ColaJazz

ColaJazz’s goal and mission is to grow, elevate and bolster the jazz community in Columbia, SC and

ColaJazz and the ColaJazz 2015 CD is the brainchild of jazz trumpeter Mark Rapp. Mark had a desire to synergize, organize and highlight the wonderfully talented and accomplished jazz artists and educators active in Columbia, SC. Additionally, Mark wanted to give back to the fans, supporters, and venues which give us places to play. With the invaluable help of Paul Bodamer, Jangly Records and an in

itial round of funding by fans, friends and family, we created a “Columbia All-Stars” recording where each bandleader around Columbia received studio time to record. With additional monies and a phenomenal commitment of time and effort by Paul Bodamer, we recorded 13 groups comprised of 27 different musicians and even recorded an entire CD by our jazz ambassador Skipp Pearson!

09/08/2026

Before he was one of the most admired saxophonists alive, Chris Potter was a Columbia kid — Rosewood Elementary, Hand Middle, Dreher High. On Friday nights he'd play the football game with the Dreher marching band, then take the uniform off, put a tuxedo on, and go play a wedding reception.

Years later, asked what pulled him toward music in the first place, he said:

"I had that feeling that there were things I wanted to communicate — you know, things that I felt — that I really had no idea how to put into words and really still don't. So, music can help with that, the things in between the words that are actually maybe the most meaningful things. That's where music has its power."

That's the whole job, really. Somewhere in Columbia this morning there's a kid with something to say and no words for it yet.

If you know that kid, send them our way.

09/03/2026

We mourn the passing and celebrate the extraordinary life of Cassandra Wilson—singer, songwriter, producer and one of the most distinctive voices in modern jazz.

With her rich, unmistakable contralto, Wilson drew jazz, blues, folk, country and soul into a musical language entirely her own. From *Blue Light ’Til Dawn* and the Grammy-winning *New Moon Daughter* to *Loverly* and her tribute to Billie Holiday, *Coming Forth by Day*, she honored tradition while fearlessly expanding its boundaries.

A daughter of Jackson, Mississippi, a two-time Grammy winner and an NEA Jazz Master, Cassandra Wilson leaves a legacy of artistic freedom, deep feeling and singular beauty.

Her voice is stilled, but its resonance will endure.

Rest in power, Cassandra Wilson.
1955–2026

08/29/2026

When to clap at a jazz show, settled:

After the melody — hold on.
After the sax solo — clap.
After the piano solo — clap.
After the bass solo — clap LOUDER. That person has been holding the entire building up for nine minutes and nobody has looked at them once.
After the drum solo — you already are.
During the ballad — you'll know.

Want to practice?
Jazz on Carlisle kicks off Sept 3rd! Free and open to the public. Visit: ColaJazz.com/events

JazzKeller returns to Bierkeller Columbia Sept 16! Free and open to the public. Visit: ColaJazz.com/events

08/28/2026

Jazz 101: the most famous horn in jazz was a mistake.

On January 6, 1953, Dizzy Gillespie threw a birthday party for his wife Lorraine at a New York club. He left his trumpet on a stand onstage and stepped out for an interview. The comedy duo Stump and Stumpy got to horsing around, somebody fell, and the bell came back bent toward the ceiling.

Dizzy picked it up and played it anyway. In his memoir he wrote: "I couldn't get the right sound, but it was a strange sound that I got from that instrument that night. I played it, and I liked the sound."

Lorraine, an artist, sketched a trumpet with a 45-degree bell. Dizzy took the drawing to the Martin Company and said, "I want a horn like this." The accident became the silhouette.

Worth remembering that John Birks Gillespie was born up the road in Cheraw. South Carolina gave jazz one of its architects — and he spent a career proving the thing this music keeps teaching: what you do after the mistake is the whole art form.

Come hear it happen live. Visit: https://colajazz.com/newsletter

08/27/2026

February 11, 1990. Six episodes in, The Simpsons spent a full half hour on an eight-year-old who was sad and couldn't say why.

Lisa hears a saxophone through her bedroom window, follows it across town, and finds Bleeding Gums Murphy playing the blues alone on a bridge. He doesn't tell her to cheer up. He tells her to play what she's feeling.

That's jazz education in about ninety seconds — a kid gets a language for something she can't put into words, and a grown musician takes her seriously enough to listen.

Every student who walks into one of our programs is carrying something. The horn is how it gets said.

"Moaning Lisa," Season 1, Episode 6. Ron Taylor voiced Murphy. Still holds up.

WATCH THE EPISODE:
https://www.disneyplus.com/browse/entity-cac75c8f-a9e2-4d95-ac73-1cf1cc7b9568

QUESTION FOR YOU:
Who was the first musician who took you seriously? Tell us in the comments.

08/25/2026

"Jazz music teaches us all to accept people where they are and have a love for what they can do, not for what they don't do."
— Wynton Marsalis, NPR's "Talk of the Nation," September 2, 2008

He was describing a bandstand, but it works just as well as instructions for a community. Everybody walks in with something. The job is to make room for it.

That's most of what we're doing here — the students, the shows, the folks who show up not knowing a ii-V from a IV chord and leave humming anyway.

Come take a seat: colajazz.com/events

08/21/2026

Last night’s Live in the Lobby was epic!

Cleveland P Jones blew everyone away.

What a talent.
What an amazing human.
What a kind soul.

Thank you for the blessings last night!
🙏🏽🙌🏾🎶❤️🔥

Justin Varnes Jazz Legacy Project “Music of Ray Charles” was magic! We will have them back!

ColaJazz
Koger Center for the Arts

Address

2123 College Street
Columbia, SC
29205

Opening Hours

8pm - 11pm

Website

https://colajazz.com/

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