SAXTONS RIVER — In a benefit concert for Arts Bring Connection, the Vermont Jazz Center Sextet will play jazz standards and original works at Main Street Arts in Saxtons River on Dec. 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Created by Mary Hepburn, the founder and former Director of Main Street Arts, Arts Bring Connection (ABC) is a program designed to bring Cubans and Americans together through music and the arts.
Hepburn and ABC will be taking a group of 21 artists and musicians to four schools and conservatories in the city of Santiago de Cuba on Jan. 6. The group includes professionals in the areas of classical, jazz, early music, traditional music, and visual arts. A filmmaker will be documenting the trip. The group will be visiting and collaborating with students and teachers, and bringing along hard-to-obtain musical instruments, instrument repair kits, and art supplies.
Hepburn visited Cuba in July and said, “When I was there I was astounded by how much the students and teachers did with so little.”
Sextet member Bill Ballard says that audience members coming to the benefit “will be in for a treat and helping a good cause.”
According to Ballard, the sextet focuses on the music of the “modern jazz” era from the 1940s onward. The Vermont Jazz Center Sextet consists of Rob Freeberg on trumpet, Jim Heffron on the tenor sax, Bill Ballard on alto sax, Cathy Martin on the piano, William Auer on bass, and Mike Patek on drums.
A mix of advanced students and instructors, “We all met through the VJC's regular Wednesday night Jam Sessions, said Ballard. “Since the spring of 2013, we have been rehearsing and playing on a regular basis, arranging our own music and taking our band to local schools and other venues ever since.”
According to VJC Director Eugene Uman, “The musicians in the VJC Sextet are some of VJC's best. Their selection of tunes is catchy, varied, and accessible and their arrangements are complex and interesting. Their blend is finely tuned and beautiful.”
Uman said that the sextet have been great ambassadors for jazz in the region, “We are very proud of them.”
Hepburn noted that the ABC visit comes at a time when relations with Cuba are being normalized after more than 50 years of estrangement.
“When I was in Cuba earlier to lay the groundwork for this program, I was at a private home as they announced the resumption of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba. You should have seen the joy on the face of our host when she gave us the news.”
ABC will be visiting with teachers and students at Conservatorio Estaban Salas, a high school music conservatory; Escuela Vocacional de Arts, “Jose Maria Heredia,” a school for art, music, and dance; and Academia de Artes Plasticas, “Jose Joaquin Tejada,” a visual arts high school. Some of the supplies and instruments have been donated directly with the rest being purchased with funds raised by ABC's “GoFundMe” crowd-funding website.