz groups will be chosen to play at the Mem Aud show that evening, and Wittner and Hagans will join in as well.
“Jazz traditionally has been an urban art form,” Jack Gould, saxophonist for Sassafraz and The Paul Elisha Band, said. “The music school doesn’t focus heavily on jazz; they are more about classical education, which is cool, but it doesn’t foster a good jazz scene.”
The Paul Elisha band is a mixture of soul, R&B and jazz, while Sassafraz mixes funk, jazz and rap. Styles mesh between these bands all the time and some of the most well-known bands on campus do this, including Elemental Groove Theory, MojoFlo, and First Street Heat before taking on its new incarnation, Sassafraz.
Ted Harris, saxophonist for The Royales, said that jazz can find its way into virtually any style of music, but for it to be truly jazz, it needs the group dynamic of improvisation.
“What separates jazz from other music is that the group is more important than the individual,” Harris said. “Musicians are listening to each other in real time to what’s going on — call and response.”
Harris added that he believes the Athens jazz scene is starting to flourish and that the crowd is prepared for more diversity than artists are putting out.
“Right now, the old stuff is dying, because there is nothing for young people to latch on to,” Gould said. “We’re trying to break all the rules. ... The only way to save jazz is to have it evolve.”
wh092010@ohiou.edu
IYGB:
What: Jazz Spoken Here
When: 6:15 p.m. Friday
Where: Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery, 24 W. Union St.
Admission: Cover
What: MojoFlo
When: 9:15 p.m. Friday
Where: Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery, 24 W. Union St.
Admission: Cover
What: The Eden Lee Trio
When:8 p.m. Friday
Where: Buffalo Wild Wings, 23 W. Union St.
Admission: Cover
What: Sassafraz and The Cincy Brass
When: 10:45 p.m. Friday
Where: The Union, 24 W. Union St.
Admission: Cover
What: Tim Hagans, Gary Wittner, Elemental Groove Theory, Jazz Spoken Here and the top high school jazz band from the HS Workshop
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
Where: Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium
Admission: $8 in advance, $10 at the door
What: The Royales and The Paul Elisha Band
When: 10 p.m. Friday
Where: Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery, 24 W. Union St.
Admission: Cover
