Lowcountry Aid to Africa keeps beat going

Early on, a local organization took a chance on an emerging general acceptance of jazz music and used the great American music with deep South Carolina roots to raise support for struggling people across the ocean.

Lowcountry Aid to Africa, a nonprofit that works to bridge that gap, will stage its seventh annual Evening of Jazz at 8-11:30 p.m. Jan. 30 at the Elk's Lodge, 1113 Sam Rittenberg Blvd.

Running the band once again is John Tecklenburg, pianist and charter member of the group.

Other band members include saxophonists Lonnie Hamilton III and George Kenny, drummer Gerald "Cameo" Williams, Brian Reed on bass and vocalist Ann Caldwell.

Typically, John's bands have a bluesy, contemporary sound, perfectly suited for such an affair. It's like traditional, funky 1950's hard bop with a present-day twist.

This band, in all of its manifestations over the past six years, has never disappointed.

All the players are seasoned veterans and work very well with each other.

They represent a social consciousness typical of jazz musicians and understand the importance of what they do every year for Lowcountry Aid to Africa.

Since 2004, the group has donated more than $100,000 to nonprofit organizations, mostly in Africa and in support of local HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment initiatives.

Founding director Lucille Whipper, a longtime community activist and former state legislator, said, "Proceeds raised have been donated to Ikamva Labantu, a leading South African nonprofit organization in Cape Town, South Africa, dedicated to working with orphans and children with HIV/AIDS, and the Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. to support the S. Willie Layton Memorial Hospital for Women in Chilembse, Malawi, Central Africa, in alternate years."

Last year, $7,500 was given to the hospital in Malawi and $1,000 was donated to the Ryan White Fund at MUSC for emergency aid to local HIV/AIDS families, she said.

This effort deserves the support of all who can help.

With the determination and style of a Louis Armstrong solo, the association has steadfastly withstood the vagaries of musical trends, shifting popular tastes and economic recession to keep its eye on the prize.

At this year's concert, Caribbean and Lowcountry cuisine will be provided by locally owned restaurants and caterers.

Call 577-4122 or 881-1337 for reservations and mail a tax-deductible check (or donation) to LCAA/Palmetto Project, 1031 Chuck Dawley Boulevard, Suite 5, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464.

Individual tickets cost $30, sponsors or tables are $500. Individuals tickets will be available at the door.

MLK on jazz

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s opening address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival:

"God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations.

"Jazz speaks for life. The blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.

"This is triumphant music.

"Modern jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.

"It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls.

"Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down.

"And now, jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith.

"In music, especially this broad category called jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these."

Amen.

Jazz and classical

On Friday and Saturday nights, the Quentin Baxter and Friends jazz quintet will join the Charleston Symphony Orchestra for an 8 p.m. concert at Memminger Auditorium that will include treatments of works by Duke Ellington, Bach, Ravel, Max Roach and others.

This is a landmark event and portends serious future collaborations between jazz and classical musicians, their fans and the organizations that support them.

For information, visit www.charlestonsymphony.com or call 723-7528.

Jack McCray, author of "Charleston Jazz," can be reached at jackjmccray@aol.com.