The Ocean City Arts Center presents an exciting weekend of music Friday and Saturday, May 3 and 4 in the Lecture Hall, Ocean City Free Public Library, 1735 Simpson Avenue, Ocean City. The weekend events are free and open to the public. With limited seating, reservations are strongly suggested and can be made online at oceancityartscenter.org or by calling the office at 609-399-7628.
First up, on Friday, May 3 at 6:30 p.m. it is a Junior Jazz Battle Royal featuring The Happy Accidentals, (Egg Harbor Township High school) directed by David Craig Milnes and The Deptford Jazz Ensemble, (Deptford High School) directed by Carl Cox. Ocean City Arts Center’s Junior Jazz Battle Royal is proud to feature these youth jazz ensembles who are keeping the jazz flame burning bright with brilliant and virtuosic performances. The Happy Accidentals performed at the recent Berks Jazz Fest in Reading, PA. The Deptford Jazz Ensemble won Best Jazz Band in their division in 2023’s NJ Association for Jazz Education’s Annual competition. Come see if they kept their title this year at the competition on April 27.
The concert follows in the tradition of the Battle of the Bands popularized by an early 20th century concert staple where two popular orchestras would try to outperform one another in front of a live audience, like the first time ever Count Basie Orchestra and the Duke Ellington Orchestra came together in 1961. That historic meeting, later referred to in jazz circles as The Battle Royal, has been recreated through live performances by other jazz orchestras and ensembles over the years including on the stage of the 2011 edition of the Jazz à Vienne festival. Likewise it brings to mind the annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival held at Lincoln Center in New York. With this Junior Jazz Battle Royal, Ocean City will come alive with the sound of some of jazz’s future stars facing off, not in competition, but in synergy.
On Saturday, May 4 at 2 p.m., the Arts Center is proud to present the folk music and story songwriting of NJ’s troubadour, Valerie Vaughn. Valerie has a distinguished career performing throughout New Jersey, regionally and at the Kennedy Center. She has shared the stage with legendary Pete Seeger, and spun musical tales in England. Her evocative songs earned the Ocean County Commission’s Special Award and the Pine Barrens Festival Award for preserving “the culture, heritage, and natural beauty” of the Pinelands.
The Arts Center is proud to acknowledge that Valerie Vaughn, from Tuckerton, is one of the five South Jersey recipients of New Jersey State Council of the Arts’ inaugural New Jersey Heritage Fellowships. The New Jersey Heritage Fellowships recognizes artistic excellence and the contributions towards traditional arts and heritage that highlight the diversity of the state, especially in South Jersey.
