Billy Wolfe, director of the Big Band at the university, led the ensemble for the second half of the night, beginning with Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood.”
Photo by Adrian Supper
“This has all the components to be a rich tradition,” university President Dave Kaufman said preceding the Big Band Ball on Saturday at the historic Valley Dale Ballroom.
This event, organized by the student organization Capital Jazz Outreach Society (CJOS), changed venues this year to the Valley Dale Ballroom. The Ballroom has hosted famous musicians and dancers for over 100 years. In 1983, the ballroom was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
“The Valley Dale ballroom is a very historic place in Columbus,” said junior jazz studies and instrumental performance major Daniel Johnson-Brewer. “Frank Sinatra performed there, the Count Basie Band played there… so it’s a really great experience for us to be able to play on the same stage as those people and play the same music.”
With a change in venue, CJOS organizers saw an increase in attendance. 217 students and community members came to the event to fill the dance floor, up from last year’s 156 attendees.
In continuation of the tradition, the event was preceded by a masterclass with SwingColumbus, a local not-for-profit organization that celebrates and preserves traditional swing dancing and lindy hop jazz. The masterclass was led by Chealsia Smedly and Shelby Johnson, who also led the instruction the previous year.
SwingColumbus member Megan Miller, who has worked there for the last four years, emphasized the work the organization has done to rekindle the spirit of swing dancing in Columbus following the COVID-19 pandemic’s social distancing protocol.
“It’s nice to see events [at the Valley Dale ballroom],” Miller said, “to bring back the history of what’s been done here.”
Smedly and Johnson began the clinic by playing Chappell Roan’s “HOT TO GO!” to get the 108 attendees moving and feeling the music. Eventually, the two led the group to learn to be leaders and followers, including moving in “shapes” such as the rock step and triple step.
Following words from Kaufman and CJOS Vice President Parker Wilkinson, the university Lab Band, under the direction of Alex Burgoyne, began with Woody Herman’s “Woodchopper’s Ball.”
Other popular jazz selections from the night included “Orange Colored Sky,” popularized by Nat King Cole, and Benny Goodman’s “Sing Sing Sing.”
“I really like the community around [the university’s music program],” said Lab Band member Kyle Waskel, a first-year music education major. “I will keep doing it all four years.”
CJOS members were also fundraising for an upcoming February trip to Chicago, where the Big Band will attend the Elmhurst Jazz Festival and do clinics for high schools in the greater Chicago area.
