AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story will be published in the past tense because the publication date is near the event date. I am going ahead and posting it here with apologies and the hope that it will do the event some good.
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The Chattanooga Traditional Jazz Festival is a love story that spans 17 years for promoters Mike and Astrid Griffin shown here in front of the new addition to the Hunter Museum of American Art, site of "Hot Jazz in Stone and Steel."
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May 5 is your opportunity to get something special for nothing. The Buck Creek Jazz Band will perform Dixieland Jazz at the Hunter Museum of American Art at 12:30 p.m. on the first Saturday of May this year. And it's free.
Billed as "Hot Jazz in Stone and Steel," the event combines American visual art and uniquely American early jazz music under the new "wing" of the Hunter Museum. "The expansive views and soaring architecture of our newly expanded Museum will provide a terrific backdrop for the marriage of these two American artforms," director of the Hunter Museum Rob Kret observes. The event is a bonus of the annual Chattanooga Traditional Jazz Festival being held May 5-7 at the Chattanooga Choo Choo.
This event follows on the heels of a Carrie Mae Weems photographic exhibition at the Hunter Museum focusing on the New Orleans area and American social issues. Early jazz is often identified with its origins in New Orleans during the early 1900's.
Jim Ritter, cornetist and co-leader of Buck Creek Jazz Band, will narrate a history of jazz as the band plays and various works of art reminiscent of that period are displayed from the Hunter Museum's private collection. Seven musicians, including two drummers, who have been playing together for 19 years generate a rich, highly refined sound that is sought after by traditional jazz aficionados. They reportedly have served up their unique brand of New Orleans style jazz to every major traditional jazz festival in the United States, and some elsewhere as well.
The Buck Creek Jazz Band aspires to represent the playing of the early jazz pioneers without copying them. Music by Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Buddy Bolden, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver and cornetist Bix Beiderbecke often are associated with the genesis of jazz. With their talent, jazz fever spread from New Orleans to Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, and then to Europe and the rest of the world during World War I. Ritter will interpret Beiderbecke's arrangements along with that of other memorable jazz artists.
In commenting about this extension of the larger 3-day event, promoters Mike and Astrid Griffin noted, "We have always had wonderful cooperation from Allied Arts, the Hunter Museum and Bluff View Art District publicizing our Festival. Until now the Museum hadn't had the facility to host this type of event. We think 'Hot Jazz in Stone and Steel' marks the beginning of a new level of cooperation. We would like to see the Chattanooga Traditional Jazz Festival become more of a community event like Riverbend rather than simply focusing on visitors," and he sees the Bluff View Art District as an ideal venue. Griffin confirmed that some of the most memorable jazz shows at Riverbend are held on the stage near the Hunter Museum.
The Chattanooga Traditional Jazz Festival has successfully enhanced traditional jazz appreciation and awareness of Chattanooga for 17 years, and payed its own way in doing so. Formerly known as the Bessie Smith Traditional Jazz Festival, it brings enthusiasts from around the world to patronize Chattanooga lodging, restaurants and tourist attractions. "There is a huge number of people who will travel across the country to attend a festival of this caliber," Mike Griffin notes. "Americans recognize the value, but the Europeans and Japanese recognize it even more." Approximately 450 people willingly ante up $125 to $175 for a weekend of quality traditional jazz. "Many of the reservations are made a year in advance," according to Griffin. The rest trickle in throughout the year. "We are very fortunate. Often events in Chattanooga don't sell out until the day of the event."
"Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong recorded together," Griffin remarks, so the Chattanooga jazz and blues native's name was an obvious choice to be associated with the Festival. However, the Festival was often confused with the popular Riverbend night known as the Bessie Smith Strut so the Festival's name was changed. Though the Festival originally helped raise money for the Bessie Smith Hall, there is no current relationship. "Unfortunately, the Bessie Smith Hall is not recognized in the industry as a jazz venue," says Griffin sadly, "and I don't know why that is."
This year the Festival is hosting four noted traditional jazz bands, all of which are sought after throughout the world of traditional jazz. In addition to the Buck Creek Jazz Band, the Cakewalkin' Jass (sic) Band, Grand Dominion Jazz Band and High Sierra Jazz Band will take turns cabaret style in the Chattanooga Choo Choo's Imperial Ballroom. "There are over 100 jazz festivals throughout the United States," Griffin noted. "Some festivals bus guests to multiple venues. Ours is a boutique jazz festival where the jazz comes to you. When our guests leave they are happy."
"Three of these bands played in the Bessie Smith Jazz Festival," according to Griffin. "In fact, trumpeter Duke Heitger played with his sister, Nicole Heitger, for jazz great Banu Gibson here in a swing feature as a part of the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra's pops series five years ago. He is returning from touring in Europe just for his performance at the Chattanooga Traditional Jazz Festival with the Cakewalkin' Jass Band led by his father, clarinetist Ray Heitger." Cakewalkin' Jass Band is eight musicians from Toledo, Ohio, playing banjo, string bass, piano, cornet, clarinet, drums, trombone and vocals. Duke, when not traveling in Europe and elsewhere, now hails from New Orleans where he leads his own Steamboat Stompers aboard the Natchez paddlewheeler daily, makes a weekly appearance at the Palm Court Jazz Cafe and recorded with the Squirrel Nut Zippers on their million-selling disc "Hot."
Grand Dominion Jazz Band is from Vancouver, British Columbia, and Seattle, Washington. Bandmember Jim Marsh recalled in an article he wrote for Just Jazz magazine, October 2006, and reproduced on the band's website: "My own 'personal best' recollection was in Chattanooga in 1996, when Adolphus 'Doc' Cheatham joined us onstage for a few tunes. What an experience it was to share the stage with a legend. At the age of ninety-one, he required a stool to support him, but his trumpet still rang out sweetly, and he sang 'Sweethearts On Parade,' with no hesitation whatsoever. At one point, Bob Jackson was looking closely at the rusty and battered old tin mute that Doc was using, so Doc handed it to him, saying as he did so, 'King Oliver gave me that mute.' Bob snatched his hand back as though he was being offered the crown jewels, which, in a sense I suppose, he was." Marsh goes on to add, "The Chattanooga Festival has become an annual event for us, and we are referred to as 'the house band' by organizers Mike and Astrid Griffin."
The High Sierra Jazz Band is seven musicians from Central California and the tiny town of Three Rivers located at the entrance to Sequoia National Park. According to their website, an American Rag readers poll pronounced the High Sierra Jazz Band the second most popular traditional jazz band ever, just behind the Turk Murphy Band and ahead of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Instrumentation for High Sierra includes reeds, trombone, cornet, sousaphone, piano, banjo, drums and vocals.
Promoting jazz events started early for Mike Griffin. His first were jam sessions in high school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, during the 1940's. He then graduated to promoting shows featuring local bands and icons such as Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong to the general public. In fact, Griffin promoted two concerts of Louis Armstrong and his band, the Allstars, to crowds of 4500 each. After relocating to Chattanooga years later, his love of jazz and familiarity with events promotion led he and wife Astrid to begin this endeavor that has spanned nearly two decades. "I couldn't do it without Astrid," Griffin says of his wife. "We think the Chattanooga Traditional Jazz Festival helps to present a good image for the community, and we hope to encourage more local people to appreciate music."
Visitors to "Hot Jazz in Stone and Steel" may elect to continue their afternoon at the Hunter Museum with a tour of the permanent art collection for $8. Admission to the rest of the Jazz Festival performances are available by phone at 423-266-0944.
