Newsflash

JARO to perform “A President’s Weekend Salute to Big Band Jazz” on Sunday February 19 at 3:00 p.m. at East Stroudsburg University

The concert, which is being billed as “A President’s Weekend Salute to Big Band Jazz,” will present multi-talented musicians from the Pocono region putting their own unique stamp on vintage compositions for jazz orchestra. In keeping with the theme of this annual big band event, the concert will feature tunes made popular by some of America’s most famous jazz orchestras, leaders, composers, arrangers and singers. And, as JARO’s legion of fans has come to expect, some neglected and obscure ones will be showcased as well.

Among the big bands that have been saluted in past year’s programs are those of Duke Ellington, Elliot Lawrence, Horace Henderson, Jerry Wald, Woody Herman, Marty Paich, Maynard Ferguson, Ray McKinley, Boyd Raeburn, Oliver Nelson and Noble Sissle, featuring such acclaimed composers and arrangers as Al Cohn, Gerry Mulligan, Dizzy Gillespie, Shorty Rogers, Billy Strayhorn and Clare Fischer.  

JARO is dedicated to preserving and promoting the rich heritage of big band jazz. Its members are comprised of many of the respected artists who live in the Pocono region, including such favorites as trombonist Rick Chamberlain, saxophonists Nelson Hill and Richard Barz, trumpeter Danny Cahn, vocalist Judy Lincoln, and pianist and musical director Wolfgang Knittel. JARO has been a fixture at the annual Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts jazz festival, and its members have appeared individually and collectively at many other major jazz festivals and venues both regionally and around the world.

The concert will be presented in the Cecilia S. Cohen Recital Hall in the Fine and Performing Arts Center, Normal and Marguerite Streets, on the ESU campus. The suggested donation for general admission to the concert is $5; all students with a current ID will be admitted free. Doors will open at 2:45 p.m.

The 2011-12 ESU Jazz Synergy Series is presented by the ESU Regional Jazz Coalition and the Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection at ESU’s Kemp Library.

For more information, call (570) 422-3828 or visit www.jazzatesu.com. To check on other upcoming arts events at the University, call the ESU Cultural Events Hotline at (570) 422-3483.

Zoot Fest at ESU on November 13

ZootFest

For Immediate Release
Contact: Bob Bush at (570) 422-3828 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Zoot Fest at ESU on November 13 to honor Zoot Sims and Al Cohn and remember the NYC jazz loft legacy of photographer W. Eugene Smith

Featuring: author Sam Stephenson, Phil Woods, Bob Dorough, Bill Crow, Lew Tabackin, Ronnie Free, Bill Goodwin and the COTA Festival Orchestra

To benefit the Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection and COTA CampJazz

EAST STROUDSBURG, PA – Zoot Fest, a relaxed afternoon of music, mirth and memories, will take place on Sunday afternoon November 13th at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania. This first-annual jazz party will honor saxophone greats Zoot Sims and Al Cohn, and will be held in the Keystone Room on the ESU campus from 12 Noon until 6 pm.

The theme for this inaugural Zoot Fest will be a remembrance of the jazz loft scene in New York City in the fifties and sixties, particularly the infamous digs at 821 Sixth Avenue where acclaimed Life magazine photographer W. Eugene Smith made his incredible images and historic tape recordings. Zoot and Al were frequent visitors to this infamous location in the Village.

Sam Stephenson, author of The Jazz Loft Project will kick off Zoot Fest with a multi-media presentation, including a digital display of a selection of Smith’s photos and tapes. Phil Woods, Bob Dorough, Bill Crow, Lew Tabackin, and Ronnie Free, amazing jazz musicians who personally frequented the NYC lofts, will share stories and participate in a “Jazz Jam á la Zoot” hosted by Bill Goodwin, with surprise guests. Finally, the Grammy-nominated COTA Festival Orchestra will close the afternoon in a swinging style with a ”Library Alive Big Band Jam,” performing the charts of Al Cohn and other composers and arrangers taken from the music inventory of ESU’s Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection.

Seating in the Keystone Room is limited and advance purchase is required. The $50 per person admission fee includes the program plus a lunch buffet with drinks, desserts and other refreshments. For tickets, call (570) 422-3828 or visit www.jazzatesu.com.

Zoot Fest is a major fundraising event to benefit the Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection at ESU’s Kemp Library, and its important outreach initiatives, including the ESU Jazz Synergy Series and Library Alive Concerts. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the COTA Fund for Young Musicians for COTA CampJazz.

Sponsors are needed to support Zoot Fest and its commitment to jazz education and preservation. For more information about how to donate, visit www.jazzatesu.com or call (570) 422-3828.

Performing at the annual Delaware Water Gap jazz and arts festival since 1992, the COTA Festival Orchestra has twice toured Europe as the Phil Woods Big Band.  Nominated for a Grammy Award in 1997, its members include: Nelson Hill, Jay Rattman, Tom Hamilton, Bob Keller, and Jim Buckley (reeds); Ken Brader, Danny Cahn, Eddie Severn, and Patrick Dorian (trumpets); Rick Chamberlain, Fred Scott, Kevin Haines and Jim Daniels (trombones); Eric Doney (piano), Evan Gregor (bass), Marko Marcinko and Bill Goodwin (drums).

