Drums, Fun & All that Jazz Help Reclaim Community Connection

Drums, Fun & All that Jazz is the first Culture Builds Community (CBC) project centered at the Cleveland Neighborhood School Center (NSC), the fifth and last NSC to host a CBC project. “I think Cleveland came last only because we assumed the need for the arts was not as great as in the other NSCs. But we were dead wrong!” says Kelsa Rieger, Community Programs Manager at Cityfolk, “The school has a long tradition with the arts, and still has an incredible music program, but it became clear as soon as we started meeting with the community that there is a great sense of loss surrounding their old School for the Arts being ‘taken away.’ [In 1999, while a new school was being built.] Everyone got really excited about this project.” Kym Beasley, Cleveland NSC site coordinator, said “It feels like the perfect way to breathe new life into the school, and help us reclaim our roots.”

And that is exactly what happened last week at Drums, Fun & All That Jazz , the highlight event of a two-week long residency with premiere visiting artist Matt Wilson and his Quartet and local percussionists Claude Fambrough [pictured at left] and Adam Elfers [drumming in bottom photo]. Students at the new Cleveland NSC built drums with Elfers and Fambrough and learned team work through group rhythm-making techniques. Last Thursday evening they got a chance to show off their new skills during a large community event that combined percussion, group music-making, creativity, and culture.

Over 300 people turned out on that cold February evening. The attendees together with the artists created so much heat inside the school, I thought people were going to forget their coats on the way out. The evening began with a heart-warming home-cooked potluck in the auditeria and drum-making crafts in the gymnasium. Youth and adults were seen testing out their new rhythm makers and trying out the captivating Jumbi Jam steel drums that were on loan at the school from the renowned steel drum company Panyard, Inc.

Once everyone was warmed up, the zany and talented Matt Wilson [pictured here] served as the ring-leader for the remainder of the evening, which turned out to be a circus of eclectic music, drumming and dancing. The program featured The Hands that Beat the Drum, a collective of African-inspired percussionists; the award-winning Cleveland Jazz Band led by Joy Jones; Matt Wilson’s awe-inspiring jazz quartet; and even Chris Erk, a talented local tap dancer who showed up on a whim with tap shoes and board in hand.

The participatory nature of this energy-filled event lifted spirits and created lasting bonds among the diverse attendees from the school and its surrounding community. Everyone was invited to participate in a drum circle led by Wilson, Fambrough and Elfers, while Wilson’s band played a melody over the top. “I feel that the residency with Claude Fambrough and Adam Elfers and the CBC Drums, Fun & All That Jazz was a huge success! Parents and kids are still talking about it!” exclaimed Kym Beasley.

This celebration was planned by local stakeholders as a way to reclaim the school’s role as a place where the arts are practiced and celebrated, and to further the NSC goals of establishing the school as a center of community life. And it was successful in part because the folks in that school get it. They’ve seen what the arts can do, and they rallied around the idea of bringing this residency in and using it as a tool for bringing the students out of their shells, getting their creative juices flowing, and bringing people together in the school after hours.

Support for the concert and educational activities is provided by The Morgan Family Foundation. Drums, Fun & All that Jazz is organized and presented in partnership with the YMCA of Greater Dayton, the Cleveland PK-8 Neighborhood School Center, and the Walnut Hills Neighborhood Association.

See more pictures from this event here.