October 17th: History & Jazz Night in Lake City

Through photographs, video clips, and live jazz performances from the CJI Legends Ensemble, Dr. Karen Chandler of the College of Charleston will weave an intricate story of South Carolina jazz musicians and how they contributed to the development of jazz in the United States and around the world in a presentation entitled, “Overlooked No More: Contributions of South Carolina Musicians to Jazz in America and Europe.” 
 
The CJI, founded in 2003 by Dr. Karen Chandler of the College of Charleston and the late Jack McCray, jazz author and journalist with Charleston’s Post and Courier, is a multi-year project that documents the jazz tradition in Charleston, the South Carolina Lowcountry, and its diasporic movement through the United States and Europe from the late 19^th century to today.  Its initiatives include an oral history project and the first comprehensive jazz archival collection in South Carolina based at the Avery Research Center in Charleston.  The CJI Legends Ensemble is made up of musicians who have specific ties to the history of jazz in South Carolina, including Lonnie Hamilton (alto saxophone) who is a legendary jazz figure in Charleston and performed with the Jenkins Orphanage Bands; George Kenny (tenor saxophone), a former music educator and legendary jazz musician in Charleston; John Tecklenburg (bandleader and piano), whose great uncle, Joseph “Fud” Livingston, was a prolific songwriter and arranger of jazz tunes with many of the big bands of the 1920s and 1930s; Ann Caldwell (vocalist), one of Charleston’s great women of jazz; Gerald “Cameo” Williams on drums, and Brian Reed on bass.  More information about the Charleston Jazz Initiative can be found at their website, www.charlestonjazz.net.
 
This event is held in conjunction with the Smithsonian exhibition, William H. Johnson: An American Modern, on view at the Jones-Carter Gallery next door to the Bean Market.  The exhibition runs through December 29 and was made possible by the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit Service (SITES), Morgan State University, and the Ford Foundation.  For more information about this event and the gallery, please visitwww.jonescartergallery.com.

Admission to the performance is $10 for adults and $5 for students and children at the door.  Students should bring a valid school ID.