Dedicated to preserving all forms of jazz from all eras, the Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection (ACMJC) was founded in 1988 to honor the life and legacy of Al Cohn –
legendary saxophonist, arranger, composer and conductor, and long-time Pocono resident.  The collection is housed in Kemp Library on the ESU campus and consists of jazz recordings, oral histories, sheet music, photographs, books, videos, and original art and memorabilia, all generously donated over the years by supporters from around the world. Its official jazz magazine, The NOTE, is published three times a year and distributed to a world-wide readership. For more information about the ACMJC, visit www.esu.edu/alcohncollection.

COTA CampJazz, an educational outreach program of the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts Fund for Young Musicians, will benefit from a portion of the proceeds from the concert. This popular program, held for the fifth annual time this past summer in the Delaware Water Gap, provides an opportunity for young musicians to study the art of jazz improvisation by working in small groups with the jazz masters of the COTA organization. For more information about COTA CampJazz, visit www.campjazz.org.

Zoot Fest and Library Alive concerts are part of the ESU Jazz Synergy Series sponsored by the ESU Regional Jazz Coalition and the Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection. For more information, visit www.jazzatesu.com, call (570) 422-3828, or send email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Jazzman Bob Dorough star of COTA festival

photo: Garth Woods

Bob Dorough, the jazz pianist who wrote and produced the original "Schoolhouse Rock" for ABC in the 1980s, will be feted at the 34th annual Celebration of the Arts (COTA) jazz festival Friday through Sunday in Delaware Water Gap.

Dorough has long been a friend and contributor to COTA. When NEA jazz master and festival co-founder Phil Woods was asked why COTA chose to honor Bob, he replied: "Let me count the ways! Turn to page 189 in the Encyclopedia of Jazz and prepare to be amazed! From music director for Sugar Ray [Robinson] to teaching America how to count with the celebrated series 'Multiplication Rock' to recording his Christmas song with Miles — come on, man! About time I say!"

Introducing Dorough will be one of his personal friends, Emmy-winning TV and film actor Peter Coyote.

A thread of Dorough will be woven into the festival all weekend, with bands playing Dorough tunes and special guests. Dorough will perform at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Two ten-minute excerpts of the upcoming feature-length documentary about Dorough, "Devil May Care," will be shown. The screenings will be Friday night Church of the Mountain and at the Saturday and Sunday night performances on the main stage. The filmmakers of the documentary, three years in the making, will also be at the screenings. For more information about the film: http://www.devilmaycarethemovie.com

Appearing for the first time with her own band is Grace Kelly, who has been honored for the third year as "Alto Saxophonist Rising Star" in the 2011 Annual Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll.

The line-up also features NEA Jazz Master Dave Liebman, Urbie Green, Peggy Stern and Sweet Sue Terry, Zen for Primates, and two former COTA Cats returning to the festival as band leaders — saxophonist Jay Rattman and vocalist Najwa Parkins.

The festival begins at 6 p.m. Friday with a musically-themed art show and reception, followed by theater, dance, poetry and classical music at the Presbyterian Church of the Mountain 7-9:30 p.m. Performances run noon-10 p.m. Saturday. A free Jazz Mass is at 10 a.m. Sunday, followed by performances noon-8:30 p.m.

Tickets are $25 per day; $40, Saturday and Sunday; $15 per day, students and seniors; $10 per day, ages 5-12; free, under 5.

Info: 570-424-2210, http://www.cotajazz.org.

—Jodi Duckett

Copyright © 2011, The Morning Call

Jazz Pianist Bobby Avey Scores Prestigious Award

photo: Garth Woods

Jazz pianist Bobby Avey  ’07 winner of the 2011 Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz Composer’s Competition, will perform his piece on Sept. 11 at the Smithsonian Institute’s Baird Auditorium in Washington, DC. The performance of  “Late November” will take place during the semi-final round of this year’s piano performance competition.

The announcement of Avey’s selection in the Monk competition came just three months after he was awarded a New Jazz Works grant by Chamber Music America, to develop an hour-long piece inspired by the 1791 slave revolt in Haiti that led to the nation’s independence from France in 1804. He received a $10,000 award from the Monk Institute and a $21,500 grant from the Doris Duke Foundation for the work he’s creating for Chamber Music America. 

“It’s such an honor to have been selected in both competitions,” says Avey, 26, of Brooklyn. “And I’m humble to the task. The music is bigger than me. It’s like the definition of infinity – there’s more music to check out. I’ll always be someone who is just learning.”

This marks the second year consecutive year that a Purchase College Music Conservatory graduate has been recognized in the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz competition, considered the world’s most prestigious competition for emerging jazz artists. In 2010, singer Cyrille Aimee, ’09, placed third in the Monk vocalist competition. 

