PRJC Concert/Dance: The Capital Focus Jazz Band
Details
Hear the music of Jelly Roll Morton, Clarence Williams, Lu Watters, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and more by PRJC's Youth Learning Program.
The Capital Focus Jazz Band (also known as the Federal Focus Jazz Band) is the PRJC’s Youth Learning Program, directed by Dave Robinson. Since 1988, this nationally acclaimed program has provided promising young musicians with a grounding in the fundamentals of jazz, as well as specialized training in the traditional New Orleans styles and their offshoots. Graduates of the program have become major players in New York City’s trad jazz scene.
The CFJB has performed at receptions for the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of State and many other dignitaries. Performance venues have included the White House, the Capitol, the Kennedy Center, the National Mall, the Pentagon, the Smithsonian, the National Cherry Blossom Festival, Bourbon Street and Preservation Hall (New Orleans), jazz clubs in New York, Nashville, Seattle, London, Madrid, and Amsterdam, and a variety of jazz festivals in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean. The band was also featured in live performance on NBC’s “Today Show”, and on Bravo’s “Artsbreak”. The band’s performance at the Louis Armstrong International Jazz Competition in Sainte-Adresse, France, won a special judges’ prize, placing ahead of several adult bands. The band was one of five young groups selected from hundreds of international applicants to spend ten days (all expenses paid) studying with the top names in jazz at the prestigious Jazz Aspen Snowmass Academy in the mountains of Colorado. CFJB also took First Place in their Division, and all of their Division's Best Soloist medals, at the Traditional Jazz Youth Band Festival in Sacramento.
Most recently, the band wowed audiences at venues in Seattle. A week after their PRJC concert, the band takes off for France, where they will perform several times at Fest Jazz in the medieval village of Chateauneuf-du-Faou, sharing the bill with Tuba Skinny and Gunhild Carling.
At this concert, expect to hear the music of Jelly Roll Morton, Clarence Williams, Lu Watters, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and more, performed by cornetist Aiden Interrante, trumpeter Keller Remington, clarinetist Ashley Hsu, trombonist Marcel Penzes, pianist Minh Vo, banjo/guitarists Isaac Felix and Jackson Dunkin, tubist Evan Ramee, and drummer Daniel Hudson. Come see the band that Tailgate Ramblings reviewer Barbara deBoinville called a “great band…fabulous concert…we were powerfully transported to New Orleans”, and support these talented young musicians as they launch their French adventure.
Potomac River Jazz Club (PRJC) is a non-profit organization founded in 1971 whose mission is to support and preserve original New Orleans jazz music. Our monthly concerts are held at Rosensteel Hall in Silver Spring, MD. The venue is near the Forest Glen metro (red line), has plenty of parking, table and chair seating, a large dance floor, and a cash bar with some snacks.
Come out and join us for this special show!
Admission: PRJC members ($20 (this means dues-paying members of PRJC, not this free Meetup group), General admission $25 at door, $22.50 if purchased online in advance. Youth with valid student IDs: Free. Sales at door are by cash, check or PayPal only.
PRJC Concert/Dance: The Capital Focus Jazz Band