Art Tatum Heritage Jazz Festival 2008
Promenade Park

By Michael Hayes

Minister of Culture

I am starting to wonder what happens when you read this article.

I wish there was a way for me to know if this little exchange is having an affect on anyone.

One thing I’ve tried to accomplish as a writer for this publication is awareness.

I want Toledo to know Toledo.

Ask anyone who knows and they will tell you that I have used my platform in the art/music scene in this city to do the same thing for many years but then gave up … kinda.

But, here, where you have time to read these thoughts of mine, I still want Toledo to know Toledo.

Trying to make a post-under grad living here in this city and trying to live as an artist here in this city has certainly affected my awareness.

Yeah, I see a point in someone such as myself leaving ASAP.

Yeah, I see all the limitations.

However, there must be balance.

So for all of the things you have all shown me about Toledo ... if I have realized or conceded any point, I still push for awareness.

I STILL push Toledo to accept that it’s not as bad off as it wants to think it is.

Every year in June I tell people “I’m going to the Jazz Fest.”

Every year I get the whole “where? In Cincinnati?”

Every year I reply “No, that’s not jazz - jazz... I mean a JAZZ festival.right here in Toledo, downtown on the water.”

Every year I see jaws drop and eyes widen in disbelief.

As if I just told someone something that just changed their whole way of thinking.

And if that’s the case, okay.

But it’s kinda sad, fam.

Your city has culture.

Your city has class.

True, your city has issues.

But if we don’t patronize and support the few things we do have going on,

one day when everyone complains of how little there is to do around here...one day that sentiment will be hauntingly correct.

But that day isn’t here yet.

Right now, right here - Toledo has plenty to do.

The Art Tatum Jazz Festival has many sponsors, but it has mainly come to exist through a partnership forged by former Mayor Jack Ford and The Chrysler Foundation.

So every year right on the banks of the Maumee River, you can find days worth of live jazz, R&B and blues all being played while an outdoor showroom displays a few of the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands newest models. Last year, I watched most of the show from the seat of a $50,000 SUV. This year they had the brand new Viper on display and you could even get a free picture with it or whatever.                       

The outdoor stage is better than any indoor stage you’ll find in this city.

The food/beverages are somewhat pricey and you have to buy tickets.

This year there were fewer choices than usual but new vendors kept it interesting.

Plenty of volunteers to keep things clean and organized.

Most years, I’m one of the youngest people I see there, so I guess

the word jazz attracts certain folks and perhaps repels others.

But at any rate, the crowd is usually diverse in other ways.

All in all, this is one of the finest events in this city.

It’s now become a well-oiled machine.

Pulling off a multi-day event is a symphony in and of itself and they’ve mostly got it down to a science. The only thing about this year was there seemed to be extensively long lag time between artists on the last day, but that’s not a major gripe.

Speaking of gripes, though.

It is only fair to mention that even though The Toledo Jazz Society goes to great lengths to bring in world-class, top-billed headlining acts as well as a good mix of musicians from academia, there are more than a few local and regional jazz artists who feel slighted.                     

But if you’re reading this and you don’t fall in that category,

you really have no excuse for why you didn’t come down and check it out?

Growing up the son of a musician and being around music all my life,

I have sensed that Toledo seems to gravitate towards blues a little easier than jazz.

I’m not much for the blues, but I’ve always loved jazz.

Not so much storytelling, much of jazz isn’t even lyrical.

Jazz captures the imagination.

I’m nowhere near an aficionado.

Perhaps only qualified to hear a piece and struggle to sub-categorize it.

Folk jazz, acid jazz, jazz fusion, classic jazz, etc.

But I am certainly a fan of jazz music.

My guest who attended the festival with me this past weekend pointed out that non-musicians may not pick out which instrument is doing what

but instead just listen to the sounds and experience a myriad of tones as if you could hear color.

I feel you definitely have to be a certain person or at least in a certain mood to really appreciate jazz.

Nothing is the same, even if you hear the same song covered by 10 different combos... it could never be the same experience.

