On Sunday, February 26 at 7 PM, Dr. David Kosmyna will lead The Centennial Dixieland Jass Band (CDJB) an ensemble created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the very first recorded jazz by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB) on February 26, 1917, in New York City. The ODJB, a quintet of instrumentalists from New Orleans, was led by the famous cornet player Nick LaRocca.
The concert will take place in the Biggs Theatre at the Freed Center for the Performing Arts at Ohio Norther University in Ada, Ohio. Besides Dr. Kosmyna, associate professor of music at ONU, on trumpet, the CDJB will feature Ray Heitger, leader of the Cakewalkin’ Jass Band in Toledo, Ohio, on clarinet; James Dapogny, emeritus faculty at the University of Michigan and leader of his famous Chicago Jazz Band, on piano; Chris Smith, co-leader of Ann Arbor’s only classic jazz band, Phil Ogilvie’s Rhythm Kings, on trombone; and Pete Siers, one of the most versatile and in-demand jazz percussionists in the country, on drums.
The CDJB will perform selections recorded and made famous by the ODJB during the years of and immediately following World War One. The jazz made by the ODJB was uninhibited, raucous, and changed American popular music overnight. Their records still have the power to excite us, and the CDJB brings tho
