MOUNT VERNON – The Knox Community Jazz Orchestra returns to the Woodward Opera House stage on Friday, March 21, with a concert of old favorites and striking new arrangements.
Titled “Shake That Cabin Fever,” the concert will celebrate the end of a rigorous winter and the coming of warmer, longer days. Admission is free, with donations accepted at the door. The performance will begin at 7 p.m.
“I’m thinking of this concert as a hearty taste of musical comfort food that we can all savor, remembering winter and welcoming spring,” said Ted Buehrer, jazz orchestra leader. “And I can’t think of a better venue than the Woodward, with its intimate warmth, where we’ve had the privilege of performing on many occasions.”
The program includes big-band classics like “In the Mood,” associated with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You,” the theme song of Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra. “Basie Straight Ahead” showcases the genius of Sammy Nestico, the longtime arranger for the Count Basie Orchestra.
One of the newer pieces on the set list is “Happy People,” an inventive, upbeat tune by Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Kenny Garrett from 2002.
The jazz orchestra will also perform a beautifully harmonized arrangement of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and Buehrer’s arrangement of Frederic Chopin’s well-loved piano composition, “Nocturne.”
About the orchestra
The 20-member jazz orchestra features active and retired music educators from Knox County and the surrounding area, along with professionals and accomplished amateurs who perform around central Ohio.
A year ago, the jazz orchestra held a benefit concert at the Woodward to raise money for the Mount Vernon Police Department’s acquisition of a new “K9 officer” dog. The group last performed at the Woodward in September 2024 in a joint concert with the Mount Vernon Community Band.
Buehrer, a music professor at Kenyon College, founded the group in 2017, reviving a local big-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 jazz orchestra 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 several years, the big band has also held concerts to benefit Food for the Hungry.
For more information about the March 21 concert, email info@knoxcommunityjazz.org or go to the band’s webpage www.knoxcommunityjazz.org.
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