Area set to buzz with live music at Berks Jazz Fest.
Reading area set to buzz with live musical collaboration
Thanks to the Berks Arts Council, Berks County becomes a regional hotbed for music each year with the Berks Jazz Fest.
“I think it’s got a wonderful reputation. John Ernesto, who runs the festival, is a real people person,” said smooth jazz saxophonist and syndicated and satellite radio host Dave Koz, adding that there’s an excited energy inside and outside each venue because the audiences are “real music fans.”
“On the Berks stage, you’re getting things that do not happen anywhere else,” Koz said, referring to his opening night show with his “Summer Horns” side project partner Rick Braun, and the April 8 “Remembering Chuck Loeb” jam, which so many musicians have committed to that Koz commented that it’s like two nights of entertainment crammed into a single night.
Ironically Koz will not be a part of the “Heart and Soul of Sax” event April 13 because of his schedule. He said that’s a good thing because he’d be too nervous to play on stage with Maceo Parker, whom he looks up to. “Classic Berks concert — it sounds like a show I’d wanna see,” he said.
Among the multitude of festival concerts is one that jazz purists might complain doesn’t belong — Coopersburg guitarist Craig Thatcher’s Eric Clapton tribute show on April 7 at the Reading Country Club. “They’re trying to attract people from different demographics, so they open things up,” Thatcher said, noting that his band has previously performed an Allman Brothers tribute show at Berks Jazz Fest. “The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival this year is going to have Jimmy Buffet, so go figure.”
Thatcher performs his hybrid blues/funk/jazz electric guitar style in a much different, spontaneous setting April 12, with brothers Matt and David Cullen, bassist Chico Huff (known for his work with James Taylor, Carly Simon, John Belushi and Charlie Mussle-
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