For the fifth year, OSPAC is pleased to present our Fine Arts and Crafts Show in conjunction with our annual Jazz Festival. On Saturday, September 8th and Sunday, September 9th, talented artists and artisans will be exhibiting and selling their work. Please come out to support these fine artists, many of whom are local residents.

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NOTE TO PRESS:  For Downloadable photos of the artists, please click here
Artists and Craft Vendors: Click Here! to access the Printable Form and Terms of Agreement to set up an Exhibit

ADMISSION: FREE! with a suggested donation of $5.00

OSPAC’s Fifth Annual Jazz Festival is sponsored by Commerce Bank.

Three Hot Days of Cool Quintessential Jazz

Friday, September 7th
7:00 pm Yoga and Jazz (bring your mat)
8:00 pm Kick Off Party at Cecil's Jazz Club with Eric Alexander Quartet ($15 Cover)

Saturday, September 8th
1:30 - OSPAC Jazz Ensemble led by Xavier Davis & Ralph Lalama
2:00 - Houston Person Quartet
3:00 - Roseanna Vitro Quartet
4:00 - Wallace Roney Sextet
5:00 - Waverly Seven Featuring Anat Cohen And The Music of Bobby Darin
6:00 - Eliane Elias Trio With Marc Johnson & Billy Hart
7:00 – Dizzy GillespieTM Alumni All-Stars Featuring Claudio Roditi

Sunday, September 9
12:30 - OSPAC Jazz Workshop Big Band led by Don Braden
1:00 - Cecil Brooks & the CBIII Band
2:00 - Dave Stryker & the Blue to the Bone Band Featuring Steve Slagle
3:00 - Romero Lubambo & Pamela Driggs - Guitar & Voice Duo
3:30 - Vic Juris and Romero Lubambo With the World Music Ensemble - Guitar Virtuosos
4:30 - Kevin Mahogany
5:30 - Grupo Latin Vibe

Come relax on the beautiful lakeside view, enjoy great jazz , taste great food, and visit the art and craft vendors! Bring a jacket and a chair or blanket!

Houston Person first received moderate national attention with a series of soulful albums recorded for Prestige back in the '60s. In 1968 he began a sympathetic and successful musical partnership with the great Etta Jones that lasted over 30 years until her recent passing. A passionate tenor saxophonist, alternately tough and tender, Person's own talent was often overlooked because of his association with the phenomenal vocalist. He's only now beginning to receive the recognition he so richly deserves as today's leading instrumentalist in the tradition Gene Ammons and Stanley Turrentine made so popular during their careers.  Person has more than 75 albums under his own name on Prestige, Westbound, Mercury, Savoy, Muse, and is currently with High Note Records. He has recorded with Charles Brown, Charles Earland, Lena Horne, Etta Jones, Lou Rawls, Horace Silver, Dakota Staton, Billy Butler, and more.

Vitro brings a wealth of swing, melodic improvisation and heartfelt expression to the jazz idiom by combining vibrant energy and spirit, with a deep understanding of the history and theoretical elements of jazz with her rhythmic, soulful southern roots to produce her own unique sound and style.  Soon after moving to NYC, she began touring with jazz great, Lionel Hampton and became a regular at The Blue Note, Fat Tuesday's, Birdland and The Five Spot, as well as a concert at Town Hall with Steve Allen.  In 2003, she was hired to perform three concerts for the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.  Arts International sponsored her November 2002 appearance in Bombay, India for the Jazz Yatra Festival.

Wallace Roney with Antoine Roney on sax,  Eric Allen on drums, Rashaan Carter on bass,  Aruan Ortiz on piano and Steve Brown on turntables.  Grammy Award Winner, Wallace Roney is heralded as an "improviser who loves complicated almost mathematical lines and who performs with catlike grace" by the New York Times, trumpeter, composer and bandleader Wallace Roney is one of the most exciting and innovative musicians on the creative music scene. His consummate artistry and eagerness to explore and transcend musical boundaries has led him to collaborate with such diverse musicians as Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Carole King, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Prince, Herbie Hancock and Joni Mitchell, among numerous others.

Waverly Seven is a jazz ensemble formed in 2006 comprised of hot young New York City jazz musicians who have banded together to make music that is high quality and fun. The band lineup includes saxophonists Anat Cohen and Joel Frahm, trumpeter Avishai Cohen, keyboardists Jason Lindner and Manuel Valera, who share duties on piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, and Hammond B3, bassist Barak Mori, and drummer Daniel Freedman.   The group just released their debut CD, “YO! BOBBY” in June 2007, which was inspired by the legendary singer Bobby Darin.  Waverly Seven aims to produce great swinging music for all time.

