Jazz at Bucks
A community college builds a jazz series among the cornfields.
By Pete Mazzaccaro
 

Riding west on route 332 towards Bucks County
Community College, approximately 15 minutes
from Interstate 95, rustic farmland expanses rise into
view beyond the occasional roadside strip mall. This
is Newtown, Pennsylvania�the corn-fed landscape
that served as the backdrop for M.Night Shyamalan�s
crop circle thriller, Signs.

The remote, picturesque college campus, a bucolic grassland among grain silos and livestock barns,         
seems an unlikely spot for a jazz concert series. The
school�s address, 275 Swamp Road, hardly promises
substantial jazz cache. But the setting didn�t discourage
Bucks County journalism professor and jazz
enthusiast Tony Rogers. He decided to book a couple
of local jazz acts to play the college�s library auditorium
and hopes to start a regular Bucks County jazz
series.
 

�I�m a lifelong jazz fan,� Rogers says. �I�ve been
here for five years and try to get to Philly when I can
to catch local acts. Then, I realized this campus has
easy access to 95, it has great venues, like the auditorium,
so why not start a jazz concert series here?�
 

Rogers says he was inspired by jazz festivals he
attended at other community colleges in locales such
as Syracuse, New York, where thousands come out
for a weekend of jazz concerts. If other college campuses
can build a great jazz venue, Rogers thought,
why not Bucks County?
 

Rogers received the go-ahead by college officials to
give the idea a shot and he took to the phones. �I was
a total virgin to the process,� he says. �But it�s easier
to bring jazz acts into a venue. Unlike rock musicians,
they don�t need big amplification systems and
heavy equipment.� Before long, Rogers had booked
three shows featuring prominent local acts.
 

The first show, November 15, features
Philadelphia area tenor saxophonist Ben Schachter
and his Trio of Many. Schachter, a City Paper poll
favorite and a regular Monday night performer at
Saint Jacks in Old City, has recorded two albums for
his own label, Ben-Jam, and has a third on the way.
The duo of guitarist Michael Hoffman and pianist
Tom Lawton, both music professors at Bucks
County, will open for Schachter.
 

Hoffman and Lawton play a return engagement in
a quartet setting�this time as headliners�on
January 31, 2003 for the series� second show.
On April 25, 2003, the Bucks County based Eric
Mintel Quartet will perform. Mintel, a pianist who
recently released a well-received album, Hopscotch,
has performed around the country, including a 1998
gig at the White House for Bill Clinton.
 

All shows will take place in the Bucks County
Community College auditorium, a small theater of
330 seats that Rogers believes is a perfect place to see
a jazz act, where proximity to the performers is a
commodity. According to the college�s theater and
community planning director, Jonathan Lee, the
auditorium is popular in the community and with
students. It is the location for approximately 240
events per year, including township functions, plays
and various concerts.
 

�We�ve had jazz concerts here before,� Lee says.
�The [remote] location is sometimes an issue, but
overall, jazz sales have been very good. The auditorium
looks small but it is big enough to get a decent-sized
crowd.�
 

But will people in Philadelphia be charmed from
places like Penn�s Annenberg Center, The Kimmel
Center or even Ortlieb�s, to see a jazz show 30 minutes
away?
 

�I think the location is a good one,� Rogers says.
�Jazz fans are really an underground community. If
there is something worth seeing, they�ll come. The
audience is out there.�
 

Rogers is confident that the series he is building
will enjoy that success. If the shows go well, Rogers
will add more in the hopes to build the reputation of
the school as a premiere jazz venue. And if the series
is a success, Rogers says he would love to create a festival,
similar to the one he attended in Syracuse. He
says the campus has a number of great venues,
including an old open-air theater where crowds
could take in big jazz acts outdoors.
 

�I want to keep building it,� he says. �I�d love for
people in Bucks County, when they think of jazz to
say, �Hey, what�s going on at Bucks County
Community College?��

This story originally appeared in All About Jazz-Philadelphia. Reprinted with permission.