TTHERE’S RARELY ANY SHEET MUSIC. The songs
are memorized — Hill estimates he has a catalog of about
1,000 in his brain, “although I don’t know as many as I
should,” he says. If the players don’t know all the notes that’s
OK, because real jazz is all about improvisation.
Hill is always busy, teaching at Cape Fear Community
College and gigging about four nights a week. But he
wouldn’t miss Sundays at Burnt Mill Creek.
“This is our fun night,” he says. “It’s a jam session, which
is traditionally how jazz was formed. It’s just getting together
and playing.”
This is the kind of music in the kind of club that Sebastian,
the fictional jazz pianist portrayed by Ryan Gosling in the 2016
movie “La La Land,” infamously declared to be dying.
Primus Robinson, president of the Cape Fear Jazz Society,
shakes his head at the reference.
“Give me a break,” he says. “It’s not dying. It’s not going
anywhere. Jazz is always transitioning. There is good music
breaking through all the time. There are new artists searching
for a voice, and there’s always somebody who wants to hear it.
It’s always exploratory. Open minds want exploratory music,
and that’s basically what jazz is.”
Measured strictly by consumption, Sebastian might have
a point. Rock and R&B/hip-hop vie for the most popular
music genre, each accounting for about 25 percent of album
sales and streams in 2017. Jazz checked in at 1.2 percent,
down there with classical and just ahead of world and chil-dren’s
music.
But in Wilmington, at least, the jazz scene is quite healthy.
“For the size the town it is, I think it’s good,” Hill says.
“We have a good core of great players in town.”
There are big bands like Artistry in Jazz and the
Wilmington Big Band, and numerous smaller combos.
There are events throughout the year. The North Carolina
Jazz Festival celebrated its 38th year in Wilmington in
January. The Ocean City Jazz Festival happens in July. The
Pleasure Island Seafood, Blues and Jazz Festival takes place
each October. National acts play the Wilson Center, Thalian
Hall and Kenan Auditorium.
The Cape Fear Jazz Society books local and regional acts
for concerts at the Cameron Art Museum and the Bellamy
Mansion throughout the year.
“We are looking far and wide for new artists to intersperse
with the known artists in the area,” Robinson says. “We’re
never going to turn down Doug Irving or Benny Hill. They
are great and they support this community. But we are run-ning
as far as our budget will take us to find those artists in the
Triangle area and Charlotte and Charleston to find diversity.”
Primus Robinson, former jazz DJ and record company
executive in Philadelphia, books local and regional acts
as president of the Cape Fear Jazz Society.
Your
comprehensive
real estate
team
L-r: Noelle Agnew with Don Bullard Insurance, Barbara Pugh with Coldwell Banker
Sea Coast Advantage and Heath Altman with Alpha Mortgage.
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professionals to handle every aspect for you.
Stop by our new office in Autumn Hall and let us show you
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navigate the real estate world easily.
From your real estate agent, to your mortgage banker, to
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Heath Altman
office: 910-256-8999
Mobile: 910-512-1220
Fax: 910-795-4948
Heath.altman@alphamortgage.com
Heathaltman.com
Noelle Agnew, Managing Agent
office: 910-332-1080
Fax: 1-888-865-6133
Noelle@DBins.com
www.noelleismyagent.com
110 Dungannon Boulevard, Suite 100, Wilmington, NC 28405
910-520-2945 • www.barbarapughteam.com
44
WBM april 2018