But that’s easy for me to say because I love this art form.

I just want the rest of Toledo to come down and check it out next year,

so you can at least see if its your cup of tea or not.

Usually ... the bigger, more well-known names have brought out our citizens by the thousands in past years.

Roberta Flack and Al Jarreau to name a couple.

This year Ellis Marsalis (more proof that jazz keeps people young into their 70s), was the headlining act to close it down on Sunday, but even the elder statesman of jazz music’s prominent First Family couldn’t bring more pleasant weather conditions to the area.

But still, it was a great time.

Expanded to three days and moved across the river from International Park to Promenade Park (International Park is a better site in my opinion),

The Art Tatum Jazz Heritage Festival got underway ...in the midst of a

dark grey down pour on Friday.

The event was vastly under-attended, due in no small part to the inclement weather.

Jazz fans aren’t scared by a little rain but not only were there gusts of wind and rain, the skies were looking downright ominous that day.

Weather advisories weren’t enough to stop the crowd from swelling into the low hundreds by Carol Welsman’s set.

The only female-led headlining act was purely sensational, featuring mostly classic jazz stylings. Her original song “Caffeine” and a few others that mixed jazz with Caribbean and world influences were so rousing that the crowd seemed to start forgetting about the weather altogether.

Joseph Vincelli, however, came onstage and truly kicked things into overdrive.

Original joints like “Always Ready” as well as renditions of soul classics such as “Let’s Stay Together” and “Signed Sealed Delivered” chased away the cloudy skies and forced the crowd to remember they were here to party!

I was convinced that the busy streets of downtown Toledo were humming with the sounds of Vincelli’s amazing band and as the crowd grew steadily until the very end of the night it seemed people were being drawn in by the music.

At some points switching to the flute, at other points letting the organs bring out the soul, Joseph Vincelli’s band hit all the right places and wouldn’t let the audience’s spirits be dampened even if the seats were.

We kept waiting on the drummer for Vincelli’s band to really get open, but his time never came.

All in all, the weather presented many a hurdle that evening but after a few adjustments The Art Tatum Jazz Heritage Festival started off 2008

on a winning note.

Now, if anyone not normally a Jazz fan or regular at this annual event wanted to pick a day to come - SATURDAY WAS SURELY THAT DAY!

No rain, perfect skies and just enough heat and sun to really put summer right in your face.

Ya boy moved up in the world so the expensive VIP tickets that eluded me for years now made me privileged enough to get the free food and relax in the partially-shaded seating area reserved for the big wigs.

One new element to the layout of the jazz fest was the inclusion of an additional VIP section right down in front of the stage.

The space usually reserved for what I call the liquid courage dance troupe – those who have been so moved by the music, and just the right amount of something to sip, to remove inhibition enough that they don’t mind dancing right in front of the stage. Hey, being a jazz groupie is a proud honor!

The musicianship of Tony Monaco’s band members’ solos drew much applause from the audience. Oh yeah, Saturday was the event’s biggest crowd as over 2,000 jazz lovers gathered together.

And, oh what a day, for attendance to be at its highest, because as Steve Oliver’s conga-inspired jazz stylings came to a close... it was Peter White and Gerald Albright’s co-headlining night cap that turned the second day of the festival into a bona fide world class event!

Jeff Golub, Jeff Lorber and a young Latina named Jessy J. sharing saxophone duties with the mighty Gerald Albright with Peter White doing some of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen on an acoustic guitar.

I mean this show was in overdrive the entire time.

Sometimes feeling like a straight rock concert, the audience hooting and hollering at every turn.

People dancing!

Shouting, it was completely exciting.

I may have appeared to be tame taking notes for my article in my phone

and playing with my little handheld fan (those L.E.D. lights really did make those little Chrysler fans fun!) but I was on the edge of my seat.

And everyone around me was either on the edge of theirs or completely out of it.

At one point Peter White exclaimed in his British accent: “pretty funky for an Englishman, eh?”

There was a long lag time before they came on, but I’m telling you once this group of musicians hit the stage no one cared.

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