Honors Jazz Band to perform at Silver Spring Festival

The Silver Spring Jazz Festival has been scheduled for Sept. 11 from 3:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Silver Plaza located at the Ellsworth Drive Fountain between Georgia Avenue and Fenton Street. The festival is open to the public and free of charge.

The event will be hosted by Keter Betts, the recipient of the 2003 Living Legacy Jazz Award. Betts has been a bassist for various jazz artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, for more than 24 years. The festival's master of ceremonies is Murray Horwitz, the Director and Chief Operating Officer of the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center.

The event will open with a "cutting contest" between jazz bands from Blake, Einstein and Blair. Schools will compete for the Borders/JazzTimes trophy, to be presented by Betts and Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan.

According to Blair's instrumental director Dustin Doyle, the Honors Jazz Band is going to drive in a truck through Silver Spring's neighborhoods while playing music from 3:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. The "cutting contest" against Blake and Einstein will begin shortly afterwards at the Silver Plaza.

Doyle describes the contest as a "battle of the bands," in which bands face off by playing song after song against each other. Doyle adds that the contest is inspired by a traditional "New Orleans style."

Also according to Doyle, there will be "CDs and knick-knacks" from the festival performers available for purchase throughout the day. Doyle also encouraged students to attend the event, saying there will be "lots of good music" and the overall festival is "supposed to be incredible."

Artists scheduled to make appearances are singer Alyson Williams, the Project Natale band, Keter Betts (with additional musical accompaniment), harmonica player Frédéric Yonnet, a collaboration between guitarist Nick Colionne and Blair alum keyboard player Marcus Johnson, and poets Lisa Pegram, Brian Gilmore, Reuben Jackson and Joel Dias Porter.

The festival's rain date is Sept. 12. For more information call the Silver Spring Regional Center at 301-565-7300 or on their hotline at 301-565-5864. Or visit their website here.