Cape Conservatory to Celebrate International Jazz Day to Close out April

FALMOUTH – The Cape Conservatory is celebrating International Jazz Day 2019 at its Falmouth campus this month.

International Jazz Day brings people around the world together to celebrate and learn more about jazz, its roots and impacts, to raise awareness of the need for intercultural dialog and mutual understanding, to reinforce international cooperation and communication.

“Jazz is played and appreciated around the world and Cape Cod is an important destination for international jazz musicians,” said Bart Weisman, Director of CJazz and an active promoter of jazz on the Cape.

“Our goal is to keep jazz alive long into the future through Cape Conservatory programs like Jazz in the Schools and C-Jazz and C-Rock.

What unites these musicians is a love of jazz, a desire to play together in an ensemble, to learn to improvise, and to take solos. C-Jazz students learn a variety of different types of jazz—bebop, wing, Latin, 3/4 (jazz waltz), smooth jazz, and standards.

“CJazz is a Conservatory program that includes kids and adults of all ages,” said Weisman.

“We have an 8-year-old boy who plays the piano, students from Falmouth High Schools, and a retired doctor.”

C-Rock, directed by Gregg Sullivan, a former member of Blood, Sweat & Tears, will open the recital with a performance of several tunes, including “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” a rockin’, funky song by Joe Zawinul. The ensemble is also made up of youth and adult students, who learn how to play various styles of rock music.

Artist Sean J. Cassidy is a big fan of jazz, so much so that he has created a series of portraits of jazz musicians, including such greats as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Sonny Rollins, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie.

“I try to capture the improv nature of jazz and the essence and energy of the music and the musicians,” he said.

“I listen only to that artist’s music when I am painting his or her portrait. I riff on their music and play with the notion of improv, expressing it through color and brushstrokes.”

Cassidy studied art at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and earned his MFA at Central Michigan University. An award-winning artist, he has exhibited in national and international juried shows and is a juried member of the Copley Society of Artists. He teaches at Cape Cod Art Association in Barnstable and exhibits at Zion Union Heritage Museum in Hyannis, where he currently has an exhibit titled, “Women of Jazz & Blues & Historic Origins.”

Cape Conservatory’s celebration kicks off on Tuesday, April 30 at 6:00 p.m., with recitals by its C-Jazz and C-Rock ensembles and an exhibition of paintings of jazz musicians by fine artist Sean J. Cassidy.

For more information on C-Jazz, C-Rock and other Cape Conservatory class offerings, visit capeconservatory.org.

By TIM DUNN, CapeCod.com News Center 

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