• Home
  • Posts
  • BackCountry Jazz kicks off its 2022 Greenwich Jazz Festival

BackCountry Jazz kicks off its 2022 Greenwich Jazz Festival

BackCountry Jazz kicks off its 2022 Greenwich Jazz Festival with benefit concert June 9

By Anne W. Semmes

Arpeggio Music Festival co-sponsor Bennie Wallace on the saxophone. Contributed photo

As of Thursday evening, June 9, BackCountry Jazz (BCJ) will be back in town with a Benefit Concert that is kicking off the 2022 Greenwich Jazz Festival. The concert will introduce rising young jazz artists at the concert venue, the Round Hill Community House. “It’s really kind of nice,” says BCJ founder Bennie Wallace of that back country venue located next door to the Round Hill Community Church. It’s a venue the invite describes as, “a spacious event room with multiple double doors that open for maximum natural ventilation.”

Ever since the pandemic hit, BackCountry Jazz has improvised to safely bring the music of jazz to jazz lovers in its outdoor concerts, and this indoor benefit concert will be followed by eight summer concerts again to be presented in outdoor “open air” settings. According to Jeanette Wallace, executive director of her husband’s enterprise, some of those settings are to be in Belle Haven, in back country properties, and likely in central Greenwich.

But it’s those rising artists scheduled for the June 9 concert that saxophonist Bennie Wallace is excited to share. “Musically our guest is Samara Joy. She’s the latest exceptional vocalist graduate of the music department at Suny Purchase.” That’s where the hit singer, Cyrille Aimee was trained, he tells. “Samara has already been touring Europe and has her first album. She’s a fast-rising star.”

Also on the program is the young pianist Emmet Cohen. “He’s another young rising star and he’s playing with a lot of really great musicians,” says Wallace. “He’s also done something very innovative. In COVID, he started a podcast of his live concerts that have gone viral around the world.” Add to the mix Herlin Riley on drums, and Peter Washington, “one of the best bassists in the world.”

Guests will absorb the BC jazz seated around tables with dinner served from Fjord Catering and “Fine wine, serious drinks, and local beers” from Glenville Wine & Spirit. The cost of each ticket for such pleasures is $300 with proceeds also going to the extraordinary educational endeavor Wallace kicked off in Bridgeport in 2007. The concert invitation sums up that ongoing endeavor.

Bennie Wallace’s BackCountry educative effort offers “young people with innovative, high-quality programs…Our tuition-free programs include the BackCountry Jazz Summer Music Camp, the After-School Music Program, the Mentorship Program, scholarships, student performing ensembles, instruments, workshops, master classes, and exciting concerts and events with artists and educators who perform and teach at the highest level of excellence.”

Wallace also found ways to continue those youth music education programs during the height of the pandemic. “In March of 2020 we morphed into a remote program. So, we had our after-school program held on zoom in a Google classroom, and we had our first remote summer camp in July of 2020. [Both of these traditionally hosted by the University of Bridgeport.] We had to cancel our youth concerts because nobody was congregating. But then we started up the after-school program again in September and it was a blend of remote and in person.” But this summer as he did last, he’ll have his in- person camp, as well as the in-person after-school program.

Rising star vocalist Samara Joy to perform in the June 9 BackCountry Jazz Benefit Concert. Contributed photo

Returning to Greenwich’s summer outdoor concerts, Wallace cites the pandemic as “a blessing in disguise for the concert part of our organization because it’s given us the inspiration to go out and do outdoor things which we had always been reticent about before because of weather.” He points to back country friend Easy Kelsey as having been a rainy-day rescuer. “She has lent us her Indoor Arena when it rains, so we don’t have to worry about rain dates anymore.”

Those outdoor concerts over the last two years have thus afforded BackCountry Jazz the opportunity to “make more music” says Wallace, “which was the original intent of BackCountry Jazz anyway. They’re free concerts and the music just keeps getting stronger and stronger.”

“Doing a free concert doesn’t mean it’s free,” he adds. “So, of course we’re looking for sponsorships.” And, “We’re going to have a couple of fundraisers this summer, but all that we’ve done so far have been free and will also be free this summer.”

Those open-air concerts have also been “providing opportunity for musicians and a little bit of employment,” says Wallace. “Of course. now the worldwide music scene is up and everybody’s busy. But the musicians that played for us these last two years really liked it and so they’re trying to come back again this summer.”

With these rising artists it’s their availability that is determining the day of some of those concerts Wallace notes. “For example, on Monday, August 29, we’re going to be presenting guitarist Bill Frisell – one of the most in demand jazz guitarists in the business. Bill did one of our concerts in 2020. So, his schedule is really tight. And we’re still hiring musicians.”

“There’ll be a nice combination of trumpet players, saxophonists, guitarists, pianists, and vocalists,” adds Wallace. “And of course, bassists Peter Washington and David Wong, and Herlin Riley and Billy Drummond on drums.”

Add to that hosting of musicians seven saxophonists from Nigeria, says Wallace. “We’re bringing them over from Nigeria to join our students in the summer music program. We’re really thrilled about that. I’ve heard them all play. They’re really talented.”
To purchase tickets for the June 9 BackCountry Jazz Concert or to donate online visit backcountryjazz.org/getinvolved.htm, or email jeanette@backcountryjazz.org, or call 203-561-3111.

Related Posts
Loading...