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For YourNewsColumbus.com Posted 04-28-09
The audience provided the cans, but the musicians had the goods Monday
night at the Columbus Jazz Orchestra's Concert for Columbus.
The performance, billed as "Cool Music for Tough Times," was a food
and money drive for the Mid-Ohio Food Bank.instead of buying tickets,
those who attended were asked to contribute one canned good or make a
monetary contribution.
Monday normally is a day off for the orchestra, but the musicians not
only appeared, but for free, said Artist Director Byron Stripling. He
led the show, sometimes singing or playing trumpet, as well as
reminding folks how music can help get the country through trying
times.
John and Sandy Davis subscribe to the Jazz Arts series and like all of
the musicians, especially saxophonist Michael Fox and drummer Bob
Breithaupt, who also is the group's executive director..
Audiience newcomer Travis Logan, a computer programming student at the
Bradford School, said that he and a fellow Linden-McKinley High School
graduate came to hear the keyboardist.
"Bobby Floyd is the organist at our church," Logan said.
The young men got their canned good's worth throughout the concert,
but particularly during Floyd's solos on the Battle Hymn of the
Republic and Amazing Grace.
Between sets three people received Blessing Awards, with Mayor Michael
B. Coleman and Angela Pace, director of community affairs at
WBNS-10TV, doing the honors.
The recipients were Barbara Beckwith, a cancer survivor who helps
others cope with the disease; Drew McCartt, recipient of a heart-valve
replacement who volunteers with the American Heart Association and
youth programs in Hilliard; and Ruby Hall, 16, a sophomore at Fort
Hayes who has excelled in academics and extracurricular activities
even after the death of her mother two years ago.
When the honorees went on stage to accept awards scultped by another
Fort Hayes student, Beckwith and McCartt hammed it up with the mayor
and Pace. Hall hugged the dignitaries, but otherwise played it
straight.
The crowd rewarded all with generous applause.
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