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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend October 8, 2005 Keith DeWitt of Wally�s Warehouse Waifs is reflected in the bell of his trombone during the band�s performance for the grand opening of the Medford Jazz Jubilee Friday in Vogel Plaza. The 17th annual event runs through the weekend in seven locations. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Jubilee off to a rousing start Downtown Medford come alive with music as annual jazz festival starts toe-tapping weekend By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune Charlie Morris belts out Cab Calloway’s "Some of These Days," and traffic slows on Central Avenue as drivers take in the novelty of a jazz band playing in the middle of the day in downtown Medford. A crowd, toes tapping, little musical notes dangling from the street trees on Vogel Plaza. It’s the Friday kickoff to the Medford Jazz Jubilee, the traditional music fest that draws people from up and down the Left Coast for three days of Dixieland, swing, zydeco, rhythm and blues, gospel. The jubilee is 17 years young now, and it’s grown, but the more things change, the more they stay the same. After all the organizing, all the fund-raising, the educational mission, the music in the schools, what makes it all go is the living pulse of the music. It’s music that has been around for a good long while, and there’s still no shortage of people who love it. "They’re all good," says Mary Alice Adams, 74, of Medford, who is decked out in a purple outfit and a red hat. "If you love music and love to dance, this is the place to be." The jubilee unfolds simultaneously at seven sites. Vogel Plaza is billed as the youth venue. Shows here are free. Professional bands play here all afternoon Friday followed by bands made up of young people from 9:30 a.m. to about 6:30 p.m. today. Advertisement Passes that will get you into all the other rooms are $40 today and $25 Sunday. People finish their lunches, watch the band, Wally’s Warehouse Waifs, listen, dance. Others push strollers, walk dogs. A skateboarder fixes eyes on the band, expressionless, as he clatters by. "I don’t know much about Medford," says Matta Kimber, "but this looks like fun." Kimber recently moved to Ashland from Southern California. The Waifs do Billie Holiday’s melancholy old "Am I Blue?" The Vogel Plaza crowd is smaller than in years past. The statue chess player wears a straw boater. A guy walks around handing out fliers promoting swing dancing at the Medford Elks. The band calls for a parasol parade, but the few women present with parasols and boas stay seated. Over at the Red Lion, the Titan Hot Seven is blowing to a packed downstairs room of folks bouncing along in chairs and lining the walls. The upstairs ballroom will swing into action at 3:30 p.m., but there’s a Rotary thing in there now. "This is the trad room," says clarinetist Bob Draga. "We’ll try to play something traddy." The room is packed with people in faux leopard fur and denim, feathered boas and tie-dye. They sip coffee and sodas and stronger stuff from a full-service bar. Draga, who’s played gigs here for years, tells the crowd a third of the clubs on Bourbon Street have re-opened. He used to live in New Orleans. "I think we’ll do New Orleans because it’s gonna be back," he says. The band plays slow and sensual with tasty solos by Draga and guitarist Gerald Krahn and a soulful vocal by pianist Jeff Barnhart. They play the erstwhile "China Boy," a big rave-up Draga says they’ve renamed "East Asian Child" in the spirit of political correctness. Soloists act out getting "stuck" on notes or riffs and have to be dope-slapped out of it by their bandmates. The crowd eats it up. "When they get in the van they keep it going just like that," says Tom Faull, of Phoenix, a jubilee host who will schlep band and its gear to their next gig. "They talk about what worked." Faull has been volunteering for this for seven years along with his wife, Roxanne. It’s become a labor of love. The couple have nine of the band’s CDs. Upstairs Bev Bishop is setting up shop. Vendors like Bishop follow events like this all over the country. She and her husband live near Big River, Calif., out in the desert, but they do festivals as far away as Clearwater, Fla. The guy who takes care of their seven burros also does the embroidery on her jazz costumes. On one popular pink and purple shirt Bishop designed is a mime holding a flower and blowing on it as if to send into the air a shower of petals. As they cascade off into space, the petals turn magically into musical notes. If you go What : 17th annual Medford Jazz Jubilee. When : Today and Sunday. Where : Red Lion Hotel (two ballrooms), KOBI Studio C, Reston Hotel, Elks Lodge, Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater and Vogel Plaza. Tickets : $40 today, $25 Sunday. Age 18 and under, $10 weekend. Information: Call 770-6972 or visit www.medfordjazz.org . Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail Jubilee off to a rousing start ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker dvd-r Distance Education Computer Security Ztech Media Hosting Sports Equipment Online Casino Student Loans Online Pharmacy tcg student loan consolidation Online Casino Reviews Myspace Home Equity Loans Windermere Van Vleet Deep Muscle Stimulator Discount Hotel Reservations Southern Oregon Loans Online Casino News Casino Gambling Sites Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Salvia Divinorum Advertisement s