Avey’s piece for Chamber Music America will explore the rhythms of Haitian drummers – those first-generation West Africans brought to the Caribbean island as slaves. Avey is drawn to the drumming that accompanies Voodoo ceremonies, which conjures up spirits that take its adherents into an altered world, closer to their God. 

“It’s a great universal language, and while those brought over to Haiti didn’t know their neighbors, they all had drums, and they could find that common language with rhythm and music,” he says. 

Avey discovered Haiti’s heroic, yet tragic, history in Tracy Kidder’s masterpiece, “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” the story of Paul Farmer and his Partners in Health organization. The grant will take him to Haiti later this year, to listen to the rhythms, and incorporate that into his hour-long piece. After all, the piano is a rhythm instrument, and Avey plays it with breathtaking virtuosity. 

Avey says his studies at Purchase from 2003 to 2007 laid a strong foundation for his music career. While at the conservatory, he studied jazz piano with Hal Galper, and Charles Blenzig, while studying classical piano with Steven Lubin. Avey says he’d spend long hours in the Conservatory practice rooms, working on his assignments, then finding time to develop his own musical voice.

“First I’d take care of business, and do what the professors asked of me,” says Avey. “Then I’d be able to get down to my own stuff, which could have me in the practice room all day.”

Todd Coolman, director of Jazz Studies at Purchase, says Avey was already considered “an advanced player” when he enrolled in 2003.  His skills at composition deepened at the Conservatory. 

“Bobby has a very unusual drive to express himself through music,” says Coolman. “He was utterly self-motivated and never required a lot of input from any of us.”

Avey, who grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania, vaulted into prominence while still in high school, where he played in a big band called the COTA Cats. While playing at the Celebration of the Arts Jazz Festival in 2001 in the Delaware Water Gap, renowned saxophonist and jazz educator David Liebman heard about his playing, and called Avey to invite him to play at his vacation home in the Poconos. 

“I was just shivering, with this jazz icon calling some 10th-grader,” recalls Avey. “But I went to his house. I played, and he told me what I’d have to do to come back to the house again. I came back, and he has been a musical and life-mentor to me ever since. I don’t know many men who are busier than Dave, but he always has the time to answer my calls, and has the time to show me the love.”

Liebman has played on Avey’s two CDs – Vienna Dialogues, which he recorded with Liebman in 2006, and A New Face, in 2010, featuring Liebman, Thomson Kneeland, and Jordan Perlson. Both are available athttp://www.bobbyavey.com.

Liebman says Avey has the attitude and talent to make a name in jazz. 

“He’s very serious, and straight-ahead,” says Liebman. “He knows what it takes to get a position in the jazz world, and he’s pursuing his own path musically. He’s got his own thing, and has found a place for himself.”

Bob Dorough of 'Schoolhouse Rock!' fame still performing around region, world

Published: Sunday, August 21, 2011, By Tom Shortell | The Express-Times

Bob Dorough, a jazz pianist and the man behind the "Schoolhouse Rock!" series of the 70s, sits by a piano at the Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap.

Express-Times Photo | BILL ADAMS

 

Bob Dorough was writing jingles for a New York ad agency in the 1970s when the company's president approached him for a special project.

The man's son was having a difficult time learning his multiplication tables, but the father noticed the boy knew all the words to his Beatles songs. The president asked Dorough to write rock songs that reviewed his son's math lessons.

Dorough, now of Upper Mount Bethel Township, was an accomplished jazz pianist, but he gave educational music a shot. The result was "Schoolhouse Rock!," the series of educational shorts that have taught generations of school children about math, science and history.

"It was a bolt of lightning coming down," Dorough said of the series, which aired on ABC during the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

It was a drastic turn of events for the now 89-year-old musician. Dorough had achieved mild fame as a jazz performer in the 1940s and 1950s. He lived in New York City, but he toured the continent and Europe as part of various bands and groups. He was even the musical director for the brief entertainment career of boxing legend Sugar Ray Robinson before his dancing act bombed in Paris.

Music changed in the 1960s. Rock bands like The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix became mainstream, and the demand for jazz dropped off for anyone who wasn't a household name. With the suburbs around New York City too expensive, Dorough moved his family to Upper Mount Bethel, where his daughter, Aralee, started school. Dorough took the job for the ad agency and commuted to New York City as a way to pay the bills.

"I was just trying to make a living. My jazz career in the 60s and early 70s was kind of meager," he said Monday at the Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap, where he's performed for decades.

The idea of Math Rock! quickly changed that. Recordings of his math songs were presented to ABC to air as a possible educational cartoon. Chuck Jones, the legendary animator who directed Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and Michael Eisner, then the head of ABC's daytime programming, quickly signed off on the project. Parental groups had been storming the networks for years, pressuring them to provide more quality programing for children. The cartoons fit the bill perfectly, Dorough said.

"It was an easy sell," he said.

Bob Dorough is an 89-year-old Upper Mount Bethel Township resident whose music has national recognition.

