In our comprehensive preview of the DC Jazz Festival, we mentioned that there are several welcome additions to this year’s programming — but one of the most intriguing is DCJF’s collaboration with CapitalBop. The District’s one-stop online shop for the local jazz scene, CapitalBop has also started producing small scale DIY performances through its highly successful D.C. Jazz Loft series. The organizers of the DCJF became aware of CapitalBop and arranged a meeting with its founder, Giovanni Russonello, to discuss advertising on the site.
“We talked over what we had been doing at CapitalBop and what they had been planning for the festival this year,” Russonello recalled during a recent interview with DCist. “I also told them about the lofts that we had done and their eyes sort of widened.”
The DCJF offered to help stage a series for this year’s festival, and after talking it over with Luke Stewart — his partner at CapitalBop — Russonello agreed to participate.
“The series is designed to be an extension of the D.C. Jazz Loft’s mission, which is to promote local musicians, local music and the local scene-at-large,” explained Russonello.
One reason behind the producers’ interest is that while the lofts are aimed at anyone who appreciates jazz, they tend to draw a younger crowd of twenty and thirty-somethings. Reaching this demographic has been a problem for jazz presenters for decades.
DCJF founder and Executive Producer Charlie Fishman provides another much simpler reason why working with CapitalBop goes beyond just a target audience.
“Obviously, there’s a market there,” he said. “But the jazz community is too small and too persecuted for us to not help one another.”
The DCJF’s D.C. Jazz Loft series will present four shows, one on each of the next two Fridays and Saturdays, at three underground venues around the city: The Fridge, the Red Door and Subterranean A. Most of the concerts pair one local act with a band from out-of-town.
“We’re bringing in New York musicians and you can say, ‘hey, look at these big deal guys in New York.’ But it’s not really like that for us because we’re saying there are cool ways to hear music, cool places to hear music and cool people who are willing to play music here in D.C.,” said Russonello.
The series begins this weekend with D.C.’s Brian Settles sharing the stage with Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up on Friday, and an all-local pairing of the Jolley Brothers with Amy K. Bormet on Saturday. Next Friday’s show features free jazz artists Darius Jones and the OOO Trio. The Lofts conclude with talented young saxophonist Elijah Balbed opening for J.D. Allen, the most widely known artist in the series.
In choosing these artists, Russonello and Stewart had simple criteria.
“These acts were exciting and bold enough to catch peoples’ eye even if you didn’t read Downbeat every month, and they were bona fide,” Russonello said. “Really the question for us was, ‘will they come?’, because it’s DIY and there’s a lot less guarantee involved.”
Despite these initial concerns, the series has a solid lineup, which Russonello hopes will bring attention to cutting-edge jazz, while generating interest in CapitalBop itself. As a testament to the dedication Russonello and Stewart have for this venture, they are not making money of this series, despite financial support from the festival. Still, Russonello maintains his direction and sees this as part of the growing process.
“I don’t know if being ‘young and impressionable’ fully relays the depth of the naiveté that I’m trying to express here,” he joked. “For us, this is enough of a payoff for the time being because we get to put on great music, be a part of great music and enjoy great music with other great people.”
The D.C. Jazz Loft shows take place on June 3, 4, 10 and 11 at 9 p.m. For full schedule, venue and ticketing information, visit the Jazz Loft web site.
