This past weekend, the Lakeside Jazz Festival held its 26th annual event in Port Orange. It showcased jazz musicians from the Southeastern United States since 1988.
Lakeside served as a yearly fundraiser for student band and leadership camp scholarships at Atlantic High School, Spruce Creek High School, and Silver Sands Middle School, as well as giving opportunities for local jazz bands to receive feedback on their performances.
Photo by Lauren Bigelow.
New Smyrna Beach Middle School band director and A+ Teacher nominee Jonathan Brodie said, “While the community gets to watch this, feedback is key.” He added, “It’s a competition and an adjudication opportunity for those students to receive knowledge and expertise from musicians.”
New Smyrna Beach High School earned a Superior rating at Lakeside this year under the direction of Harley Hottel. “It’s very much different than our other evaluations where it’s more stressful and high tension,” he said. “They [students] get a lot of connections, they meet people, they get a great clinic.”
Photo by Lauren Bigelow.
Saturday at noon, Daytona State College’s very own big band took the stage and performed a few of the pieces from its Swing Into Spring event, including “Hospital Blues”, featuring Filip Sokolowski on trombone and Adam Rich, founder of Bravery Music, on piano.
Lakeside is an event that embraces bands of all levels including headliners like the University of Central Florida Flying Horse Big Band, University of North Florida (UNF)’s three jazz ensembles and the Air Force and Marine Jazz Bands.
During UNF Ensemble I’s performance, the group played a set including two pieces arranged or written by members of their band. The band performed “Evil Kenny G”, an original song composed by lead saxophonist Zakk Machemer.
Another chart was an arrangement of John Mayer’s “Stop This Train” by pianist RJ Clines. The selection of these pieces stood out from the other groups. Clines said, “This one is more geared to high schools, so we try to pick more ‘fun’ songs to get high schoolers interested in jazz at the collegiate level.”
Photo by Lauren Bigelow.
During the final set of each night, the United States 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing Band performed well-known hits for the late-night crowd like “Die With a Smile”, “Golden Hour” and “Crazy”.
Photo by Lauren Bigelow.
Through the whole event, merchandise tables sold t-shirts, drawstring bags, and this year’s limited-edition shirt. Students and community volunteers manned the tables, as well as the concession stand.
Other volunteers at the event took photos and guided bands between warmup tents and the stage in preparation for their performances. Blake Houston, student musician in the Spruce Creek Band, DSC Jazz Combo and Big Band, volunteered by taking photos of other groups throughout the event. “It’s really cool, I mean. Knowing how it’s ran and being a part of how it’s ran,” he said.
As jazz music echoed, and volunteers buzzed around the Port Orange City Center, the closed road held room for the Lakeside Art Festival, with tents that showcased various local artists. These tents included plant pottery, self-care soaps and bath bombs, and many other forms of art.
Photo by Lauren Bigelow.
One of these tents held art pieces by Denise Maggiore, an oil pastel and oil paint artist. Primarily creating portraits of musicians during live performances, Maggiore’s art captures part of the soul that is Lakeside Jazz Festival.
Lakeside Jazz Festival gives a unique opportunity to the Volusia County community to experience jazz music of all levels through many states, while enjoying the sunny waterfront and light breeze. Until next year.