Express-Times Photo | BILL ADAMS

It took Dorough two years to write 11 songs about numbers and math. While the songs centered on situations children would recognize, not every song was on the grade school level. The song "Little Twelvetoes" tells how an alien with twelve fingers probably counts. The math lesson in the song focuses on Base 12, a counting system where the numbers 10 and 11 are single digits. Dorough said the agency had to confirm the math with a college professor before approving it as it was.

 

"I'm something of an amateur mathematician," said Dorough, who took an advanced math course while studying at Colombia University on the GI Bill.

Even Aralee got in on the action. Dorough said he was stumped trying to come up with a song for the number four. One day Dorough went on a walk with Aralee and her friend, and the girls suggested a song about a four-legged zoo.

"I didn't know quite what that was, but I liked the sound of it," Dorough said looking back. He ran with the idea, and it became the song "The Four-Legged Zoo," which names about 70 quadrupeds in three minutes.

Math Rock! caught on, and more cartoons focusing on history, grammar and science were soon ordered under the name "Schoolhouse Rock!" A team of song writers came on board, and they produced music faster than the animators could draw the shorts, Dorough said. He would regularly tune in with Aralee to watch the new material air, he said.

"Imagine me. I'm already 50 years old and I'm watching Saturday morning cartoons," he said.

ABC kept playing the shorts into the 1980s, and a new batch was ordered in the mid-90s. The cartoons have also been put onto DVDs so new generations can learn about sentence structure and the American Revolution, among other topics.

These days, Dorough is still going strong. He's performing at a jazz festival in Norway this weekend and next month he's the headliner for the Delaware Water Gap's Celebration of the Arts. Erin Harper, the producer behind the independent film "My Best Day," is also working on a documentary on Dorough's career.

Dorough said people will still sometimes approach him at performances and ask him why his voice sounds so familiar. When word gets out he's the man who wrote "Lolly Lolly Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here" and other songs, he usually gets a few "Schoolhouse Rock!" requests. He enjoys it for the most part, but he admitted it can be distracting when people request songs about pronouns when he's at a jazz club.

"Sometimes it does grate on my nerves," he said.

Even with those passing moments of aggravation,  Dorough said he's happy to be working the career he chose as a high school student. He's traveled the world and is still willing to, though he's not sure if he'd go as far as Asia for a gig.

"I'd go anywhere if the money was right," he said.

© 2011 lehighvalleylive.com. All rights reserved.

Water Gap's Phil Woods a national Living Legacy

Courtesy Pocono Rcord - June 12, 2011

Saxophonist Phil Woods will be honored with the BNY Mellon Jazz 2011 Living Legacy Award in a special ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 14.

The BNY Mellon Jazz 2011 Living Legacy Award is a program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and is sponsored by BNY Mellon, a global financial services company. The award honors living jazz masters from the Mid-Atlantic region who have achieved distinction in jazz performance and education. The celebration will include a reception, the award ceremony and a performance by the 2010 Legacy award recipient, Roy Haynes, in the Terrace Theatre.

Born in 1931 in Springfield, Mass., Woods is considered a master jazz alto saxophonist whose lineage is clearly rooted in the tone and phrasing of the great Charlie Parker, Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges. After graduating from high school at age 16, Woods moved to New York City and enrolled in the Juilliard School, where he remained through 1952, majoring in clarinet performance. In the 1950s, he led his own groups and toured the Near East and South America with one of his musical idols, Dizzy Gillespie. Woods went on to perform in Buddy Rich's quintet and toured Europe with Quincy Jones (1959-60) and Russia with Benny Goodman (1962). He also played and recorded with Clark Terry, Bill Evans, Oliver Nelson, Charlie Barnet and Thelonious Monk.

In 1972, Woods returned to Pennsylvania and formed a jazz group with Mike Melillo, Steve Gilmore and Bill Goodwin. With this ensemble, he became recognized as the finest alto saxophonist in mainstream jazz, confirmed by performances with Michel Legrand and on Billy Joel's hit recording "Just the Way You Are."

He has been the recipient of four Grammy Awards and the NEA Jazz Master Award. Woods remains active internationally as a band leader, composer-arranger, soloist and recent steward to younger players such as the emerging saxophonist Grace Kelly. Woods lives with his wife, Jill, in Delaware Water Gap.

For information, visit www.midatlanticarts.org/funding/artists_programs/living_legacy/index.html.

Scholastic Swing at the Sherman” featuring guest artist Lou Marini

Click for Tickets

Stroudsburg, PA – On April 14, 2011 the Sherman Theater will be filled with the sounds of swing music with local high school musicians and the COTA Festival Orchestra performing music from the Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection (ACMJC). For the second time, a special treat will be the appearance of “Blue Lou” Marini of Saturday Night Live and The Blues Brothers fame. The event celebrates the Smithsonian’s Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM). The concert begins at 7:30 PM, and tickets are available at the Sherman Theater box office for $15 ($5 for students with valid ID).

This seventh Library Alive event, dubbed “Scholastic Swing at the Sherman Theater,” will offer a unique educational experience for young jazz musicians from the Stroudsburg AreaHigh , East Stroudsburg South High School and Kutztown Area Middle School. The three student bands are preparing to perform music from the ACMJC library and will be participants in an afternoon workshop/clinic with members of the Festival Orchestra and special guest “Blue Lou” Marini. Later, in the opening set that evening, the bands will perform with Mr. Marini. The concert will close with “Blue Lou” joining forces in a swinging set with the COTA Festival Orchestra.

