[Dixielandjazz] Sequester cuts affect Florida Jazz Festival - Kenton Alumni Tour

[Norman Vickers]

To:  Musicians and Jazzfans list; DJML

From: Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola, Inc.

 

Mike Vax has written about the effect of sequester cuts on his Stan Kenton Alumni Band tour.  Also talks about  previous post on Musicians and JazzFans list of cancellation of a jazzFest in S. Florida due to sequester cutsl

 

For the DJML folks who might be interested , I’m posting the original article from Naples, FL newspaper .

 

 

From: vaxtrpts at aol.com [mailto:vaxtrpts at aol.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 11:49 AM
To: nvickers1 at cox.net
Subject: Re: Sequester cuts affect Florida Jazz Festival - Kenton Alumni Tour

 

Hi again, Norman.  In thinking about that festival more, I am very puzzled, because I know that they could NOT charge for the Jazz Ambassador's performance.  I wonder how they were going to pay for the festival - unless they had a bunch of other acts??  I'm pretty sure that the JA concert would have had to have been a stand alone concert and the audience would have been cleared out before they could have let people back in to then pay for other acts.

Anyway, I thought I would give you the itinerary for our tour and maybe you can put out the word that I am going to give an UNBELIEVABLE deal to two schools or socities or whatever so that we can fill the two open dates we have on April 16 and 19.  I'm also hoping that Eastern USA people will try to come hear the band.

ITINERARY FOR 2013 

KENTON ALUMNI BAND SPRING TOUR

 


DATE

CITY

PLACE


4/8

Columbus, OH

Fly in – Bus To Oxford


4/9

Oxford, OH,

Hamilton, OH

Miami Univ.-Ohio

Hamilton High School


4/10

Centerville, OH

Centerville High School


4/11

Chillicothe, OH

Chillicothe High School


4/12

Columbus, OH

Capitol University


4/13

@Albany, NY

Travel Day


4/14

Plaistow, NH

Timberlane Perf. Arts Center


4/15

Riverhead, NY

The Suffolk Theater


4/16

OPEN

Working to Book


4/17

Washington, DC 

Blues Alley


4/18

Fredricksburg, VA

Riverbend H S 


4/19

OPEN

Working to Book


4/20

Edison, NJ

JP Stevens High School


4/21

Harrisburg, PA 

Central PA Friends of Jazz

The Forum Theater


4/22

Pittsburg, PA

Airport – Fly Home

 

 

 

Mike Vax
Friends of Big Band Jazz, Prescott Jazz Summit, 
Stan Kenton Alumni Band
www.mikevax.net
www.bigbandjazz.net
www.prescottjazz.com
www.getzen.com

 

 

 

To:  Musicians and Jazzfans

From: Norman Vickers

This item from Naples , FL Daily News relate to cancellation of jazz festival due to sequester cuts.  FYI.

 

 

Naples Daily News <http://www.naplesnews.com/> 


Stopping the music: Bonita jazz festival canceled due to sequester cuts


*	By RYAN MILLS <http://www.naplesnews.com/staff/ryan-mills/>  
*	Posted March 18, 2013 at 1:16 p.m.

 

The U.S. Army's Jazz Ambassadors had to pull out of their April Bonita Springs show due to cuts related to the federal sequester.

A Bonita Springs jazz show won’t go on due to budget cuts related to the federal sequester.

The Riverside Jazz music festival was slated for April 9 at Riverside Park, with the U.S. Army’s Jazz Ambassadors — America’s Big Band — headlining. 

But the Department of Defense suspended all military band travel in early March because of budgetary uncertainty, meaning the Jazz Ambassadors won’t be visiting Southwest Florida after all.

“It’s just the most unpatriotic thing that has ever occurred to me in my 62 years of living, to have someone pull the rug out from under us like that,” said Mike Bode, a Vietnam veteran and music lover who was putting on the show.

While much of the focus of the sequester has been on cutbacks to national defense, airport operations and schools, the public is starting to see the effects in less high-profile areas. 

In addition to the canceled band tours, spending cuts have grounded the Navy’s Blue Angels and the Air Force’s Thunderbird flying teams, according to media reports. Visitors to national parks are likely to see fewer workers, furloughed park police and shuttered visitor centers as part of the sequester cuts, which went into effect March 1. 

Bode said he’s been working on the jazz show since January 2012 when he learned the Ambassadors, who play for free, were touring this part of the country. He contacted a band representative and began putting the pieces in place.

However, on March 8, he received a call from a band representative notifying him of the cancellation.

“I almost wrecked my truck. To be honest with you, I was dumbfounded and I was speechless,” Bode said. “I had just confirmed with my printer to run 1,000 posters and 1,000 fliers. Things were in the works because we were a month out.”

Bode said he tried to find a replacement headliner that would play on the cheap, but came up empty. He compared plugging one of the other scheduled acts into the Ambassadors’ headliner slot to starting a high school quarterback in the NFL.

On Monday, Bode officially announced the show was over and started meeting with sponsors to return their money.

“It’s unfortunate,” said Sgt. Adam Goetz, the Jazz Ambassadors’ tour coordinator, who spoke highly of Bode’s work. “We’ve worked for a long time toward these concerts, which take the Army story to the American public. And there’s tremendous value in this. Now we’re not able to fulfill that mission.”

Bode said the canceled band tours are an “affront to what this nation stands for.”

“This is our band,” he said. “This band belongs to the United States of America.” 

                                                                                                --End--