NORTH TOPSAIL BEACH — Sun. Surf. Jazz.
That’s the agenda for the Ocean City community in North Topsail Beach as they host the fourth annual Ocean City Jazz Festival today.
The festival is produced by the Ocean City Beach Citizens Council, a group that seeks in part to promote and preserve the history of the Ocean City, a community born during the later years of Jim Crow.
“Ocean City was conceived in 1949 when the opportunity for African-Americans to buy ocean front property didn’t exist,” said Citizens Council President Ken Chestnut. “The community is still close knit, which says a lot in these times.”
The festival, which was created to celebrate the community’s 60th anniversary, serves two purposes: to further promote Ocean City’s history as well as raising funds for Wade Chestnut Chapel, one of the main cultural and religious focal points of the Ocean City Community.
“The chapel (built in 1957) is starting to wear,” Chestnut said. “It was well built, but we’ve had to replace the roof and put in more plumbing.”
Chestnut said the community has undergone a few changes since 1949, such as its population becoming more diverse, but Ocean City has largely remained the same.
Performer, singer and Wilmington native Kim Pacheco agrees. She calls Ocean City “timeless.”
“It’s hard to take my children back to Wilmington and show them where I grew up because it’s changed so much,” said Pacheco. “I can still go back to one little pocket of the world and feel like I’m breathing the same air I did as a child.”
Pacheco got her start as a young child singing under the tutelage of an older brother who taught her how to sing in three part harmony. A family visit to Georgia years later exposed Pacheco to vocal jazz and the music of Etta James.
“It was like I inhaled for the first time in my life,” said Pacheco.
James (as well as other jazz greats including Dinah Washington and Carmen McCrae) has served as a mentor to Pacheco, who says she as a five and a half octave range.
Pacheco plans to tell a story using nearly a century’s worth of music, ranging from 1930s standards to more modern songs made famous by Gladys Knight and Whitney Houston.
“We’ll be going on a journey,” Pacheco said. “I hope by the time it ends, we’ll feel like we’re in a bubble where time stops.”
Bassist and Fayetteville native John Brown is also on the line up. He hopes Festival patrons will feel the groove of his group’s sound, which he says is a mix straight ahead jazz and swing.
“We play music that helps people dance and move and feel something,” said Brown.
Brown has been playing the bass since he was 9 and once believed his destiny was in the symphony hall instead of the jazz club. Brown has been a substitute bass player with the N.C. Symphony for more than 20 years, but says he’s up for jazz anytime, anywhere.
“I take advantage of the opportunity to play jazz,” Brown said.
A professor at Duke University, Brown hopes to educate as well as entertain when he performs at festival.
“I encourage people to study music without words,” Brown said. “You’ll find expression opens up new words without lyrics.”
Chestnut says the ambiance at the Ocean City Jazz Festival is already in a league of its own.
“This will be a fantastic event,” Chestnut said. “The environment at Topsail Island with the cool breeze and warm sunshine can’t be beat.”
Christopher Thomas can be reached at 910-219-8473 or at christopher.thomas@jdnews.com.
Want to go?
The Ocean City Jazz Festival will take place at 2649 Island Drive, North Topsail Beach, today at 5 p.m. The line-up will include John Brown, Stanley Baird, Kim Pacheco and Richard Harris White Jr. Advance tickets are $25 for adults and $12 for patrons ages 6-17. Tickets at the gate are $30 for adults and $15 for patrons ages 6-17. For more information, and to buy advance tickets, log on to oceancityjazzfest.com.