...Read more

A President’s Weekend Salute to Big Band Jazz

JARO

The imaginative and crowd-pleasing big band JARO (Jazz Artists Repertory Orchestra) will perform on Sunday afternoon February 20, 2011 at the Cecilia S. Cohen Recital Hall as the next presentation in the 2010-11 ESU Jazz Synergy Series.

The concert, which is being billed as “A President’s Weekend Salute to Big Band Jazz,” will present multi-talented musicians from the Pocono region putting their own unique stamp on vintage compositions for jazz orchestra. In keeping with the theme of this big band event, the concert will feature tunes made popular by some of America’s most famous jazz orchestras, leaders, composers, arrangers and singers. And, as JARO’s legion of fans has come to expect, some neglected and obscure ones will be showcased as well. Among the big bands to be included in this year’s program are those of Duke Ellington, Elliot Lawrence, Horace Henderson, Jerry Wald, Woody Herman, Marty Paich, Maynard Ferguson, Ray McKinley, Boyd Raeburn, Oliver Nelson and Noble Sissle, featuring such acclaimed composers and arrangers as Al Cohn, Gerry Mulligan, Dizzy Gillespie, Shorty Rogers, Fred Sturm and Clare Fischer. 

JARO is dedicated to preserving and promoting the rich heritage of big band jazz. Its musicians reflect the many respected artists who live in the Pocono region, including such favorites as trombonist Rick Chamberlain, saxophonists Nelson Hill and Richard Barz, trumpeter Danny Cahn, vocalist Judy Lincoln, and pianist and musical director Wolfgang Knittel. Three of its acclaimed members are employed at East Stroudsburg University: trumpeter Patrick Dorian and trombonist Jim Daniels are music professors, and drummer Bob D’Aversa is ESU’s chief information officer. JARO has been a fixture at the annual Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts jazz festival, and its members have appeared individually and collectively at many other major jazz festivals and venues both regionally and around the world.
 
The concert will be presented in the Cecilia S. Cohen Recital Hall at the Fine and Performing Arts Center, Normal and Marguerite Streets, on the East Stroudsburg University campus. General admission suggested donation to the concert is $5; all students with a current ID will be admitted free. Doors will open at 2:45 p.m.

The 2010-11 ESU Jazz Synergy Series is presented by the ESU Music Department, in conjunction with the ESU Regional Jazz Coalition and the Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection at ESU’s Kemp Library. For more information, call Bob Bush at (570) 422-3828 or send email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . To check on other upcoming arts events at ESU, call the ESU Cultural Events Hotline at (570) 422-3483.

Miles Fagley-Orfanella earns 2010 scholarship

 Miles Fagley-Orfanella, a senior band member at Wyoming Valley West High School, earned the 2010 Ralph Hughes Memorial Jazz Scholarship. This $1,000 dollar award recognizes the most academically proficient jazz student participating in the 2010 Celebration of the Arts Honors Jazz Band. The COTA Cats are a big band jazz ensemble that highlights the top high school jazz students in the Pocono area and performs every year at the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts (COTA) jazz festival. The Ralph Hughes Scholarship honors the memory of jazz trumpet player Ralph Hughes who was an integral personality in the Pocono Mountains jazz scene. The scholarship is sponsored by Michael and Elvi De Lotto of Antelao Restaurant, Delaware Water Gap, and recognizes the most academically proficient senior COTA Cat based on their grade point average and class rank. Fagley-Orfanella is the first Wyoming Valley West band member to be awarded this prestigious honor.

COTA 2010

Written by Paul Adam Smeltz

The Celebration of the Arts (COTA) held their 33rd Annual Jazz and Arts festival throughout the town of Delaware Water Gap, PA during the three day weekend beginning Friday September 10th and ending Sunday September 12th. The festival have proven to be a haven and Mecca for jazz and art lovers throughout the world attracting people who have traveled as far away as the European nations as well as people who live within a few miles. Those returning to this year’s festival found it to be everything they loved about it and more while those who attended it for the very first time discovered its delightfully addictive quality inspiring them to mark their calendars so they would be sure to attend next year.

The festival began Friday September 10th with an Artists’ Reception at The Antoine Dutot Gallery and Museum featuring works created by numerous artists exploring a variety of medium all centering on the “Music Motif Show” central theme which was (as the exhibition‘s title suggests) music. A number of people waited outside the gallery as the final preparations were made for their entry.

It was during this waiting period that the first of many new additions to the festival made itself known. The Classical Trio “Calliope” (consisted of Laura Goss on Basson along with Gina Bertucci and Barbara McMahon on Flute) performed outside the gallery. The enthrallment of the Classical and Baroque movements almost enticed them to stay even when the long awaited moment of the gallery opening its doors occurred. However, once they found the will power to leave this musical entreatment, they soon found their explorations of the Dutot’s a very worthy endeavor.

