On Saturday, March 24, The Jacksonville Center’s community room will be transformed into a friendly, intimate jazz café for our spring benefit concert, Jazz@Jax. Music lovers are invited to pull up a chair or put on their dancing shoes, sip a glass of wine or beer from the bar, and relax as Chris Prokosch and The Jazz Providers delight their ears with a range of music from the Great American Song Book, a loose collection of pieces by composers such as Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Frank Loesser, and Jazz Standards by Miles Davis, Monk, Bird, Oliver Nelson and others.

Doors open at 7pm with a reception in the Hayloft Gallery to follow.  Tickets are $25.00 in advance ($30.00 at the door) and can be purchased at The Jacksonville Center, by calling (540) 745-2784, or online via PayPal.

About the Performers

Chris Prokosch is a familiar player in the Floyd and Blacksburg areas, playing bass with various groups for the last 35 years. Recently he has been organizing music for the Floyd Jazz Association and has appeared at Virginia Tech functions and local clubs and parties with the Floyd Montgomery Jazz Project.

Prior experiences include long stints with the Dave Figg Quartet and the Virginia Tech Jazz Orchestra under the late jazz violin legend Joe Kennedy.

Myrick Crampton has been playing the saxophone for more than thirty years. He graduated with degrees in mathematics from Indiana University and the University of Texas at Austin. After a long career developing software in domains as diverse as aerospace, supply chain optimization and finance, he has returned to his first love.

Currently, he is studying jazz with Skip Gailes from Virginia Commonwealth University. He lives in Goochland, VA with his wife and three children.

Brian Peters is a junior at Radford University in the percussion studio of Dr. Robert Sanderl. He is studying music education and performance. Peters plays in various university ensembles including the RU Wind Ensemble, Concert Jazz Ensemble, and Percussion Ensemble. He is a five-time participant in the University Honors Recital as well as the recipient of the Presser Scholarship. Peters is a performing vibraphonist and drummer in the New River Valley and teaches private lessons. He plans on continuing his education at the graduate level and eventually teaching percussion at a college or university.

Justin Craig received a BA and MA in Music at Radford University, where he studied Classical Guitar with Valerie Hartzell and Robert Trent. He has also studied Jazz Guitar with Flip Shoemaker.

He has taught private and group guitar in and around the New River Valley for the past six years. He has taught all skill levels and ages incorporating classical, jazz and popular styles. He is currently a faculty member in the Renaissance Music Academy where he teaches “Suzuki Guitar” (a classical guitar method for young students). He is also a faculty member at Virginia Community College.

Justin is continually performing in and around the NRV.  He can be heard doing solo guitar music from Bach, The Beatles, and Bebop all in one set! His most recent recording “Ten” is a collection of some of his favorite guitar composers and can be found on Itunes.

Tom Artwick has been a professional saxophonist since 1981.  A graduate of Augustana College, he has been active in the musical communities of Seattle and Honolulu as well as his home town of Chicago.  He has performed in concert with jazz artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Mel Torme, Louie Belson, Clark Terry, Dianne Schuur, and Bill Watrous as well as popular artists Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Johnny Mathis, the Temptations, the Four Tops and many others. Tom has been a studio musician for national ads and a theater musician for touring Broadway shows.  In Honolulu, he was co-founder and musical director of the sixteen-piece Jazz Hawaii Big Band.  Since settling in Lexington, Virginia in 1997, Tom has continued to perform in a variety of musical settings including jazz and popular music at concert venues, clubs, and resorts as well as teaching saxophone and jazz improvisation at Washington and Lee University, Southern Virginia University, and in his private studio.