2014 Jazz Education Funding Well On Its Way

Guitar MCNorth Carolina Jazz Festival at Wilmington already has plans for the 2014 Jazz Ed Program in place!   The concert/workshop at Roland Grise Middle School will again be on Friday (Feb. 7, 2014), then later in the afternoon (4 – 6 pm) there will be 4 master classes in the rooms so generously provided by the Wilmington Hilton Riverside.  They will include instruction on horns (Bria Skonberg), reed instruments (Adrian Cunningham), guitar (Bucky Pizzarelli), and this year the 4th class will be on trombones (Jim Fryer).

We are pleased to announce that this jazz education program was so well received by our patrons that they have already started our jazz education fund for 2014 with the following having made donations:

Victor & Elaine Chap, John & Mary Whitt, Farren Smith, Greg & Joan Shelton, Dalton West,
Elena Jones, plus musician David Sager

We thank them for their generosity in helping us promote jazz at this level!  Contributions to this fund are welcomed, and because the NCJF is a non-profit organization, any contributions to this fund or to the NCJF in general, are TAX DEDUCTABLE.   Contributors’ names will be added to our website list, as well as noted in our 2014 program. If you would like to join this generous group, please send your checks (made out to NCJF with a notation Jazz Ed. Fund) to NCJF, 233 Racine Dr. #95, Wilmington, NC28403.

Bucky Pizzarelli and Ed Polcer Honored by N C Jazz Festival @ Wilmington

Sandy Evans and Bucky Pizzarelli

NC Jazz Festival @ Wilmington president Sandy Evans presents Bucky Pizzaarelli with his plaque

World renowned musicians, guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli and cornetist Ed Polcer were honored at this year’s Patron’s Brunch with the presentation of individually crafted plaques created by local artist Justine Ferrari of Creations by Justine. 

Ed Polcer

 

 

 

 

 

This was Bucky’s 12th appearance at the festival and Ed’s 21st.  The NCJF board of directors made this presentation as a token of our appreciation of the gift of jazz excellence that these musicians have given and continue to give to audiences around the globe, but particularly here in Wilmington, NC.

 

 

Brazilian Vocalist To Open 34TH NC Jazz Festival @ Wilmington

Maucha AdnetlargerContinuing in our efforts to bring different styles of jazz to the North Carolina Jazz Festival’s opening night each year, the NCJF will present a tribute to the great Brazilian Jazz musician Antonio Carlos Jobim on Thursday night, at our 34th annual event.

Headlining this segment will be Brazilian born vocalist Maucha  Adnet, who sang with Jobim for 10 years.  A native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she now resides in New York City, where she is a busy performer.

Joining  Maucha for this salute to Brazilian Jazz will be NYC’s Harry Allen on tenor sax; Israeli born Ehud Asherie – piano; Tampa native Nate Najar – guitar; Australia/NYC’s Nicki Parrott – bass; and internationally acclaimed, U.S. born, Chuck Redd on drums.  This great American Heritage, JAZZ, is loved and played world-wide, and we are proud to bring some of the best international jazz musicians together on our stage to perform a style of jazz nurtured in Brazil.

Just a few of the other all-star performers for our 2014 jazz weekend will be trumpeter/vocalist  Bria Skonberg, formerly from  British Columbia, now living in NYC; Aussie reedman Adrian Cunningham, cornetist Ed Polcer (NYC & NOLA) and America’s favorite guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli.

Friday and Saturday nights will feature our traditional 6 or 7 sets, each with a different leader.

NC Jazz Festival at Wilmington given Top 20 Award!

The 2013 North Carolina Jazz Festival at Wilmington has again been chosen as one of the top 20 events in the Southeast by the Southeast Tourism Society.

The Southeast Tourism Society is dedicated to the promotion of travel to and within Southeastern states, recognizing the importance of festivals, events and attractions in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

The STS Top 20 Events publication receives extensive exposure in print media, web, and television and radio in the U.S. and Canada.  Over 1,600 newspapers, magazines, radio & television stations, AAA’s and others receive the listings.  The Top 20 Events are listed on the Southeast Tourism Society website www.southeasttourism.org and on their consumer website www.escapetothe southeast.com  The Top 20 Events pages are consistently among the most visited pages on the STS sites.

We really appreciate this recognition and are proud to have received it every year since 2007.

NCJF Online Store

Over the years many of our jazz lovers have requested various shirts, sweatshirts, fleece vests, and other items sporting our NCJF logo.

We have found a company that will allow us to offer a large variety of quality items with our new North Carolina Jazz Festival logo with the ” @ Wilmington”  addition – leaving no doubt of where this annual jazz festival is held! 

