Wesley Chapel Jazz Fest Grooves At District Park

By Gary Nager

Anytime you host an event for the first time, you really don’t know how it will turn out until the event actually takes place.

That certainly can be said for Tim Hancock of I12CHim, Inc., Music Management, who first came to one of my Wesley Chapel Rotary Club meetings (held at Ciao! Italian Bistro in the Shops at Wiregrass mall) a few short months ago talking about his plans to put on the first-ever Wesley Chapel Jazz Festival.

I knew I wanted to be involved, but never having met Tim before and not knowing the quality of the musicians who would be on stage for the event, I didn’t know what to expect. 

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Even so, our publications became the primary media sponsors for the event, which was held in the Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd. on August 30.

Of course, anytime you host an outdoor event in Florida in August, you run the risk of having the event washed out by inclement weather and the week leading up to Jazz Festival Saturday was brutally hot, with heavy rains (as is our pattern this time of year) virtually every afternoon.

But, the show must go on, as they say, and Hancock’s festival, although threatened by a 40-percent possibility of heavy afternoon thunderstorms, came off almost without a hitch (despite a few early technical difficulties), and there is no doubt that not only was the music awesome all day, but that Hancock definitely should put on a second festival — and those plans are in the works (more on them on page 42).

So, despite sweltering temperatures which featured a heat index of more than 100°F all day, Hancock and about two dozen food and other vendors and sponsors were on hand all day at the park. The crowd built slowly, but by mid-afternoon, it was estimated to have reached more than 1,500 people, most of whom brought their own lawn chairs and umbrellas.

The music itself was varied and very impressive, as the Cypress Creek Dixieland Jazz Band (top right in the header on page 27) opened the show with a selection of old time favorites, followed by singer Pat Barbara, who really got the crowd going with her rendition of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September.”

My other favorites on the day were the smooth jazz/pop sounds of Paula (Stevens) Watkins & Co., saxophonist extraordinaire Marlon Boone (think Spyro Gyra, only cooler; also at the top of pg. 27) and Hancock’s own group, Abnique, which only got to play about three songs before the rains did finally wash out the remainder of the group’s set sometime after 6:30 in the evening.

Hancock’s sister-n-law Val Paul did a great job of emceeing the long, hot day and there’s no doubt that the event wouldn’t have happened without its sponsors — Elite Mobile Advertising, Wesley Chapel Nissan, Cupps AV & Production Services; Kaptain Krab Seafood Restaurant in Plant City; Ierna’s Heating & Cooling; DeSigns Plus; Hyundai, Chevrolet & Mazda of Wesley Chapel & of course, the Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News. 

Hancock says he plans to host the second Wesley Chapel Jazz Festival, perhaps again at the District Park, sometime in March, when the temperatures will be at least a little cooler, “but I am thrilled with the response we’ve gotten since then,” he says. My phone has been blowing up ever since!”

For more information, call Tim Hancock at 609-2531 or visit WesleyChapel JazzFestival.com.