by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
What: The 20th Annual Koger-Matteson Jazz Festival
Where: UNF’s Lazzara Performance Hall
When: Tuesday, Feb. 5th 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
The 20th Annual Koger-Matteson Jazz Festival is headed by Festival Coordinator JB Scott, director of the UNF Jazz Ensemble I. This event brings together the best middle and high school jazz ensembles to strut their stuff for a live audience and respected educators, who will evaluate their performances, giving out awards for solos and sections.
The high schools participating are Fernandina Beach HS, 2 Spruce Creek HS, bands from Daytona Beach, 2 Osceola School of the Arts bands, Fleming Island HS, and Palm Day HS from Middleburg. Also, 2 middle schools will perform–Lakeview from Orlando, and LaVilla School of the Arts from Jax. All three UNF Jazz Ensembles will perform as well.
Of course, jazz luminaries realize that the only way to perpetuate jazz into the future is to work with high school and college students, giving them encouragement, inspiration and incentive to excel at their chosen instruments. In fact, noted music schools like UNF are bastions of jazz, where gifted students find an atmosphere of learning, camaraderie, and performance possibilities. JB Scott has worked tirelessly as director of the UNF Jazz Ensemble I and as a teacher of trumpet and music theory.
In 1997, JB Scott teamed up with Lisa Kelly through the jazz program at UNF and formed the Kelly-Scott Jazz 5-Tet as a mainstream jazz ensemble. Later JB and Lisa were married, and continued their professional collaboration. In addition to JB’s work as director of UNF’s Jazz Ensemble I and other teaching assignments, he and Lisa have worked with many well respected musicians such as Richard Drexler, Danny Gottlieb, Ed Metz, Jr. Dennis Marks, Rick Kirkland, Bob Burns, Von Barlow, Kevin Bales, Dr. Bill Prince and many other musicians.
JB and Lisa’s musical union combined Lisa’s rich smooth voice and striking stage presence with JB’s trumpet mastery and experienced band direction. This partnership has served them well in the various ensembles they have staged in the region. More significantly is JB and Lisa’s commitment to education, which carries on the mercurial improvisational art form into the future to the talented young students passing through UNF’s stellar music program. This now famous jazz program has produced a legion of noted musicians working as professional jazz artists.
Over my 24-year career as an entertainment journalist, I’ve covered many of JB and Lisa’s groups in clubs and concerts. I’ve lauded them in print in many feature articles. Indeed, I am proud to call them my friends. And I know how hard they’ve worked at their art and educational duties. JB and Lisa bring consummate musical credentials to the region’s jazz scene as players and educators, thus enhancing our cultural milieu. The Koger-Matteson Jazz Festival is certain to be another example of this enhanced jazz music scene.
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