April of this year marks the Golden Anniversary of the Potomac River Jazz Club. Founded by five musicians in 1971, the PRJC—dedicated to supporting traditional jazz in the Washington-Baltimore area—grew to become one of the largest and most active jazz support organizations in the country. PRJC Archivist Dave Robinson has been on board since the beginning, and will guide us through 50 years of good times and great music in a special multimedia presentation. Dave will draw on photos, documents, audio recordings and videos from the Club’s archive to trace the history of how the PRJC came about and its many accomplishments over the years, spotlighting some of the most popular bands from the Club’s heyday.

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, playing in such PRJC bands as 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, Hal's Bayou Jazz Band, and Conservatory Classic Jazz Band (leader), as well as touring with Pittsburgh's Boilermakers Jazz Band. Before moving to Maryland’s Eastern Shore, he was Adjunct Professor of Music at George Mason University, where he directed the Mason Traditional Jazz Ensemble. Since 1988, Dave has directed the PRJC’s award-winning Capital Focus Jazz Band youth ensemble, which has performed across the U.S. and around the world. He is the founder of the Traditional Jazz Educators Network, is Past President of the American Federation of Jazz Societies, and has produced the Smithsonian's Jazz Concert Series. Dave helped to launch the Traditional Jazz Youth Band Festival in Sacramento, where he serves 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 and the National Jazz Workshop at Shenandoah University, as well as on the mentor teams of the Jazz Education Network (JEN) and the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). 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. He is the author and producer of the nationally-acclaimed Traditional Jazz Curriculum Kit, published in partnership with the Jazz Education Network, the Smithsonian, the National Endowment for the Arts, and various foundations. He is currently Vice President of The Mainstay, a popular Eastern Shore music venue.

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!

The PRJC is supported in part by funding from the Montgomery County Government and the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County.