 

These purchases can be made only  through our online store, here on our website!  Your choices will be custom made for you and will be sent directly to you, with a delivery time of approximately 2 weeks.

Be one of the first to show your support of jazz and the North Carolina Jazz Festival by wearing one of our attractive shirts or carrying your laptop, groceries or beach towels in one of our logoed bags!  Look smart and at the same time help us spread the word about our great jazz festival here in Wilmington, NC.

Artwork to benefit the North Carolina Jazz Festival

 

This 8″X12″ wall plaque entitled ” 3 Horn men and a Wood-y” was created as a commemoration of the 2012 NC Jazz Festival.  Local sculptress Justine Ferreri  and her husband Guy have long been supporters of jazz and the North Carolina Jazz Festival.  They have twice donated pieces of jazz art for our annual raffle, and now Justine  has created this original kiln-fired clay piece, which has also been fired with 14 carat gold instruments, as a fund raiser for us.  The plaque can be purchased for $75, of which $25 will be donated to the NCJF. 

To order please contact Creations by Justine, 225 South Water St. – Chandler’s Wharf, Wilmington, NC 28401 or call 910-763-4545.
www.creationsbyjustine.com

Justine’s larger piece of “jazz art”, donated for our 2012 annual raffle to benefit NCJF, earned over $1,100 for our non-profit organization.  We thank Creations by Justine for their generosity and continued support of live jazz and the North Carolina Jazz Festival.

Festival Promotional Video

Check out the video of the North Carolina Jazz Festival & Get Your Tickets Now!

 

Festival Tickets Make Great Gifts!

Give  NC Jazz Festival tickets to your friends and family.

General Admission Tickets: Thurs. Evening (3 hr. concert) $35.

Fri. & Sat. Evenings (4 hr. concert) $50.

Military $25  -  Students $15   each night

These may be purchased on line by credit card on the website.  You may also purchase them at the Audio Lab,5732 Oleander Dr. in Wilmington.

General Admission reservations made for tables of 10 only, all others are first come /first seated.  Seating for this event is cabaret style in tables of 10.

For more information please call 910-793-1111 or e-mail ncjazzfest@yahoo.com or sandyevans34@yahoo.com

KEEPING UP WITH OUR MUSICIANS

It is fun to see where the lives of those who touch us musically take them when they are not performing in Wilmington at our festival.  You can check on many of them by going to their websites and see the interesting places they are playing and with whom—but here is one interesting tidbit that you might not know about.

The talented young violin prodigy, Jonathan Russell, who performed here for the first time in 2007, was asked back due to popular demand in 2008 and again in 2011, has really branched out in different directions with his amazing talents!

This summer when I was in NYC I went to a one woman show “One Night With Fanny Brice” (which by the way, was marvelous) the orchestra was made up of two musicians – a piano and a violin – yes, the violinist was Jonathan Russell!  What a treat to see “our Jonathan” in that setting, and doing so well.

Another of his many interests is film scoring.  He has studied film scoring with Julliard professor Sam Zyman and film composer Ira Newborn from NYU.  He scored his first short film, “Radio Hate” at the age of 15.  Most recently he received an additional music credit for the Bollywood film “Aarakshan”, which was directed by Prakash Jha.  In July of this year, Jonathan wrote a demo for the new Hollywood Brass instrument library – the only non “in the house” composer to be asked to contribute.  He is currently composing music for a streaming film, “Arella”, produced by Rubichouse, due to be released in early 2012.  Jonathan’s latest credit is the scoring of a 25 minute short film  Soul Keeper (poster below) which is being shown at the Burlington VT film festival in October 2011.

Jonathan created his own You Tube channel a year ago (jdrcomposer.com), which currently has well over 600 subscribers.  To learn more about Jonathan visit his website www.jonathanjazz.com

To see him perform locally come to the North Carolina Jazz Festival on Feb. 6, 7 & 8,  2013, we are planning ahead so we are sure to have him here while it is still an option — who knows where the future will lead this talented young man!

NCJF SELECTED ONE OF THE TOP 20 EVENTS

We are pleased to announce that The Southeast Tourism Society has designated the North Carolina Jazz Festival as one of the top 20 events in the Southeast for February 2012.

Southeast Tourism Society is dedicated to the promotion of travel to and within the Southeastern states, recognizing the importance of festivals, events and attractions in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.  Their publication receives extensive exposure in print media, web, television and radio in the U.S.and Canada.  Over 1,600 newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, AAA’s and others receive the listings.  The Top 20 Events pages are consistently among the most visited pages on the STSsites.  www.southeasttourism.org and www.escapetothesoutheast.com.

We are proud to be chosen for this honor.