2012 Jazz camp & DJO

The Miami Valley Jazz Camp and The Dayton Jazz Orchestra are doing their thing again this year. And Thanks to Jim Leslie, jazz drummer extraordinaire, I was there Wednesday night to hear it. Called Jim about another matter, Jim mentioned Wednesday night, I took the bait and ran with it - what a night. The evening kicked off with a group of band campers that were testing their chops and demonstrating what they had been working on all week. They were well received by the crowd, a pretty sizable crowd too, given the 90 degree temperatures. The jazz camp teacher version of the DJO was Brian Cashwell on piano (you can find him most Monday nights at Brio's ... with the trio), Dan Nicora (ts), Jeff Spurlock (as), Hal Melia (as), Josh Adkin (as) and Bill Burns (bari-sax). The second row consisted of either Jim Leslie or Slammin' Sammy K on drums, Tom Billing (trombone), Vaughn Weister (trombone), Alyssa Maynard (trombone) & Todd Couch (trombone). Third row was made up of Chris Berg (b) [another of the trio at Brio's], Brian West (t), Dave Halpin (t), Bill Dixon (t) & Al Parr(t)..... an all start cast for sure. Since moderator, jokester, musician and jazz enthusiast Hal Melia was so great about announcing each tune I will let you in on what you missed if you were not in attendance; Begin the Begine featuring Scott Belck and Josh Adkin (oh yeah, neglected to mention that Scott Belck wowed the crowd as well with some great solos), Nancy with the Laughing Face featuring Dan Nicora, Emily featuring Vaughn Weister, Sweet Georgia Brown featuring the entire band doing some great ensemble work with some room for Al Parr, Bill Burns and Jeff Spurlock to stretch out on some solos, Time After Time featuring Alyssa Maynard and Chris Berg, Where or When featuring Bill Burns on bari-sax and then finally Stella by Starlight featuring Hal Melia on alto sax. The crowd was thrilled throughout with the usual memorable performances. But that was not all - then we were treated to some small group interpretations featuring Jim Leslie on drums, Chris Berg on bass, Brian Cashwell on piano, Alyssa Maynard on trombone, Hal Melia on alto sax and flute & Scott Belck on trumpet. Sammy K jumped in for a song as well. The group played an Alyssa Maynard arrangement entitled Blue Freeze then a Scott Belck composition entitled Pot Kettle Black and ended with Hal Melia on flute playing Its You or No One. A great night of music and band camp finale is Friday night, hey, that's tonight - see you there!!