Committee Finalizing Plans For Fall JazzFest

     The organizers of Falmouth’s first-ever JazzFest, which is scheduled for the first week in October, are trying to make it a major event in which businesses up and down Main Street participate.
     Organizers, who include Dennis D. Murphy of Falmouth and Stanton D. Terrell of East Falmouth, the co-chairmen of the event, are working with the Falmouth Chamber of Commerce to spread the word about the event and get more businesses involved. Mr. Murphy is the owner of Donohue Real Estate and a member of the Falmouth Zoning Board of Appeals. Mr. Terrell publishes the Falmouth Visitor publication and has designed the website for JazzFest.
     The six-day festival, in which most events are free, will culminate on Saturday, October 4, when there will be a day-long series of concerts, from 10 AM to 10 PM, at the Oscar Wolf Bandshell in Bigelow Marine Park on Scranton Avenue.
     There will be a charge for the day-long concert event on Saturday, which includes headliners The Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars, Esperanza Spalding Trio, Marcus Monteiro 4, the New Black Eagle Jazz Band, Kate McGarry Trio, Pat Ryan Group, the Falmouth Academy Jazz Band, and the Falmouth High School Jazz Band. The charge is $25 in advance or $35 at the door.
     Among the participants in JazzFest is the Falmouth Historical Society, which will be displaying a series of panels from the New England Jazz Hall of Fame that depict the history of jazz in the region and beyond. There are 16 panels, each three by five feet, and since the society will not be able to post all of them, JazzFest organizers are looking for other businesses to display the panels.
     At Highfield Hall, the historic mansion at the entrance to Beebe Woods, there will be jazz master classes and a concert on Friday, October 3, as well as a Sunday jazz brunch event.
     The Cape Cod Conservatory is planning concerts, master classes and even a jazz dance event.
     All Falmouth libraries are planning to show jazz films, host jazz lectures, and hold jazz master classes.
     Falmouth Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Christine A. Ross said businesses can participate in “big and little ways,” whatever works for their budget.
     JazzFest organizers hope every window in Main Street will be festooned with jazz artwork, perhaps mobiles or pictures of jazz artists. There is also a plan to have jazz-themed artwork from students in area schools.
     Galleries can display jazz-inspired artwork and all stores can pipe in jazz music during the festival, for example.
     Restaurants can offer jazz-inspired foods and drinks—one idea was for a Duke Ellington daiquiri—and special JazzFest menus.
     Organizers are hoping Main Street businesses will stay open until 9 or 10 PM on Friday night during the festival, as they did for the Harry Potter book party last summer.
     Planning is underway to have strolling jazz musicians on Main Street, too.
     Among the tentative plans are to have a jazz dance in which swing jazz steps are taught at Peg Noonan Park, having a choreographer create a special dance for the event, and having a jazz trio playing on Main Street Saturday, directing people to the event at the bandshell.
     Debra A. Rogers, director of FCTV, is heading up a subcommittee for the JazzFest. She explained that organizers are committed to an eco-friendly event.
     Falmouth Town Manager Robert L. Whritenour Jr. attended a meeting about the event in June in which he said plans are already underway on the town’s side to ensure logistics, such as garbage collection, are in place for the festival. He called the event “new and exciting for the community.”
     Among local business people involved is John Power of Power Productions, who is working on the logistics, like security and public safety.
     So far, sponsors for JazzFest include Harpoon Brewery.
     That same weekend, the Town of Dennis and the Village of Hyannis will join with Falmouth in what is being called Fall For The Arts, a marketing promotion by the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod.
     Margaret Van Sciver, president of the Arts Foundation, said the purpose of Fall For The Arts is to have activities on the Cape in the shoulder season to generate more business at a slower time of year. The Arts Foundation will be promoting JazzFest plus the events in the other towns. “We want people to know there’s a lot going on,” she said.
     The Arts Foundation will be sponsoring concerts in all three communities during the Fall For The Arts weekend.
     The purpose of Fall For The Arts is to generate interest for the entire community with lists of events, not necessarily arts-related, that are happening particularly in those three communities. For example, a farm in Dennis is hosting a petting zoo and a recycled art event for children.