Women in Jazz & Jazz Central After Party

The last hour is always the best! The Jazz Central Jazz Jam was cookin' last night and the last hour was jazz at its finest. The Jazz Central Jazz Jam stage was blessed by the presence of jazz guitarist Mike Fageros, a pilot who flies into Dayton from time-to-time and always catches the Sunday night jam. He has also been featured in previous Jazz Central Performances. The last one which they are STILL talking about! Rodderick Wilson was amazing the crowd on trumpet and flugle horn, he was joined by a sax "trio" of Larry Smith (as), King Koeller (ts) and Chuck Wade (ts). All can wail in their own right but King Koeller is always a crowd favorite. Cliff Darrett was on latin percussion and congas, house drummer Greg Webster, spelled by Craig (Mr. Clean) and Ishmael Mohammed, Ron Applebury on bass, Kenny Baccus on B3 and John Hampton Wagner on trumpet and vocals. There was a guest bass player as well, my apologies for not catching his name. This group of jazz musicians played some fantastic jazz in that last hour of the jazz jam last night. Work Song, Song for My Father and St. Thomas come to mind but it was all highlighted by the cool jazz guitar play of Mike Fageros. Always good to see Mike walk through the door. The Women in Jazz after party really seemed to enjoy the show.

Speaking of Women in Jazz, it started off rainy but turned into a beautiful day! The Jazz Central Band backed Beverly Jackson and Audrey Whitaker (which I heard from several sources went really well); Elizabeth Hayes was backed by an all star band which included Grant Koeller (ts), Reg Richwine (t) & Chris Berg (b) - I did manage to catch the last few minutes of this performance, Reg and Grant ("King") were crowd favorites, then April Aloisio, up from Cincinnati, with her Cincinnati Musicians, Phil Burkhead being a keyboard player you can sometimes hear around the Dayton area and she looked and sounded like a million bucks (as one attendee exclaimed), Patricia Berg was up next backed by husband Chris Berg on bass, Grant Koeller (again), Tim Berens (one of my favorite guitar players in the area), Brian Cashwell on keyboards (hear him every Monday night at Brios at The Greene - along with Chris Berg) and a drummer who's name I did not catch (my apologies) - caught the very beginning of Sandra Rutledge (apologies to a fellow Jazz Advocate Board Member) and then had to leave before I was able to hear B3 player Linda Dachtyl, out of Columbus, or Dayton's own Brenda Flowers and former Dayton resident Teresa Hunt (believe she calls Arizona her home now) - it was a beautiful day, a great crowd, lots of food and plenty of jazz in Women in Jazz. Keep it up Dayton!