Dizzy GillespieTM Alumni All-Stars Featuring Claudio Roditi
Saturday, September 8th at 7:00 pm

The Dizzy GillespieTM Alumni All-Stars was formed in the summer of 1998 to perform Gillespie’s classic big band repertoire and continue the legacy left by the late master.  The band includes many Gillespie Alumni including Musical Director, Slide Hampton, and one of Dizzy’s closest associates and collaborators, James Moody.  Other alumni include Frank Wess, Jimmy Heath, Paquito D’Rivera, Roy Hargrove, Antonio Hart, Claudio Roditi, Douglas Purviance, and the band’s Executive Director, John Lee, Dizzy’s longtime bassist.  Many of the arrangements performed by the band were written by Dizzy himself, others commissioned from among such distinguished arrangers as Quincy Jones, Gil Fuller, Tadd Dameron, Lalo Schifrin, Melba Liston, and Benny Golson.

Claudio Rodito’s native Brazilian music upbringing almost took a back seat as he became enamoured with jazz and heard recordings of Louis Armstrong, Harry James and other American trumpeters.  At the age of twenty, he was named a finalist in the International Jazz Competition in Vienna, and the following year, moved to Mexico City where he was active on the contemporary music scene.  Roditi moved to New York from Boston and quickly broke into the local jazz circuit, performing and recording with Joe Henderson, Charlie Rouse, Herbie Mann, Tito Puente, McCoy Tyner, and Paquito D'Rivera.  Rodito integrates post-bop elements and Brazilian rhythmic concepts with ease and plays with power and lyricism.  He is also a composer and arranger and has thirteen critically acclaimed albums.

A West Orange resident, Brooks is not only the proprietor of the world-famous Cecil’s Jazz Restaurant, but an internationally-known drummer and producer of many well-known recordings.  A recent winner of Downbeat Magazine’s Critic’s Poll for “Producer Deserving Wider Recognition,” Cecil has performed with many greats such as Stanley Turrentines, John Hicks, Billy Eckstine, Jimmy Smith, Geri Allen, Nat Adderly and many others.

In 1985, the "Warm Breeze from Brazil" brought Romero to the United States and with him a new sound in Brazilian Jazz Guitar. From the cool sophisticated rhythms of his native Brazil to hard bop, and pop, Romero Lubambo is a guitarist comfortable in any musical setting. He is an uncommonly gifted soloist, always having a steady stream of unpredictably creative musical thoughts and the virtuosity to deliver them ever so tastefully. Romero’s guitar playing brings together the styles and rhythms of his native Brazilian musical heritage with his fluency in the American Jazz tradition to form a distinctive new sound. After arriving in New York City, Romero quickly established himself as a "first-call" session and touring guitarist who was in demand not only for his authentic Brazilian sound, but also for his command with a variety of styles.

Vic Juris and Romero Lubambo With the World Music Ensemble - Guitar Virtuosos
Sunday, September 9th  at 3:30 pm

Vic Juris, alongside Romero Lubambo will take to the stage along with the World Music Ensemble, with their fabulous Guitar Virtuoso’s.  From the wilds of Manhattan to the shores of Japan and Germany, jazz guitarist Vic Juris has covered an impressive range of territory, musically as well as geographically. Vic Juris is also one of the leading jazz educators throughout the world. He currently teaches at The New School for Social Research, Rutgers University, and Lehigh University.

Kevin Mahogany
Sunday, September 9th  at 4:30 pm

With his gift for bebop, ballads, blues and swinging jazz, Mahogany’s talents emerged long before he was old enough to spell “record deal.”  The latest venture for Mahogany has him starting his own label, Mahogany Jazz, with his partner Rick Cioffi.  With eleven CDs as a leader and quite a few as a sideman, Mahogany has proved to be the quintessential jazz vocalist.  Says the LA Times, “Mahogany is one of the first truly gifted male vocalists to emerge in years.”

Grupo Latin Vibe is a Salsa/Latin Jazz band that brings a high powered energy filled show to the band stand, they have been featured in several night clubs in the metropolitan area and have performed regularly at Gonzalez y Gonzalez and at the Parkside Lounge located at 317 E. Houston in the lower East side and also for a wide variety of occasions from private functions to high profile engagements in Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and in South Beach Miami.  Grupo Latin Vibe is made of: Tommy Mattioli, Awilda Mercedes Santiago, Anibal “Tito” Rivera, Carlos Velazquez, William Paul Rodriguez, Giancarlo Anderson, and Victor Rendon.