HURON TWP. - Take your ears back in time and listen to the early form of jazz that was hot in the 1920s.
The Olympic Jazz Quintet, which plays the music that excited your grandparents or great-grandparents back in the 1920s, will play a free concert at 4 p.m. Sunday, June 11, at the McBride Arboretum at the BGSU Firelands campus off Rye Beach Road in Huron.
Bring a chair or blanket and consider using parking lots D and F off Boos Road. The free concert is provided by Firelands Symphony Orchestra.
The quintet features musicians on tuba, banjo, cornet, clarinet and trombone and is led by tuba player J.c. Sherman, Painesville, who also serves as principal tubist for Firelands Symphony Orchestra.
The band's setlist includes tunes such as "(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey," written in 1902 by a barroom pianist in Jackson, Michigan; "Struttin' With Some Barbecue," recorded in the 1920s by Louis Armstrong's band; and "Honeysuckle Rose," a 1929 tune written by Fats Waller and Andy Razal.
Jazz music from the 1920s may not be controversial now, but, back in the day, the early jazz created by Black people was considered risque music at least by some.
"I love it," Sherman said. "Sadly, there are very few of us who still do it."
Sherman said he's loved early jazz for many years. He trained with the late banjo player Bob "Mad Dog" McGuire and other musicians in the early 1990s at Sea World in Aurora, Ohio. For those curious, Sherman says Shamu the orca ignored the musicians but that dolphins would stick their heads out of the water.
The core of the Olympic Jazz outfit, which has different sizes depending upon the gig, has been playing for about seven years.
Like many professional musicians, Sherman does a variety of jobs to make a living, including teaching and playing in a wide range of bands and freelance musician situations. Another of his bands, the Firelands Brass Quintet, will play a free concert at 6 p.m. on July 28 at the Meals on Madison/Riverfront Live event in downtown Port Clinton.