Old Webster Jazz Festival announces 2006 lineup

Gunbohead will be one of the acts peforming
at the 2006 Old Webster Jazz Festival

Looking at the just-announced lineup for the 2006 Old Webster Jazz Festival, it appears that the event is taking on a bit of a blue tone this year. This is the sixth annual edition of the free festival, which is scheduled for Saturday, September 23 in the Webster Groves Historic District at Gore and Lockwood. Previous festival have usually included one or two blues bands among the various flavors of jazz, and if I'm not mistaken, the OWJF may have even had the word "blues" in its name at one time. But this year takes the blues influence a step further, with three acts - blues/rock guitarist Billy Peek, the New Orleans-style funk/zydeco band Gumbohead and the blues band Uncle Albert - that would seem to be just as suited for a blues festival as an event nominally devoted to jazz.

In addition to those three, performers will include singers Erin Bode and Anita Rosamond, the USAF Big Band of Mid-America, swing revivalists Swing Cat Swing, the Webster University Jazz Band, the Webster Groves High School Jazz Band, and Andrea Stevenson & Jazz Fusion. Of these, Bode and Rosamond are known quantities, and past versions of the USAF Big Band that I've heard were quite impressive. The Webster University Jazz Band is, according to the news release I received, the faculty ensemble, which includes some excellent professional musicians, and not a student group.

The rest seems a mixed bag - the WGHS Jazz Band is, obviously, a student group, and the quality of those can vary substantially from year to year, especially with high school kids. Swing Cat Swing have never impressed me, either in concept or in execution, as anything but a "me too" leftover from the 1990s swing revival. And I have absolutely no idea who Andrea Stevenson is, nor does Google - in fact, the only mention of her name the search engine could find anywhere is on the OWJF's home page.

Still, even with a couple of soft spots, it's a decent enough lineup for a free event, though I can't help but note that there's a distinct lack of African-American performers. Given that the Festival has booked musicians like Jeanne Trevor, Willie Akins and the late Johnnie Johnson in the past, I don't think the organizers set out to intentionally exclude anyone this year. But even if this lineup is strictly a result of circumstance and coincidence, given our town's deep talent pool, it doesn't really look that good to have a festival of jazz and blues music anywhere in the St. Louis area with no black musicians or singers of note.

That said, it's also worth mentioning that, like last year, the Festival will also be sponsoring some free workshops for student musicians in conjunction with Webster University. Specifics on the workshops will be released later, but for now you can find out more about the 2006 Old Webster Festival by checking out their Web site.