On Friday, April 3, the Sunshine Jazz Organization and The Black Archives partnered to bring a concert to the Historic Lyric Theater in Overtown in honor of Jazz Appreciation Month.
Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) was first designated in 2001 by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, identifying jazz as both a historic music tradition and a living American art form. It culminates with International Jazz Day, held annually on April 30, a worldwide event recognized by UNESCO to celebrate jazz’s role in promoting peace, diversity and dialogue across the globe.
Jazz originated as a distinctly African American musical tradition. With a fusion of African and European musical elements, it developed as a form of individualistic expression in the context of a collective. Emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, New Orleans is often credited as “the birthplace of jazz.”
Jazz Appreciation Month has been celebrated each April since 2001.
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)
The Sunshine Jazz Organization, or SJO, is a Miami-based musical community committed to quality jazz performance and musical education. Founded in 1986 by jazz radio broadcaster Charles L. “China” Valles, the organization is dedicated to creating new avenues for jazz performance throughout South Florida.
Current SJO president, the late China Valles’ son Keith Valles, has been a member of the Florida jazz community since he was a teenager.
Currently a member of the Sunshine Jazz Organization, Rutledge’s career as a vocalist began in 1997.
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)
“I’ve been involved behind the scenes [of SJO] pretty much since its inception,” said Keith. “I wasn’t really a jazz fan. I loved R&B, you know, The Temptations. But when I got to know the artists as I got older, I wanted to hang out with them. They always had a good time.”
Keith describes the jazz community as a “village.” His father, China, got to know artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Nancy Wilson and Nina Simone when they played the Chitlin’ Circuit, prior to becoming household names.
Now famed as one of the earmarks of African American music traditions, the Chitlin’ Circuit is a colloquial name for a network of performance venues across the U.S., from the South to the Midwest, that provided a safe place for Black entertainers and artists to perform during segregation. Many venues on this circuit served “chitlins” — short for chitterlings, which are cooked pig intestines — and other classic African American soul food dishes, but many historians have speculated that the name extends beyond the significance of cultural food ways into a symbol of the resilience and creativity of African American musicians. From clubs to juke joints to theaters, these venues played a key role in popularizing certain genres, including jazz.
The repertoire included a song by Duke Ellington that featured a trumpet solo.
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)
A musician and DJ in his own right, China fostered relationships with the artists on the Chitlin’ Circuit, even earning his nickname from his good friend, Duke Ellington. In the ‘80s, he began expanding his village to include his listeners on broadcast radio. Artists, fans and jazz lovers came together to form SJO.
Today, Sunshine Jazz partners with the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs to promote artists, music education and jazz appreciation throughout the county. The organization celebrates four decades this year.
Rutledge was joined by a band of all-star musicians on keys, double bass, trumpet and percussion./
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)
Lenard Rutledge, the featured jazz vocalist at the JAM concert, has been part of SJO’s village for a long time. He grew up listening to China Valles on the radio and praises the organization for its commitment to quality performances.
“Quality performance is quality performers,” said Rutledge. “SJO represents the genre very well.”
Representation was an essential focus to China, and now, to Keith. Keith considers “the village, love and family” to be greatly important to the jazz community. But he also prioritizes excellent music above all else.
“Life is challenging,” said Keith. “You hear the ugly news on the radio and then all of a sudden, turn and hear some jazz, and for that moment, you escape.”
Rutledge, like Keith, believes jazz has the power to change perspectives, arguing that we need to acknowledge its beauty beyond Jazz Appreciation Month into the everyday.
“We need to celebrate this American art form,” said Rutledge. “It’s American classical music.”
One of the hallmarks of jazz is its reliance on spontaneous musical composition, sometimes referred to as improvisation. With the combination of complex harmonic structure, rhythmic intricacy and even speech intonations, jazz draws from spirituals, blues and ragtime to create and adapt music in real-time.
“Think way back to the days of slave gospel,” said Keith. “Music is a part of us.”
To this day, jazz remains ever-evolving. It defies an all-encompassing definition. Never fully composed or predetermined, it has been, from its beginnings, expanding and changing to include new musical traditions.
Although China Valles passed away in 2014, his legacy lives on through the Sunshine Jazz Organization, his son Keith, and his village of people committed to sharing the music he dedicated decades to.
“Music is my love,” said China, quoted on the Sunshine Jazz Organization website. “It’s my life.”
Join SJO for their next performance, Back Together Again: A Tribute to Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, on May 1 at the Historic Lyric Theater. For more information visit sunshinejazz.org.