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Tag: Akron jazz

Tremont Concert Explores UnchARTed Territory Saturday

Addison Frei, Todd Coolman, T.J. Reddick, Omar Lateef, Charles Pillow
from left: Addison Frei, Todd Coolman, T.J. Reddick, Omar Lateef, Charles Pillow

One way to look at the music world is as a gigantic Indra’s Net, a web of connections where any one musician can be linked to any other with just a few degrees of separation. It’s not only a cool topic for the post-gig hang. It can be the catalyst that brings players together and catalyze the magic that happens on the bandstand.

That’s the story behind a concert Saturday presented by Arts Renaissance Tremont that features five New York-based players, none of whom seem to have played with any of the others. The concert, appropriately dubbed UnchARTed Territory, is Saturday at Pilgrim Congregational Church.

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At Rubber City Jazz & Blues Fest, A Big Night Of Big Bands

The Sam Blakeslee Large Group at BLU Jazz+
The Sam Blakeslee Large Group at BLU Jazz+

The 2026 Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival, which begins Thursday, is big: three days, five venues and 18 events. It has a big-name headliner, too in contemporary jazz master Gerald Albright who will top a double bill with Althea René at Lock 3 on Saturday, Sept. 12. But the biggest noise of the festival presented by Open Tone Music might be the one that a pair of big—or biggish—bands will make in the normally hushed confines of Akron’s Main Library.

The bands are under the leadership of trombonist and composer Sam Blakeslee, who will present music from his Large Group’s recording, New Blood, which will be released Sept. 25 on BJU Records, and Chris Coles, who has convened an 11-piece orchestra to play “The Way of The Sly Man,” a multi-part work composed by the late bassist and educator Dave Morgan.

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Get Overjoyed. UA JazzWeek ’26 In Akron Is Back

UA Jazz Week Banner 2026

Overjoyed wasn’t the first choice for the theme of this year’s University of Akron Jazz Week ’26 that begins today. “At first we said gratitude, but there was something about it that wasn’t as killing,” said Chris Coles, who curates the four-day celebration and festival with his fellow UA faculty member and frequent musical collaborator Theron Brown.

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