Bob Keesecker
Executive Director, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra

“Handball, aggressive cycling, cycle touring and sleeping on the couch” occupy a great deal of Bob Keesecker's leisure time. And then there are Monday nights, where he’s said to follow the gripping adventures of Jack Bauer on the show 24. But all that said, Keesecker doesn’t have a whole lot of that leisure time to speak of.

You see, he is Executive Director of the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra—an entity that has graced the Northeast Ohio area with incredible jazz performances for over 20 years. And at the heart of the band’s activity, you’ll find him tirelessly working on finding new ways to fundraise, market and raise the profile of the organization… one that only a few years ago was teetering on the edge of a fiscal abyss. Thanks to Keesecker, the CJO is out of the red and into the black.

Currently, the CJO maintains a core of 19 professional musicians; most members are full-time musicians, working their own small jazz groups and as regulars in major showrooms in the area. Others are local jazz educators, not even to mention leaders of jazz studies at many area colleges such as the University of Akron, Ashland, Case, Cleveland State, Tri-C, Kent State, Oberlin and Youngstown.

But that’s really the consistency most have seen on the surface. The band has undergone a complete transformation behind the scenes, launching a series of concerts at the once quiet Bop Stop jazz room, adding original compositions and modern material to their repertory slate, fortifying their educational outreach program with a Clinic & Concert Series and bringing high profile artists like Cleveland’s own Joe Lovano into town.

The CJO stands poised to bring jazz performance to a new and younger audience and both Keesecker and Artistic Director Jack Schantz continue to find new avenues for the group. You can read all about the CJO’s progress on Keesecker’s blog, http://clevelandjazz.blogspot.com and on the CJO website, http://www.clevelandjazz.org.

This Friday, 3/3 the CJO welcomes the Dublin Coffman High School Jazz Ensemble and the Cleveland Music School Settlement Jazz Orchestra to open the CJO Bop Stop concert, all starting at 8:00pm. Proceeds of the show benefit the Dublin Coffman High School instrumental music program, the Cleveland Music School Settlement Jazz Orchestra, and the CJO's Education Outreach Program. Keesecker checked in with Cool Cleveland to talk about all of the latest happenings.

Cool Cleveland: You’ve been in your role now for 3 years. What would you say has been your biggest challenge since becoming the executive director of the CJO?

Bob Keesecker: Well, dating back to 2003, the biggest challenge? So many juicy things to pick from, but I would say that putting the financial house in order was it. Expenses, fundraising, revenue, accounting practices, financial reporting to the board… anything related to finances needed to be fixed. With 25 years of non-profit management under my belt, I was amazed that the organization was still performing. Numerous band members thought likewise; some of them decided that around 2001 the band would be gone. The music thing was always world class, so there was obviously no problem there.

CC: Was there a prescription to change that course?

BK: There was simply no way the band could carry on that way. And the remedy was to build an effective and incredible fundraising program based on experience. What little fundraising we did have at the time [of my arrival] was inconsistent and not effective, because those folks did not have experience doing so.

As you well know, non-profit organizations need those funds to survive; when they’re not there, the distraction level interfering with your mission can be more than a little challenging.

CC: There were several new and exciting directions taken by the CJO during the past year. One of them was to work in conjunction with the Bop Stop—initiating a series of concerts highlighting guest artists and musicians with Cleveland roots. How was that series born and what do you see its future to look like?

BK: The series was born out of a vision for the future that Jack Schantz had. It also coincided with the thought that we are a repertory band playing standards from the past. That was a challenge for us in several areas.

First, our very senior audience was continuing to diminish for a variety of reasons… dwindling rapidly. And while the band loves playing repertory stuff, playing it concert day-in and day-out was getting old for everyone. This band is so talented, the musicians all wanted to be doing new charts of emerging music from all over the country as well as their own compositions. So, there was need to update in that regard, which also ended up attracting a younger audience. Put an equals sign there, called the Bop Stop and you have solved the equation. Jack envisioned The Bop Stop as a place where preservation of the old and introduction of the new would go hand in hand.

