| COTA Festival Highlights |
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Expanded 30th Annual Delaware Water Gap Celebration of Jazz & Arts Set for Sept. 6-9 Headlined by world-renowned legends Phil Woods, David Liebman, and Urbie Green, the 30th Annual Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts (COTA) packs 18 sets of ensemble jazz performances, plus theater, dance, and arts, into a three-day festival in the scenic Borough of Delaware Water Gap, from Friday, September 7, through Sunday, September 9, with a lead-off special event on Thursday. Commemorating COTA’s 30th birthday, NEA Jazz Master and COTA co-founder Phil Woods will premier his “Children’s Suite” at the Sherman Theater, on Main Street in Stroudsburg, at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, September 6. Performed by the renowned Phil Woods’ Little Big Band (6 horns, 2 vocalists, and rhythm), plus strings, “The Children’s Suite” is an 18-piece set that Woods began composing back in the ’60s, inspired by A. A. Milne’s famous collection of poems Now We Are Six. The Sherman premiere is a full, theatrically staged event, with sets, props, and lighting adding to the magic of Woods’ music. Featured vocalists are Bob Dorough and Vicki Doney, and local young musicians and talented children round out the cast of this charming and instructive performance. Tickets for this event ($32.50 VIP, $23 adult, $13 children) may be purchased in advance at the Sherman Theater or through www.shermantheater.org or www.cotajazz.org. The three-day festival in Delaware Water Gap opens Friday evening with a reception for COTA’s Music Motif Show, a juried mixed-media art show, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Antoine Dutot Museum & Gallery on Main Street (Route 611) (no admission charge). In keeping with its tradition of supporting all the performing arts, COTA then presents an evening of edgy political theater, classical music, interpretive dance, and jazz rom 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church of the Mountain, across the street from the museum. Admission for this event is $8.00 per person, at the door. On Saturday and Sunday, the music moves outdoors—to a superbly sound-engineered Main Stage on Delaware Avenue (in front of the historic Castle Inn)—and COTA goes “back to its roots” in an eclectic mix of non-stop jazz performed by outstanding musicians who have been with the festival since its birth and infancy. In addition to Woods, Liebman, Dorough, and the Greens (Urbie, Kathy, and Jesse), the 30th-anniversary “homecoming” program features a host of Northeast Pennsylvania’s nationally known artists, including John Coates, Jr., Eric Doney, Nancyand Spencer Reed (the first to play at the first fest!), Bill Goodwin (with special guest Kim Parker), and Bill Mays, plus two big bands—the high-school COTA Cats and the festival’s own Jazz Artists Repertory Orchestra (JARO). A perennial Sunday highlight is once again the COTA Cats (Volume XXVII), a big band founded by Phil Woods in 1981, and formed anew each year by bringing together selected regional high-school students who are then coached by COTA professional musicians. For their first 20 years, the COTACats were organized and directed by Patrick Dorian, Associate Professor of Music at East Stroudsburg University; they are now under the direction of Thomas Fadden, Kyle Glaser, and Lance Rauh. This year’s Cats’ performance (2:30 p.m. Sunday) features “greatest hits” from the COTA Cats Library (a collection of pieces specially commissioned and/or arranged for the Cats); a new-medium blues piece by Jumaane Smith, lead trumpeter for the Michael Buble Orchestra; an original chart by COTA Cats Kathryn Vallilee and Bobby Davis; “The Founding Father” by the late John Scully, written for the 1993 Cats in honor of Phil Woods; “The Grove City Groover” (written for COTA in 1991 by trombonist John Fedchock, leader of the New York Big Band); “Amoroso” by the late Benny Carter; “Rhyme” by former COTA Cat Dave Springfield; and a piece featuring vocalist Lydia Liebman. Sunday night’s closer, at 7:30 p.m., the “icing” on COTA’s 30th birthday cake, is the Bottom O’ the Fox All Stars, organized by COTA co-founder Rick Chamberlain, in homage to the late Ed Joubert, the third COTA co-founder. Joubert was the proprietor of the former Bottom O’ the Fox tavern on Main Street in Delaware Water Gap, where many of the COTA musicians reuniting for this festival jammed on their Monday nights “off” and “packed the joint” on weekends. Chamberlain (now principal trombonist for the New York City Ballet and a member of numerous COTA ensembles for his 30th-straight year) promises plenty of surprises in this set, as well as special “sit-ins” throughout the weekend. COTA’s Main Stage Jazz performances run continuously from noon to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday and from 12:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Sunday (following a free 10:00 a.m. Jazz Mass, with a full orchestra, vocal soloists, and 40-voice choir). One-day tickets for Saturday or Sunday are $20/person (tickets for seniors, childen ages 5-15, and students with ID are $10 each day; children under age 5 are admitted free). Two-day tickets may be purchased at the gate on Saturday for $30, or in advance through www.cotajazz.org and www.shermantheater.org. Open all day Saturday and Sunday are COTA’s tented Children’s Space (supervised, with storytellers, music, and craft projects); a multi-vendor Food Court; an Artisans’ Row of fine artists, jewelers, and crafters; and a COTA Booth where fans may purchase records, books, CDs, and DVDs by COTA performers, as well as COTA posters and memorabilia. No pets or recording devices are allowed at the site. All seating is hillside; blankets or low lawn chairs are advised. In the event of rain, weekend performances will be held beneath a tent, which can accommodate approximately 1,000 fans. For more information, call (570) 424-2210, or visit www.cotajazz.org. The Celebration of the Arts (COTA), an all-volunteer-staffed, non-profit, community-supported festival, is presented in cooperation with the Borough of Delaware Water Gap, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, Castle Hill Development, and the National Park Service. |
