Herbie Hancock -

Bounceback: Akron’s Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival Is Back In A Big Way

Published 5 September, 2023 By John Chacona

It could just be a case of wishful thinking, but the terrific things I’m hearing about this past weekend’s inaugural Hingetown Jazz Festival show what can happen when top-flight musicians, welcoming venues and tireless, community-minded organizers come together to meet audiences where they are. Who wouldn’t be stoked for the future?

And you won’t have to wait to get a glimpse of what that future might look like, because this weekend brings Akron’s annual Rubber City Jazz and Blues Festival Sept. 7-9.

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Local Musicians Add Flavor To the Sauce At Tri-C JazzFest

Published 20 June, 2023 By John Chacona

For fans of improvised music in the Black American tradition, the arrival of Tri-C JazzFest to Playhouse Square with a roster of artists including Herbie Hancock, Christian McBride and phenomenal shooting-star vocalist Samara Joy is hands down the biggest week of the year.

The touring artists whose shelves are heavy with Grammy Awards and other honors deservedly grab the clicks and dominate the buzz, but for dozens of musicians from throughout Northeast Ohio, JazzFest will be the biggest gig of their year. For some of them, it will be the biggest opportunity of their young careers.

At Severance, Julian Davis Reid Examines Both Sides of The American Dream

Published 17 May, 2023 By John Chacona

Julian Davis Reid

Like many Black musicians, pianist, bandleader and theologian Julian Davis Reid paid close attention to poet and essayist Amiri Baraka’s 1963 book “Blues People: Negro Music in White America.” Reid was particularly taken with, as he told me, “this idea that Black music is a place where people in this country, Black and otherwise, rest. But at the same time, the music emerges from our sense of homelessness, of not feeling welcomed.”

Baraka was a man of action as well as of ideas, and Reid, a graduate of Yale Divinity School, took his words as a call that Reid answered in words and music with “The American Dream, the American Nightmare, and Black American Music,” which he will present Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Music Center. as part of the Cleveland Orchestra’s weeklong Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream.

Dan Wilson Celebrates ‘Things Eternal’ With An Intimate Trio Show

Published 18 April, 2023 By John Chacona

How much love does Akron guitarist Dan Wilson have for his hometown? His forthcoming release Things Eternal, out Friday, is an all-Akron affair with compositions by Akron composers, featuring Akron and NEO musicians recorded in Akron.

When he celebrates the release of that record Friday at Bop Stop, it’ll be Akron-style and family-style, too, with an just vocalist Jessica Yafanaro and bassist Kip Reed joining him onstage. Warm, intimate and swinging: that’s Dan Wilson’s style, too.

Giant Step: Akron’s Rubber City Festival Returns to Live Performance

Published 7 September, 2022 By John Chacona

Right now, the northeast Ohio creative music scene is like the parent of a toddler walking barefoot in the dark trying to cross the room not knowing where the Legos might be. What will the size of audiences be like? What will they be willing to spend when inflation is eating away at buying power? How will ongoing health concerns play out?

For a multiday event at several venues, the peril increases. Still, if you’re looking for a music event that has bounce-back written all over it, Akron’s Rubber City Jazz and Blues Festival has to be the one.