20. Resurgence in the 1980s and '90s nterest in jazz in Cleveland was at a low ebb during the 1970s. There was very little live jazz being I perfonned here by either national or local musicians, and very little recorded jazz being played on area radio stations. Jazz flutist, saxophonist and textbook author Mark Gridley remembered, "It was so bad that I would have to drive to Pittsburgh, Cincinnati or Detroit just to hear Miles Davis or Chick Corea." In 1971, Gridley, who was studying and teaching at Case Western Reserve University, organized a series of monthly jazz concerts featuring such local musicians as Bill Dobbins, Lamar Gaines and Val Kent. It was almost the only live jazz in town at the time. A Northeast Ohio Jazz Society concert on Cleveland's Public Square But, by the end of the 1970s and early in the 1980s, four things happened to help trigger a resurgence ofjazz The late Allison Kaslow, a founder of the New in Greater Cleveland: Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, was the Jazz • The Northeast Ohio Jazz Society was formed in Society's first executive director in 1986 and ' 87. John March of 1978, Richmond served as the full-time, paid NOJS executive • The Tri-C JazzFest was launched in April of director from 1989 until 1999. Dr. Carlos Ramos 1980, became the executive director in 2002. • The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra was fonned in May After presenting a number of well-attended jazz of 1984, concerts and education and social events, the jazz • Public Radio Station WCPN began programming society marked its tenth anniversary in 1988 with a gala jazz in September of 1984. dinner dance at the University Club and a concert at the The combination of these four developments in a Ohio Theatre featuring Ernestine Anderson, Terence fairly brief period ushered in a new era of jazz Blanchard and Donald Harrison. appreciation in Greater Cleveland. Also in the late 1980s, President Evan Morse and Treasurer Les Knowlton spearheaded a drive to secure Northeast Ohio Jazz Society major funding from the Cleveland Foundation and the The Northeast Ohio Jazz George Gund Foundation to hire a full-time executive Society, a volunteer group director and to open a jazz society office in the Heights of jazz fans, was Rockefeller Building at Mayfield and Lee in Cleveland incorporated as a not-for­ Heights. profit organization March 22, 1978 and began promoting The Northeast Ohio Jazz Society presented dozens of a wider appreciation of jazz through a variety of live concerts each year, frequently with national artists, concerts and projects. and offered a series of jazz education programs The founder and first president of the society was including a unique full week ofjazz education programs Willard Jenkins who later became the executive director at various area schools beginning in 1991. Jim Szabo, ofthe National Jazz Service Organization in Washington and a free lance writer for several national jazz publications. NOJS Presidents 1978 -1984- Willard Jenkins (writer) 1984 - 1986- Judy Strauss (pianist) 1986 - Robert Derwae (writer) 1986 -1987- Larry Simpson (educator) 1987- 1991 - Evan Morse (veterinarian) 1991 - Frank Giaimo (attorney) 1991 - 1995- George Case (graduate student) 1995 -1996 - Jim Gibans (architect) NOJS 1996 - 2000 - Larry Skinner Ken Peplowski and students 2000 - 2001 Jim Wadsworth Uazz promoter) 2001- Lawrence Glover (drummer) at a Northeast Ohio Jazz Society workshop 194 Cleveland Jazz History one of the original members, launched the NOJS The modest festival JazzLine in 1983 to provide telephone listings of jazz struggled for the first few events in the area. The listings were extended to e-mail years, but gradually grew in the 1990s. The Jazz Society presented monthly jazz in general popularity. By education seminars called "Jazz Klatches;" monthly 1984, the festival was "Pub Nights," spotlighting area musicians and clubs that extended to ten days · offered live jazz; published a monthly newsletter (which including its first standing­ I edited for ten years); and initially presented my weekly room-only crowd for a Cleveland Jazz History radio broadcasts on WCPN. concert by saxophonist The JazzFest logo Membership in the Jazz Society grew to about 900. Sonny Rollins. The Tri-C in the 1980s During the summer of 1991, the NOJS was notified JazzFest was becoming a it had been selected as one of only 16 organizations in major annual community event in Cleveland. the u.S. to share a $3.4 million jazz grant from the Lila 1984 was also the first year that a well-known jazz Wallace-Readers' Digest Fund. With money from the musician served as the JazzFest artist-in-residence. The foundation the Jazz Society launched a series of major first was guitarist Mundell Lowe. He was followed by projects. It commissioned saxophonist David Murray to trumpeter Clark Terry. "We think of Clark as the father compose a new work, "The Picasso