A wall singing the delightful tunes of colors and images transfixed those who were fortunate to cast their gaze upon them. The atmosphere was electrifying which increased as the enchanting energies of conversation and delicious foods enhanced the evening’s event. One felt a shear joy while experiencing the work and the camaraderie of those who love the festival and were overjoyed with the event that opened it.

The “Music Motif” Show has long been a part of COTA and features a juried show inviting artists throughout the Pocono Area and beyond to share their talents with the gallery. Jurors for this year’s exhibition were Steve Berger, James Gloria, and Joni Oye-Benintende. Although the work presented was of the highest quality, special awards were given to those artists listed below. Their endeavors were truly outstanding and, as a representative of The Forwardian Arts Society, I congratulate them and I encourage all who read this to share their congratulatory sentiments as a comment to this article.

The Best of Show was given to Garth Woods for his photographic piece titled, “Spencer Reed.” The 1st place award in Photography was given to  Francine Douaihy for her work titled, “Philly Groove” while the 2nd place award went to Bud Nealy for his work titled, “Marko.” The 1st place award in Painting was given to Ka-Son Reeves for his work titled, “Jazz in Space” while the 2nd place award went to Bob Doney. The 1st place award in Crafts was given to Lenore Fiore Mills for her work in Batik titled, “Bastille Day at Cercle Rouge” while June Auger was awarded Honorable Mention for her Quilt titled, “JAZZ.”

The Antoine Dutot Museum and Gallery is an Art Gallery and Museum housed in a brick school house build around the year 1850. The Museum focuses on the local history Delaware Water Gap, PA which was settled by Antoine Dutot which gave the town its original name “Dutotsville.” The French flavor of the early settlers can still be seen in Delaware Water Gap’s architecture. This and the prevalence of Jazz has led some to dub the town as “the New Orleans of the Poconos.”

The Gallery features a variety of exhibitions throughout the summer and early fall months featuring an eclectic array of artists whose qualities enhance the community through their talents. The “Music Motif Show” continues until September 19th. The next exhibition will feature the work of Arthur Kvarnstrom with an Artist’s Reception on Friday September 24th beginning at 7pm and continuing until October 10th. Please Explore The Antoine Dutot Gallery and Museum Website at www.dutotmuseum.com or call them at 570-476-4240 for more information.

The first day of the festival continued with an evening filled with music, theatre, dance, and poetry at The Presbyterian Church of the Mountain (PCOM) located across the street from The Dutot. This presentation has long been part of COTA and has become well known for the grace, beauty, and burlesque aspects of the performances. This festival proved to be no exception as expectations were not only satisfied but were exceeded beyond imagination....Read more

COTA Cats jazz fest band includes 6 DVHS students

COTA Cats

Times-Herald Record - Published: 10/08/10

MILFORD, Pa. — Six Delaware Valley High School band members participated last month in the 33nd annual Celebration of the Arts Jazz Festival in Delaware Water Gap, Pa.

Josh Smith, Jason Sandonato, Emily Fox, Ian Walack, Tyler Williams and Nadege Hoeper represented the Delaware Valley music department in the Celebration of the Arts (COTA) Honors Jazz ensemble.

The group, called the COTA Cats, was founded in 1981 by festival founder and world-famous saxophonist Phil Woods. This group is composed of jazz students from all over northeastern Pennsylvania.

Starting in early August, the group began the season with intensive three-hour rehearsals in preparation for the prime-time performance at the COTA jazz festival in September.

Under the direction of Lance Rauh and Ryan Curchoe, the band performed a program of six selections. The program included compositions and arrangments written or arranged specifically for the COTA Cats past and present.

COTA’s successful, unique approach

Celebration of the Arts Jazz Festival, Delaware Water Gap (Exit 310 off Interstate 80), Fri. Sept. 10 through Sun. Sept. 12.

by Michael Lello - Weekender Editor

To say the organizers of the Celebration of the Arts Jazz Festival — commonly known as COTA — are in a unique situation would be quite an understatement. The annual event, which will take place in Delaware Water Gap for the 33rd time this weekend, has survived despite a decision to eschew outside sponsorship since day one. The festival also has had the luxury of being located in a town teeming with musical talent.

“Everybody has to have some kind of local connection to be on the festival. We don’t go out and look for bands of international notoriety,” said Rick Chamberlain, a COTA cofounder. “We have international notoriety right here.”

Chamberlain’s fellow founder, Delaware Water Gap resident Phil Woods, is a renowned jazz saxophonist who will again perform at COTA this year. Fellow sax standout Dave Liebman, who also lives in the area, is on the bill, too. Both have been named National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Masters — the highest honor bestowed in the United States on jazz musicians. In late August, the New York Times published an article about Liebman.

Chamberlain said paying all the musicians the same amount and avoiding corporate sponsors has helped COTA steer clear of the money-related arguments that he feels derail some festivals.

