PRJC Zoom JazzTalk: Remembering the Manassas Jazz Festival w/David Robinson

David Robinson takes us down memory lane to the legendary Manassas Jazz Festival in a multimedia presentation.

From 1966 to 1989, the annual Manassas Jazz Festival was a much-anticipated event among Washington-area jazz fans. Held in rural Manassas, Virginia, and produced by Johnson “Fat Cat” McRee (a founder of the Potomac River Jazz Club), the festival brought together swing-era stars and prominent local musicians to play traditional jazz and swing in unpredictable combinations.

Trumpeter Dave Robinson, who performed at several of these festivals, will give a multimedia presentation that takes a look back at what once took place, sharing musical highlights.

Cornetist/trumpeter/historian/educator Dave Robinson (a charter member and past president of the PRJC) has been a fixture in Washington’s traditional jazz scene for decades. He has performed and toured with the top DC-area traditional and swing bands, including the Storyville Seven (leader), Sheiks of Dixie, Sunshine Skiffle Band, Manassas Festival Jazzers, Pontchartrain Causeway New Orleans Jazz Band, Royal Blue Orchestra, Doc Scantlin's Imperial Palms Orchestra, New Columbia Swing Orchestra, Radio King Orchestra, SingCo Rhythm Orchestra, and Hal's Bayou Jazz Band. Years ago Dave gigged with such swing era veterans as Maxine Sullivan, Billy Butterfield, Steve Jordan, Johnny Blowers, and Bob Haggart. He has performed at the White House, the Capitol, the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, New York's Rainbow Room, Preservation Hall, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, and Blues Alley. Dave has toured the Pacific Northwest with the Boilermakers Jazz Band and has been heard at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, on National Public Radio, and in various film soundtracks. Along with Gary, Dave performed at a royal wedding ball in London; the Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt; appeared on-camera in NBC-TV's hit show "The West Wing"; was a finalist in the State Department's national Jazz Ambassadors competition; and was an Artist-in-Residence at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. Dave was Adjunct Professor of Music at George Mason University, where he directed the Mason Traditional Jazz Ensemble. Since 1988, Dave has directed the award-winning Capital Focus Jazz Band youth ensemble, which has performed across the U.S. and in Canada, France, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, and the Caribbean. He is the founder of the Traditional Jazz Educators Network, is Past President of the American Federation of Jazz Societies, the Potomac River Jazz Club, and The Mainstay music venue, and has produced the Smithsonian's Jazz Concert Series. Dave helped to launch the Traditional Jazz Youth Band Festival in Sacramento, where he served annually as clinician, lecturer and adjudicator, and he also has served on the faculties of the STJS Trad Jazz Youth Camp in the Sierra Nevada mountains, the National Jazz Workshop at Shenandoah University, and Traditions Week at McDaniel College, as well as on the mentor teams of the Jazz Education Network and the National Association for Music Education. He has also served as a jazz instructor at Washington College, and has lectured and conducted jazz workshops extensively across the country. Dave hosted "The French Quarter" on Sirius XM Satellite Radio for three years, drawn from his huge archive of trad jazz recordings, and currently hosts "Jazz Gumbo" on WKHS-FM. He is the author and producer of the nationally-acclaimed Traditional Jazz Curriculum Kit, published in partnership with the Jazz Education Network (JEN), the Smithsonian, the National Endowment for the Arts, and various foundations. Dave has just been named for a Jazz Hero Award by the Jazz Journalists Association.

Our Jazz Talks are always FREE to the public, but we greatly appreciate any donations made toward the program. This presentation will be held via Zoom and a link will be sent by e-mail the day of the presentation. **Please register by 5:00 p.m. the day of the event!