Suite," which was of our educational programs," said Homing. "He spent presented in conjunction with the Cleveland Museum of ten days here in 1985. We went from school to school Art's exhibition of Pablo Picasso paintings. The world throughout Cuyahoga County, visiting dozens of school premiere of "The Picasso Suite" occurred March 11, bands. He was so energetic, but he collapsed after the ten 1992, at the art museum's Gartner Auditorium. That days. We ran him ragged." Jazz icon Terry continued to concert led to a continuing series called Jazz on the serve as the honorary chairman ofJ azzF est. Other artists­ Circle, presented in cooperation with the Cleveland in-residences have included Billy Taylor, Ellis Marsalis, Museum of Art, the Musical Arts Association and the Gary Burton, Rufus Reid, James Williams, Marcus Tri-C JazzFest. Belgrave, Bobby Watson and Joe Lovano. Early in its history, shortly after presenting its first During the 1980s the International Association of few concerts, the Northeast Ohio Jazz Society helped Jazz Educators called the Tri-C JazzFest "the nation's launch a new jazz festival at Cuyahoga Community premier educational jazz festival." College. The long list of concert performers over the years included: Woody Herman, Milt Hinton, Max Roach, The Tri-C JazzFest Betty Carter, George Shearing, Louie Bellson, Ray "It was a dream," said Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Williams, Wynton Marsalis, Dr. Thomas Homing of the Modem Jazz Quartet, Carmen McRae, Oscar Cuyahoga Community Peterson, the Count Basie Orchestra and Ella Fitzgerald. College, "but I thought it Homing recalled, "It was wonderful getting Ella to could work." come here. She was not well at the time, but sang like Musician and educator Ella of earlier years. It wasn't very long after that she Reginald Buckner, who was passed on. I think that was her last big jazz concert." an artist-in-residence at Tri­ In the mid-1980s, when Cleveland and other cities C in 1979, suggested the across the country were attempting to attract a planned school try to present a jazz rock 'n roll hall of fame, Homing and the Tri-C JazzFest festival. Homing asked played a key role in Cleveland's bid. With little or no leaders ofthe Northeast Jazz fanfare, they put together a proposal for an educational Society to help organize the component for the museum, a National Center for first two-day event in the American Music. Richard Celeste, who was the governor spring of 1980. The Tri-C JazzFest of Ohio at the time, said the Tri-C proposal was the featured artists included Dr. Thomas Horning decisive element in attracting the rock hall to Cleveland. drummer Buddy Rich, pianist McCoy Tyner, and pianist As the 20th century ended, Cuyahoga Community and bandleader Earl "Fatha" Hines. College was planning to build a $20 million center on A key figure in jazz history, Hines was the man who Woodland Avenue to serve as "a home for jazz, rhythm set the stage for the important educational element of and blues, rock 'n roll, country, blues and big band JazzFest. Homing said, "Earl came over and met with music." our students and worked with them. It was a sign of In 1999, the Tri-C JazzFest attracted international what was to come for us." attention by spearheading the world's most extensive Resurgence in the 1980s and '90s 195 celebration ofthe 1OOth anniversary ofthe birth ofDuke The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra Ellington, a year-long series of concerts, lectures and educational events. JazzFest's major concerts brought important artists to Cleveland, but, more importantly, helped fmance the festival's primary focus - education. Thousands of young musicians got the opportunity to work with the best jazz musicians in the world. One ofthose young musicians was pianist LaFayette Carthon who was a student at the Cleveland School of the Arts. Carthon remembered, "It started when Clark CJO Terry was the artist-in-residence, then Billy Taylor, The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra in concert at Wynton Marsalis and Ellis Marsalis." Homing said, Cuyahoga Community College "It's great when a young artist can be inspired by the Big band jazz, which had a long and rich tradition in people who have come here." Cleveland, had all but died here by 1983 when Gary Scott Another of the young musicians was Dominick and several other musicians got together to play some big Farinacci, a Solon High School student who was named band charts just for fun. Scott said, "Some of the better to the Grammy Awards High School Jazz Band for two professional musicians in town created a rehearsal band years and who was invited by Wynton Marsalis, whom called the North Coast Jazz Orchestra. We rehearsed at he met at JazzFest, to solo on national television with Lithuanian Hall in Collinwood and played a few concerts the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in New York in here and there.