“It boils down to we don’t have to answer to anybody about what it is we do,” said Chamberlain, who is the principal trombonist with the New York City Ballet Orchestra and a graduate of the New England Conservatory. “We don’t have to put up a logo where they tell us to or do whatever they tell us to do. … And because it was started by the musicians, we all make the same amount of money. It’s just a little honorarium we get every year. It’s not driven by the dollar.”

Woods, who will perform with the COTA Festival Orchestra at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, will also have his new album, “Songs For COTA,” available for purchase It’s a limited-edition CD featuring nine songs from the American songbook performed as a duo with pianist Jesse Green, as well as a new tune, “Keep it Simple,” recorded with violinist Mark Woodyatt. Woods recorded “Songs for COTA” at Red Rock Recording in Saylorsburg, and it will later be released in Europe by Italy-based Philology Records

The proliferation of jazz musicians living in and around the Monroe County village of Delaware Water Gap, near the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border, has helped define the municipality.

“Delaware Water Gap was first on the map as being a resort town, and now it is known all over the world as where they have that little jazz festival,” said Chamberlain. “It has an identity. Being identified as an area of culture is certainly beneficial to any area.”

Chamberlain himself moved from Bucks County in Southeastern Pa. to the Poconos during the heyday of the resorts and their nighttime entertainment.

“That’s a big part of why the musicians are here,” he said. “First of all, it’s a short shot from New York, and for years and years there was a lot of work here for jazz musicians at Mount Airy Lodge, the Tamiment, etc. I came to the Poconos to work at Mount Airy Lodge.”

While artists like Woods and Liebman have been part of the jazz scene for decades, there is a youthful flair to the festival, too. The COTA Cats, a collection of high school jazz players from the area, perform at the event each year. COTA also awards college scholarships to local high school musicians and hosts the COTA camp.

Chamberlain expects about 4,000 attendees at this year’s event. Festival-goers, he said, come from as far away as upstate New York and Western Pa. He added there’s a man that travels to COTA from Toronto each year, and there was an annual attendee from Australia, too.

The event has grown quite a bit to get to that point.

“It’s gotten bigger and better,” Chamberlain said. “We started out with a couple card tables on the street and a patched-together PA. Now we have professional sound and lights. We’re doing things right.”

Master of Jazz Fusion Gets His Due

By PHILLIP LUTZ

WHEN the National Endowment for the Arts gives the 2011 N.E.A. Jazz Masters Award to the saxophonist David Liebman in January, it will represent more to him than a personal achievement. It will also mark the establishment’s de facto validation of the fusion aesthetic, he said, because few, if any, of the 118 other award recipients since 1982 have been as strongly identified with fusion and its challenge to mainstream jazz conventions as he has.

“It got a really bad rap for years, the fusion thing, no question about it. Miles got killed for it,” he said, referring to Miles Davis. “Suddenly it’s become the holy grail. ‘Oh boy, he was there before everyone.’ Of course he was. We knew that.”

Vic Juris, Tony Marino, Marko Marcinko, Dave Liebman

Mr. Liebman’s defense of 1970s fusion will be reflected in his appearances over the next few months, including one on Sept. 19 at the Turning Point in Piermont. He and his longtime working band — Vic Juris on guitar, Tony Marino on electric bass and Marko Marcinko on drums — will be employing more of the tone and textures he developed nearly 40 years ago with his own groups, like Lookout Farm, and the Davis-led bands that recorded “On the Corner” and “Get Up With It.”

“I’m kind of entering a new stage with the band: a little bit more electronic, a little bit more free, back to only soprano — putting the tenor down for a while,” he said.

Whatever direction Mr. Liebman is taking at any moment — and over the years he has explored jazz of the free, fusion, straight-ahead and various European schools, in addition to his special brand of world music — he reveals certain constants. He takes, for example, the impressionistic view of melody: he breaks up a theme from the first note and makes it his own.

At the same time, he makes the case for the horn as a band’s prime mover — a view he came to hold more strongly watching Davis take control onstage with his trumpet. “Standing next to him even in the midst of the stuff we played, which was certainly not melodic or in song form, it didn’t matter, because you could still see the way he transformed something and set the mood for the listeners and, most importantly, for the band.”

That attitude, he said, will be evident in his set at the Turning Point, whether he is playing an original or “Lonely Woman,” the haunting classic on “Turnaround: The Dave Liebman Group Plays Ornette Coleman.” Voted the 2010 record of the year by German jazz writers, the album probes the mind of another horn player who upended jazz conventions of his day — and found his ideas validated years later by the N.E.A.

THE DAVID LIEBMAN GROUP WILL PERFORM AT COTA ON SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

Festival Volunteer Information

The Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts Festival is still recruiting volunteers to assist at the 33rd  Festival slated for September 9 to 11, 2011. Volunteer positions include hospitality, production, set up, security, and office assistance. This is an exciting and fun way to experience the COTA Festival from behind the scenes and meet new people.

