Knox Community Jazz Orchestra Swings Out of Winter with a Concert at the Woodward Opera House

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio – The Knox Community Jazz Orchestra returns to the
Woodward Opera House stage on Friday, March 21, with a concert of old favorites
and striking new arrangements.

Titled “Shake That Cabin Fever,” the concert will celebrate the end of a
rigorous winter and the coming of warmer, longer days. Admission is free, with
donations accepted at the door. The performance will begin at 7:00 p.m.

“I’m thinking of this concert as a hearty taste of musical comfort food that we
can all savor, remembering winter and welcoming spring,” said Ted Buehrer, leader
of the jazz orchestra. “And I can’t think of a better venue than the Woodward, with
its intimate warmth, where we’ve had the privilege of performing on many
occasions.”

The program includes big-band classics like “In the Mood,” associated with
the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You,” the theme song

of Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra. “Basie Straight Ahead” showcases the genius of
Sammy Nestico, the longtime arranger for the Count Basie Orchestra.

One of the newer pieces on the set list is “Happy People,” an inventive,
upbeat tune from 2002 by the Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Kenny Garrett.
The jazz orchestra will also perform a beautifully harmonized arrangement of Joni
Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” as well as an arrangement, by Buehrer, of Frederic
Chopin’s well-loved piano composition, “Nocturne.”

The twenty-member jazz orchestra features active and retired music
educators from Knox County and the surrounding area, along with professionals and
accomplished amateurs who perform around central Ohio. The group last
performed at the Woodward in September 2024, in a joint concert with the Mount
Vernon Community Band. A year ago, the jazz orchestra held a benefit concert at the
Woodward to raise money for the Mount Vernon Police Department’s acquisition of
a new “K9 officer” dog.

Buehrer, a music professor at Kenyon College, founded the group in 2017,
reviving a local big-band tradition that dates back to the Riley Norris Orchestra of the
1960s, the Bob Bechtel Big Band of the 1980s, and the Colonial City Big Band that
followed it.

The jazz orchestra has won an enthusiastic local following, with performances at
Ariel Foundation Park, the Mount Vernon Music & Arts Festival, Kenyon College, the
annual Tops ’n’ Pops concert of the Mount Vernon City Schools, and the invitational jazz
festival of the Centerburg School District. For several years, the big band has also held
concerts to benefit Food for the Hungry.

For more information about the March 21 concert, email
info@knoxcommunityjazz.org or go to the band’s webpage,
www.knoxcommunityjazz.org.