jazz concerts in Akron - John Chacona writes

Collective Action: A New Player Brings Benny Benack III Back to NEO

Published 18 March, 2025 By John Chacona

How many times have you heard this—or said it yourself—when leaving a great concert by a touring musician: Why can’t we get more shows like this here?

Kyle Knoke, a graphic designer and concert promoter found himself asking that question and decided to answer it by creating the Midwest Jazz Collective, a consortium of 13 clubs and presenting organizations that will bring Emmy-nominated trumpeter and vocalist Benny Benack III to BOP STOP March 25 and BLU Jazz+ the following night.

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For Versatile Max Johnson, There’s A Play At Every Bass

Published 5 November, 2024 By John Chacona

For something a little different today, let’s talk politics. Not electoral politics; we’ve all had enough of that. No, let’s talk musical politics, which can be just as divisive and irrational. Just ask Max Johnson. He plays bass in various jazz contexts, including a trio with saxophonist Neta Raanan and drummer Eliza Salem that makes stops at BLU Jazz+ and in Avon Lake this weekend. But he also plays and composes bluegrass and concert music. It could drive a gatekeeper mad.

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Jazz In The Rubber City Rolls On This Weekend

Published 3 September, 2024 By John Chacona

Nathan-Paul Davis at RCB&J — *Nathan-Paul Davis at Rubber City Jazz and Blues Festival*

With Labor Day in the rearview mirror, northeast Ohio returns to the comfortable (clambakes, sweaters) and maybe less comfortable (fretting about the Browns) routines of early autumn. Hey, traditions are traditions, and they don’t change much–unless you’re a NEO jazz fan in which case you’ll want to add the Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival to your list.

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“Local, Organic” Hingetown Jazz Festival Returns Saturday

Published 29 August, 2024 By John Chacona

*Trumpeter Garrett Folger leads a quintet at the 2023 Hingetown Jazz Festival. photocredit: Amber Rogers, Local 4 Music Fund*

Labor Day is a circle-the-date weekend for jazz in the Midwest with free festivals in Detroit and Chicago. The organizers of the Hingetown Jazz Festival would like to add their event to the list, and judging by the success of the inaugural all-day, all-free festival last year, they just might have a chance.

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In Baseball or Jazz, Lucas Apostoleris Plays In The Big Leagues

Published 16 July, 2024 By John Chacona

Do an Internet search for jazz and baseball and you’ll get no shortage of citations. Some of them are fascinating, most of them are sentimental and nearly all of them the are work of older men—further evidence that the once-“National Pastime” and “America’s Classical Music” (scare quotes intentional) are strictly for the AARP set. Enter Lucas Apostoleris a 31-year-old drummer who responds to that notion the way Jose Ramirez does to a hanging curve over the plate. Track, wall, gone!

Don’t look now, but baseball has become a young man’s game, at least on the field, and the athletic young band Apostoleris will bring to BOP STOP Sunday are a Futures Game-level lineup of talent on the rise.

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Tag: jazz concerts in Akron

Collective Action: A New Player Brings Benny Benack III Back to NEO

For Versatile Max Johnson, There’s A Play At Every Bass

Jazz In The Rubber City Rolls On This Weekend

“Local, Organic” Hingetown Jazz Festival Returns Saturday

In Baseball or Jazz, Lucas Apostoleris Plays In The Big Leagues