• Why Should You Volunteer? By volunteering for COTA, you participate in an incredible event in our community, make new friends, socialize and have fun! Join us in welcoming the many visitors and residents who celebrate the Festival each year.
• Who Can Sign Up? We are looking for friendly, helpful, reliable volunteers to help with this exciting festival. Volunteers 18 and over are welcome.
• What Will You Have To Do? Volunteers are asked to assist in various areas including but not limited to event set-up, visitor interaction, security, and site maintenance (see list below)
• How Do You Register? To volunteer for the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts Festival, use our on-line contact form or come to the next meeting! (meeting dates and times are found on the front page of the web site)

Program Ad Sales Manager-Person needed to oversee the whole process of selling and collecting ads for the program and also collect and reconcile the money paid

Program Ad Salesperson-Person needed to physically go out and acquire new advertisers for our program

Back gate workers-Person will deal with signing in musicians and volunteers, help with directions and give out necessary supplies. Requires time on your feet, shifts are 2 hour intervals

Front gate workers-Person will sell tickets, help with wrist bands or sign people in. Shifts are 2 hour intervals and are standing shifts

Security-People needed to help oversee the festival and make sure everyone is adhering to the rules. Security also helps with parking. This is a labor intensive job and most volunteers do full days but full days are not required.

Physical plant-Person needed for general overseeing of the sight prior to the festival, setting up the site the days before and clean up afterwards. We always need extra people for clean up day in August, the Friday before the festival and the day after for clean up. Job is physically demanding. Mostly weekend work but only a couple of times per year.

Marketing/PR personnel-Person with prior experience preferred, writers that know how to target the media and can help us further our marketing efforts

Administrative-Person to pick up mail and distribute, retrieve voice messages, and do general admin stuff. Ex. Address letters and mailings, database upkeep, etc. Help stuff packets, return phone calls and do follow up phone calls for various departments. Year-round position.

Delaware Water Gap's jazz fest struggles to stay solvent without sponsorships

Courtesy Pocono Record
By Michael Sadowski Pocono Record Writer May 12, 2010 12:00 AM

Everything with a name is for sale these days.

But for years, one thing that decidedly wasn't on the market was the Celebration of the Arts (COTA) jazz festival in Delaware Water Gap every September.

Festival organizers are facing a dilemma for this year's festival and for the future as they continue to turn down the offers of corporate sponsorship and keep the event a Poconos original.

"That's the way it was intended when it started," said Lauren Chamberlain, president of the COTA board of directors. "And that's the way we want to keep it. It's always been local and independent."

Rising costs and bad weather have put COTA in financial dire straits, and now the organizers are starting to whisper: Should we start taking sponsorship money?
The answer, so far, has been a resounding "No," and the festival is looking for other ways to defray the cost of the yearly event that brings thousands into the Delaware Water Gap.
Held over two days on the second weekend in September, rainy and dreary conditions all but wiped out COTA in 2008 and 2009.

It was still held each year, but attendance — where COTA makes its money to pay for next year's festival — was way down, especially in 2008.

"It absolutely poured," Chamberlain said. "We had to have the whole thing under the tent, which gave it a different feel and made it more intimate. "But where we get more than 3,000 people on Saturday, we were lucky if we had 500 people under the tent. And most of those were our volunteers who don't pay for admission."

There had been a reserve fund to pay for the festival if the weather didn't cooperate for a year, but when rain and low temperatures hurt festival attendance again in 2009, the organizers started to worry about how they would raise about $60,000 to pay for the 2010 festival.

One way is Friday's COTA Spring Fling Celebration art auction at the Willowtree Inn on Ann Street in Stroudsburg starting at 6 p.m.

Another method not on the table — not yet — is corporate sponsorship dollars. Chamberlain, whose father Rick was one of the founders of the festival, said she gets at least one call a year from businesses offering to sponsor the COTA, offering anywhere from $3,000 to $15,000.

"Last year, it was a time-share company that just wanted to set up a booth," she said. "But we don't want people soliciting our customers, and that's one of the things a sponsor asks for.
"If this keeps up, some day we're going to have to ask ourselves the question: Do we want to get corporate sponsorship, or do we want to stop the festival?"

Tim Helman, who has worked at the festival for 30 years, said Friday's fundraiser is a start to keeping it an all-local, all-volunteer event, and COTA organizers will continue to do whatever they can to keep it a local endeavor.

"We will not let it go corporate," said Helman, COTA's local artisan coordinator and a member of the board of the directors. "Once you have a corporate sponsor, they take over. We have certain standards we want to uphold ourselves."

For more information on the fundraiser or COTA, visit www.cotajazz.org.

What: Celebration of the Arts Spring Fling Celebration
Where: Willowtree Inn, 601 Ann St., Stroudsburg
When: Doors open 6 p.m. Friday, live auction starts at 8 p.m.
Auction: More than a dozen local artists have donated more than 25 pieces to the auction, and local businesses also have donated items.
Tickets: $30, available at www.cotajazz.org or at the Willowtree Inn. Includes hors d'oeuvres and music. All proceeds go to the planning and operations of the yearly COTA Festival in Delaware Water Gap in September.
Live performances: Local jazz artists Bill Goodwin, Nancy and Spencer Reed, Jesse Green and others will supply the music.