By Krista Henneck

At the Jazz Academy’s CAMP Blues, it’s not all about receiving instruction. It’s about giving back, too.

 

Participants of CAMP Blues, a weeklong program hosted by the Jazz Arts Group of Columbus, will perform at 7 p.m. Friday at the Northstar Golf Club in Sunbury, Ohio, as part of the Blues for a Cure fundraiser.

 

Sean Carney, one of the camp’s instructors, created Blues for a Cure in 2007 to fund cancer research and survivor programs. Carney and members of the Sean Carney Band taught at the camp last year, but this is the first year the camp’s final performance will be tied to Blues for a Cure.

 

 

For the 25 participants of CAMP Blues, who range in age from 10 to 60+ and this year are all male, the final performance is a culmination of five six-hour days dedicated to learning the blues.

 

“These people work together really closely for a week and they want to share what they’ve done with other people,” says Carol Argiro, director of Operations and Community Programs for the Jazz Academy. “It’s just a real love fest.”

 

The final performance also makes the experience real for these guitar players, bass players and drummers.

 

“They’ve got a gig and they have to be ready,” Argiro says.

 

But it’s not just any gig, and it’s not just any camp. CAMP Blues participants learn from and perform with members of the Sean Carney Band, who Argiro describes as “three really fine, well-respected blues musicians … known all over the world.

 

 

“They get them for a week just to themselves and then they play a gig with them on Friday night in the public,” she says. “It’s kind of like a blues fantasy camp.”

 

Friday night will also feature a performance by the Matt O’Ree Band. On Saturday night, John Nemeth, the Sean Carney Band, and special guest Little Charlie Baty will take the stage. And on Sunday night, Janiva Magness will play at Vonn Jazz.

 

 

For more information about Blues for a Cure, visit www.bluesforacure.org. To learn more about upcoming activities at the Jazz Academy, go to www.jazzartsgroup.org.

 

Pictured on front page: Vernon Reid, jazz guitarist who will appear at the Columbus Jazz Orchestra's Guitar Summit in September. Courtesy of the Jazz Arts Group. jazz arts group.com