By ANDREW SPIESS
BG Independent News
The stage was set in the late afternoon at Kingsbury Park while musicians picked at guitars, struck snare drums, and blew into their brass instruments one after another, checking the sound through the PA system before launching into the Defiance Jazz Festival.
The day was pleasantly warm, and under the shade of buckeye and sycamore trees, a sizable crowd of people sitting in lawn chairs or lying across towels gradually grew, some of them indulging in food truck sandwiches. When the music began, people nodded their heads to the rhythms, and kids danced unabashedly in the space between the stage and the front of the audience.
Last Saturday’s 13th annual celebration of jazz in Defiance was co-founded by Sarah Marshall and Ginny Sterling.
“We have two jazz artists that [the festival memorializes]: ‘Wild Bill’ Davison and Milt Buckner, who both lived in Defiance,” said Marshall, who considers the event as a significant element of Defiance’s singular identity.
“Wild Bill was born here and actually grew up in the library,” Marshall said about the personal history of the musicians. “His grandparents were caretakers of it when it was built in 1905.”
“Milt Buckner, however, was not born here, but he traveled through town, and he fell in love with a girl from here, a woman whose parents he stayed with.” Mentioning the social inequality of the time, she added, “The whole band got to stay with the parents because the hotels in town would not welcome Black people. So, there was a family that welcomed them into their home.”
“Milt was like a father to me,” Sterling confessed about growing up with the late jazz musician. She still remembers her friendship with Buckner’s daughter, Carole.
Close to the gate, a tent was set up that displayed pictures and newspaper clippings recounting and celebrating Davison’s and Bucker’s active days as performers.
“This next area is called JR’s Jazzy Joint, and money was donated specifically for that to be a kid’s area,” Marshall explained about the area dedicated to entertaining children. “They’ll have kids’ activities because we want families to come. We want them to bring their kids.” The area offered bags of popcorn, face painting, and balloon animals.
First to perform was Columbus’s Largemouth Brass Band. The band – featuring eight musicians playing trombones, trumpets, saxophones, a tuba, and drums – took the stage donning matching pink jerseys emblazoned with “LLBM” on the back.
Drummer Seth Alexander noted that the band is “full of educators, like band directors, college professors, people who teach privately, people who just gig full time. And those are the kind of people we want in the group because they’re working the hardest.”
“We say we’re New Orleans-inspired,” explained Chris Hines, trombone player and MC, regarding their musical style. “Brass funk is like another descriptor. Think like Mardi Gras. Second line. Second line music. So that’s kind of our roots. The instrumentation fits that, and we do a lot of that style. But then we’ll also do pop songs.”
Largemouth Brass Band’s set was comprised of original arrangements and covers, including surprising renditions of “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden and “Waterfalls” by TLC, allowing them to connect to music lovers outside of jazz culture.
Between songs, Hines filled in with witty conversational banter, cracking jokes, telling anecdotes, and bringing up thoughts about his wife and Ohio. During one song, the members incorporated simple choreographed dance moves because they’ve been told, “They don’t dance enough.” Throughout the performance, Hines would mention a member’s name after they performed a solo, during which the others grooved in support. During an energetic drum solo from Alexander, the audience clapped along with the rest of the band.
“I was going to say, I just want to make a plug to support local music,” Hines said. “Make sure that you come out to events like this, buy merch and music and other stuff from the band. Go to the band directly and support the people that you know locally who are in your local music scene, because I think that’s what really makes a local music scene great, is when the community comes out to support and get to know.”
Supporting musicians was certainly in practice while they played, following performances by The Billy Foster Trio with Renee Miles Foster, and ending the night with the Danny Reece Quartet, with the Defiance HS Jazz Band playing between each set. Hines’s point holds true; the support of live performers is more than worth the effort to stay and listen.
