This is the fourth annual MontCo Jazz Fest. What was the originating spark?
This is the fourth year that it’s happening, and my third year helping to organize. It’s a week-long festival that takes place over the entire county. And the county is massive. So we’re just trying to showcase and highlight the arts and show that Montgomery County just has a lot happening.
That sprawl that you just described, you could look at it as a challenge, but I get the sense that you see it as an opportunity to spread things around. What is your feeling?
No, it is a challenge. And really, any venue that wants to participate in the festival, can. So we have performing arts venues, restaurants, bars. The Elmwood Zoo. The challenge was cohesion. What I’ve tried to do every year is put a theme to the festival so that we can all kind of get on the same page, because some venues book their own music, and other venues rely on me more for help. This year, we’re trying to do main concerts every night, with a bunch of auxiliary concerts that support all of that. And most of these concerts are free.
What is the theme this year?
This year, the theme is community. Trying to dig in, connect more with our community, and we’re also honoring some organizations within our community. One of those organizations is Jazz Bridge. They’re helping and assisting musicians who are facing crisis. They also support them through providing paid performance opportunities through concerts and such. Another organization we’re working with is Key of She Jazz, founded by saxophonist Olivia Hughart. They’re based in Montgomery County, and their mission is to support and encourage girls in jazz, from middle school on.
Key of She is set up as a culminating event of this festival: a jazz party on Sept. 21.
This is the second year that we’re hosting this event at Hotel West & Main in Conshohocken, which is a beautiful new hotel. Our first year, the theme was “Women in Jazz,” and it was really successful and well received. We felt that moving forward, we still wanted to keep our commitment to women in jazz and continue to highlight and spotlight them. So that’s really where the idea for this came from. It’s happening between 1 and 6 p.m. — it starts with the Maria Marmarou Trio, then Olivia Hughart with her group, and the final group will be Carol Riddick with Gerald Veasley doing their tribute to Nina Simone.
Moving from the finale to the kickoff, a really fun way to usher in this festival is to get people dancing. Can you talk about that?
We’re having our kickoff at the Berman Museum at Ursinus College, in Collegeville. And we hosted an event there the first year that I was at the helm, and we did a swing dance event. It just went so well. We’ve had the kickoff at different locations every year, and the Berman just loved the idea of how successful the swing dance was. So we decided to keep that again this year. It’s all ages, all types of people, and they’re engaging with the students on the campus. We have Danny Jonokuchi and the Revisionists with Charles Turner, Alexa Barchini, and Chelsea Reed. And one of the other organizations that we're working with is Jazz Attack Philadelphia. They’re committed to making Lindy Hop accessible to everyone, so they’re going to come and do a dance lesson. It’s a very accessible sort of event, and we’re really excited about that one.
It seems like the most festive possible way to kick things off.
The other event that I’m really excited about is on Sunday — an event that we’re having on Temple Ambler’s campus. The Upper Dublin Parks and Rec is handling the logistics of the event, and the Temple University Jazz Band, under the direction of Terrell Stafford, will perform. I think my favorite thing about that event was how everyone came together and really pooled resources to make this happen. It was such a beautiful example of the community pulling something off.
Now, you are also an artist, and you're performing at the festival this year at the Valley Forge Casino. Will it be tricky to shift gears from organizing to performing?
I’m a musician first, a singer first — so for me that is just always fun. I did it last year, and it was successful, so they asked me to do it again. And yeah, I can change hats. You know, if you’re a musician, you’ve gotta wear a lot of them, so I’ve got it.
Are there any other features of the festival this year that you want to call out?
Cardinal Hollow Winery in Lansdale is hosting the Philly Five. And this is a concert that’s also sponsored by GAIA, which is the Global Academy for Inspirational Arts. They were able to come in where there was a financial need and help to co-sponsor this event and fund the band. There are also a lot of younger musicians that are performing: Najwa Parkins is going to be at Stave & Staple in Pottstown; Calli Graver is going to be at the King of Prussia Town Center. There’s an art gallery participating, Moody Jones Gallery, and another one called The CO Lab. The Great American Pub will have a singer, Cindy King. And the Cigar Republic — that’s another big one, they’re having a Jazz Bridge Super Band. All the proceeds for that night will go towards Jazz Bridge.
And that Super Band is accurately named, with Victor North and Dylan Band, Neil Podgurski, Wayne Smith, Doug Drews. It’s a real collection of Philly jazz talent.
We’ll also be honoring Jazz Bridge at our kickoff event. It’s just really nice to get all these people in a room and introduce them to others. What else? The Human Robot is participating all three days. J.J. Ratigan's Brewing Co, Eddie V's, they have music every night. Southern Cross Kitchen, The Royal in Glenside, Theater Horizon. The Elmwood Zoo. There’s a lot. And it’s really amazing that all these venues are standing in solidarity, and getting on board. It’s been really lovely to see everyone’s participation and commitment to making this happen.
The MontCo Jazz Fest runs September 16-21 in various locales; more information.
