Walking to Mr. Henry’s to see the Lionel Lyles Quartet a couple of weeks ago, I ran into Herb Scott going in the other direction.
It was surprising. Scott, an alto saxophonist, is also the founder and executive director of the Capitol Hill Jazz Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates and produces jazz in the neighborhood. Mr. Henry’s is the foundation’s hub and hosts its popular Wednesday night Capitol Hill Jazz Jam; CHJF also books the venue’s upstairs room. Tenor saxophonist Lyles was Scott’s booking. Why was he walking away from the restaurant and bar?
The answer, it turns out, is that his turf has broadened. “[The foundation has] been in partnership with Barracks Row Main Street,” Scott says. “We’ve been activating the Eastern Market Metro plaza, featuring a band from 5 to 6:30 every other Friday [evening].”
They’ve also launched live music series at three neighborhood restaurants: Lavagna, Extreme Pizza, and The Brick. “That’s just to start; there may be more to come,” Scott says. “That has really helped bring a lot of performance opportunities to the Hill.”
Scott was on his way to play Lavagna the night we crossed paths.
These aren’t the foundation’s only new projects. The Union Station Redevelopment Corporation—the agency tasked with renovating the transit hub—is looking to not just remodel, but revitalize the space. Part of that is a new live music series, sponsored by the Office of Cable Television, Film, Music and Entertainment, called Jazz in Bloom. The series premiered in April with tenor saxophonist Elijah Jamal Balbed and continued throughout the spring.
“All of this falls under the mission of the foundation, which is to make full use of jazz as a strategic tool for economic development,” Scott says. “This series symbolizes Mayor [Muriel] Bowser’s efforts to revitalize and redevelop downtown D.C., and one of the ways they’re doing that is by using bands.”
It’s fitting that Scott should be working with Lyles and Balbed, both sax men and both of whom Swing Beat has at one time or another called “the hardest-working musician in D.C.” When it comes to the unglamorous behind-the-scenes work, though, nobody puts in more effort than Scott and the Capitol Hill Jazz Foundation. (Scott’s former board chair, vocalist Aaron Myers, so impressed the mayor with his work ethic that she appointed him executive director of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities in May.)
Scott and the foundation have long done stellar work on the ground. In December 2017, they worked with Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee to organize the Congressional Jazz Caucus. But the COVID-19 pandemic kicked their efforts up to a whole new level. Scott and Myers worked to bind the District’s entire music scene together, establishing, with several others, a weekly Zoom meeting of DC Music Shareholders. The meetings (in which this writer regularly participated) involved discussions about engagement with local officials, businesses, and industry partners as well as efforts to provide financial and other resources for out-of-work musicians. Other initiatives aimed at supporting artists, venues, promoters, and additional members of the music community during the lockdowns were also areas of the shareholders’ focus.
Those particular efforts have receded somewhat (though not halted) since quarantine lifted, but the foundation’s broader efforts to promote jazz on the Hill have done anything but. Not just their efforts but their footprint—once consisting of the second floor at Mr. Henry’s and Garfield Park, where they’ve held their annual HillFest (a yearly neighborhood jazz festival focusing on D.C. musicians) in the fall—has expanded.
“The great thing about all this new stuff is that it’s all free,” Scott notes. “They’re all being funded by grants and other streams of revenue. We’re not charging people, or selling tickets, or anything like that.”
Have these endeavors unseated the foundation’s already popular Jazz Jam and HillFest, both of which do charge admission? Not even close. The weekly affair is a particular draw for student musicians wanting to exercise their skills. And a recent Wednesday night found Mr. Henry’s homey, wood-paneled upstairs packed to the rafters, and not just with musicians waiting their turns to put on a show with Scott and his house band, which featured guitarist Dave Manley.
Scott is not entirely sure when or how it happened, but his jam sessions have become a tourist attraction. Each week he asks the audience who came the farthest to be there; a recent winner came all the way from Johannesburg, South Africa.
Planning for HillFest is underway as well. It’s slated for Oct. 4 through 7, though the actual lineup is still a work in progress. The bulk of its programming will be local favorites, though Scott is considering some possible big names.
It’s an incredible set of developments for the Capitol Hill Jazz Foundation. Scott is also spearheading some educational initiatives, including a student-oriented Junior Jazz Orchestra that he hopes will debut in the fall. He’s perpetually short-staffed and stretching every dollar—no rare occurrence in this city of nonprofits—but just like the rest of them, Scott and the foundation are making it work while constantly pushing for more. “I’m just glad the city is hooked on music,” he says.
The Capitol Hill Jazz Foundation’s Capitol Hill Jazz Jam starts at 8 p.m. every Wednesday at Mr. Henry’s. capitolhilljazzfoundation.org. $5 cover and $12 minimum.