MOUNT VERNON — The Knox Community Jazz Orchestra brings its swinging sound back to Ariel Foundation Park on Sunday, June 2, to kick off the park’s 2019 summer concert series.
The free concert begins at 6 p.m. at the Schnormeier Event Center.
“People so much enjoyed the jazz orchestra’s performances in the park in 2017 and 2018 that it was just natural to repeat,” said Sam Barone, who helps organize the concert series as the executive director of the Community Foundation of Mount Vernon and Knox County. “This music is timeless, and in live performance there’s nothing like it.”
Music lovers who have followed the local big band since it debuted in 2017 can expect to hear not only some old favorites but also a good many Swing Era and popular numbers that the group will be performing for the first time.
“We’ll be playing Count Basie’s famous ‘Jumpin’ at the Woodside,’ for example, and Duke Ellington’s classic ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),’” said Ted Buehrer, who leads the 20-member ensemble.
The band’s vocalists will perform new pieces as well. Among the numbers offered by Alison Cline will be Bob Merrill’s lively “Mambo Italiano” in the arrangement performed by Bette Midler. One of songs performed by Brad Fox will be Bart Howard’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” in the famous Frank Sinatra version.
As a tribute to the Columbus-based band leader and trombonist Vaughn Wiester, who got his start in Mount Vernon, the jazz orchestra will play Wiester’s arrangement of the standard “Time After Time.” In another nod to the local big-band tradition, the group will use a version of “Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year” that it inherited from the Riley Norris Orchestra, active in the area during the 1960s.
“We’re really pleased to be returning to Ariel Foundation Park,” said Buehrer, a music professor at Kenyon College who plays trumpet with the jazz orchestra in addition to conducting. “This is our third season, and almost all of our musicians have been with the group since the beginning. We know each other well, and our sound is that much sharper and more cohesive.”
The jazz orchestra has also performed in the Dan Emmett Festival and offered Christmas concerts in the Memorial Theater. Earlier this year, it branched out into educational programming with a performance at Highland High School as part of the new Highland ACE Program.
“I hope that it becomes a regular tradition to kick off the summer concert series with the Knox Community Jazz Orchestra,” said Barone of the community foundation.
Noting that a foundation grant provided start-up funds for the group, he added, “The success of the orchestra really accelerated beyond anything I would have imagined at the outset. It shows how much talent we have in the community, and how much interest there is in this music.”
Concert goers may use the park’s chairs or bring their own. There will be no food trucks at this concert event, but Ariel-Foundation Park concessions will be available.
No outside food or beverages may be brought into the Event Center. Pets and smoking are prohibited in the event center and within the fenced area surrounding it. Reserved tables are available for $25 in advance by calling 740-501-9293.
For more information, visit www.arielfoundationpark.org or follow the park on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
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