insight

Take50

JAG celebrates its 50th season and artistic director’s 20th anniversary

By Lauren Serge

Photos courtesy of Steven Pariser and Kendal Smith

THE JAZZ ARTS Group of Columbus is playing in double time to keep up with all the celebrating it has to do.

Not only will the nonprofit celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2023, but JAG’s Columbus Jazz Orchestra artistic director and conductor, Byron Stripling, celebrated 20 years with the group at an August concert.

When Stripling was first exposed to music, he says he immediately felt a spark. That lit a life-altering fire that has fueled him through his career and to the present day.

“When I was in school, nothing really inspired me or caught on to me,” he says. “But when I walked into the band room, everything changed. It was a totally different world. For me, it’s like this light bulb went on. And I was inspired in a whole different kind of way.”

Following that initial inspiration, Stripling went on to perform with the Count Basie Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and many others before joining JAG in 2002.

Stripling says it’s an honor to simultaneously celebrate JAG and his own involvement with CJO. The dual anniversaries give the organization an opportunity to honor its past and the past of jazz music more generally.

“(We wanted to) look at music of the past that’s jazz-oriented and always honoring that,” Stripling says. “Legacy is so important to us. We feel we’re starting a legacy of this band as a historic Columbus landmark.”

Ray Eubanks, a Capital University professor, founded JAG in 1973. The group grew to tour Europe multiple times, serve as the major performing ensemble for the Southern Theatre and become the thirdlargest performing arts organization in Columbus. JAG is the second-largest organization of its kind in the U.S., according the group’s website.

After 50 years of making its mark on Columbus, Stripling says, it’s imperative to the group to continue spreading the joy of music with its audiences.

“It’s so important for the city of Columbus to know that they have this diamond in their city,” he says. “But we want to blow this up and let the world know what’s happening here in Columbus with great music, and especially great jazz in our case.”

The 50th anniversary celebration began with a kickoff event on Aug. 5, Fifty Years Forward, which featured CJO with special guests Rachel Azbell and Micah Thomas performing some of the orchestra’s favorite jazz compositions from across the decades.

The anniversary events look to harness the rich history of jazz and combine it with the genre’s evolving present, Stripling says.

“You can’t go forward with just looking through the rearview mirror,” he says. “You always have to be innovative. So the goal of the 50th is to show people what we’ve done in the past and also give them a picture into what the future will look and feel like for the organization and for music in general.”

JAG’s mission is about much more than just jazz, though.

Throughout his time with JAG, Stripling says, he has seen how the organization’s educational work has benefited individuals, especially younger adults and children. He points to music education as valuable for teaching kids discipline and providing inspiration and hope.

“The mere act of giving someone a song can really change their lives,” Stripling says. “We’re planting seeds and the legacy will continue. And if we do our job well, it will continue on a grand scale.” CS

Byron Stripling

Lauren Serge is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.