CC: No better place than the Bop Stop for that to happen.

BK: It’s beautiful. I know that Nighttown is not always as conducive. It’s a great place for jazz, but it really isn’t a big band venue… of course, the folks at Nighttown bring in Maynard [Ferguson], so they might not agree. The Bop Stop was built specifically for jazz performance. For no other reason than that. Not folk, not serving food, not having a bar – it was built to present jazz music. And after the highly publicized challenges [the owners] faced, it’s great to see it as an active, vibrant location again.

CC: Has your Series had an impact for them as well?

BK: As most people know, they ceased functioning as a restaurant and bar, but they have regrouped and with the CJO as their new home band… our presence is helping them realize their new incarnation as a jazz performance center. They have reemerged, but only on specific nights for contract and specially booked events. Otherwise they are dark.

CC: One of the artists you featured this year, Joe Lovano, is going to perform with the band again very soon. Tell us a little more about that.

BK: When we decided to pull the trigger on the Bop Stop series, Jack and the others wanted to do a big debut event. Jack said, “I can get Lovano.” So when Joe agreed, that was the kickoff of the Series. Those shows were a rousing success, musically, artistically and from an audience standpoint as well.

As a result of those shows, Lovano came back to us and said that he wanted the CJO to come up to play some shows at Birdland. Same shows, with our original charts as well. Come on up to Birdland in New York City in July! That’s where we’ll be… and it will be great to tell everyone at those shows that what they’re experiencing was heard first in Cleveland as a world premiere.

CC: You’ve also ramped up the Educational Outreach. The Clinic & Concert Series is at the heart of this effort, along with your Student Nights, which are open to students and their faculty only.

BK: After we settled on the Bop Stop, we decided, “let’s build an educational piece.” We thought, why don’t we invite entire school jazz ensembles to participate in the rehearsal. Invite 4 high schools and save about 30 seats for other students and college individuals to come and attend as well. There’s more information about it on our website, but the Clinic & Concert series has turned into a monstrously successful thing for us—raising our profile in the community and providing a great outlet for development of the future of jazz music in Northeast Ohio.

This Dublin Coffman concert really isn’t a Bop Stop series event, per se… were doing a Clinic & Concert Series at The Bop Stop this time, because the band we’re doing the show with is from Columbus. So everyone gets the best of both worlds this go-around! (laughs)

CC: Do you remember the first recording you ever purchased, jazz or otherwise?

BK: Yeah, I do… it was Maynard Ferguson… (flips through collection). Here it is, man. Color Him Wild. I remember it like it was yesterday. The LPs back then, well, they didn’t used to date them. But I bought it back in ’66. We saw Maynard do a concert and clinic in a high school… me and, at the time, my “girlfriend-soon-to-be-wife.” I’d love to say Buddy Rich was my first purchase, because I saw him out at Riverside High School as a kid, too. But it was Maynard.

CC: Name your all time, never tire of hearing, favorite jazz record.

BK: Ohhh… boy, oh boy… I’ll have to take all of the LPs I have. (laughs) Probably The Best of Buddy Rich, because I’ve never heard a big band like that since. The arrangements, his playing… all of it still, no matter how many times I hear it, it just blows me away. West Side Story still gives me chills after all this time. Out of this world. Reminds me of Riverside.

CC: What do you think would it take to make jazz more popular in Cleveland?

BK: I’ll give you an easy answer: for all the jazz organizations in town to work together and communicate together.

CC: Like a sort of local Jazz Regionalism?

BK: Yes. And that’s something we’ve talked about with a lot of the other organizations in town, as well as with some of our foundation friends. They all seem to see it the same way. The one problem with jazz entities in the city, is that a lot of times they never cross paths. Talking with Kevin Mahogany’s agent [after a joint CJO/Mahogany performance last month], he said the same thing. “This is a very segmented jazz town and that’s what’s holding it back.” Collaboration is the solution, like it is for much of what’s happening in the city.

That’s the beginning of any change.

By Cool Cleveland contributor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com (:divend:)