MOUNT VERNON – The Knox Community Jazz Orchestra will usher in the season of sharing and giving with a free concert on Sunday, Nov. 19, to benefit Food for the Hungry.
The performance, titled “An Abundance of Swing,” will take place in the Thorne Performance Hall at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The hall is located inside the R.R. Hodges Chapel and Fine Arts Center. Audience members are asked to bring canned goods or a monetary donation to support the annual drive that helps local people in need.
“Top-notch local performers, irresistible music, and a worthy cause make for a great combination,” said Ted Buehrer, the conductor and a trumpeter in the 20-piece jazz orchestra.
“We’ll have something for everyone, from relaxed swing to up-tempo numbers, from lyrical ballads to some Latin flair. And, just to look a bit beyond Thanksgiving, we’ll sneak in a Christmas tune.”
This is the second time that the jazz orchestra has staged a concert supporting Food for the Hungry. The group gave a similar benefit performance in 2021.
Joining the band, as she has in previous concerts, will be vocalist Amanda Mayville, who sings and acts regularly in the community-theater productions of MTVarts.
“I think the audience will love Amanda’s rendition of the George Gershwin classic A Foggy Day,” Buehrer said. “The arrangement she’s singing alternates between swing and samba grooves, a really compelling mix.”
Other featured numbers include Out Back of the Barn, a low, slow swinger that features baritone sax player Bob Blomeyer, as well as a beautiful rendition of A Very Precious Love highlighting a soaring trombone melody played by Jeremy Smith.
“The band has so many talented individuals, and it’s a treat to be able to showcase so many of them as we constantly broaden our repertoire,” Buehrer said. “This performance will blend a mix of our old favorites along with some new material.”
Buehrer, a music professor at Kenyon College, founded the Knox Community Jazz Orchestra in 2017, reviving a local jazz-band tradition that dates back to the Riley Norris Orchestra of the 1960s, the Bob Bechtel Big Band of the 1980s, and the Colonial City Big Band that followed it.
The new group has won an enthusiastic local following, with performances at Ariel Foundation Park, the Mount Vernon Music & Arts Festival, Kenyon College, the annual Tops ’n’ Pops concert of the Mount Vernon City Schools, and the invitational jazz festival of the Centerburg School District.
For more information about the Nov. 19 concert, email Ted Buehrer at info@knoxcommunityjazz.org, or check the band’s website at knoxcommunityjazz.org.
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