(Jazz singer René Marie)
In what has been a spectacular year for high level jazz concerts here in Hampton Roads, on both the Southside and the Peninsula — the 5th annual Vocal Jazz Summit returns next month to the Z in Virginia Beach. With 4 days of programming this year, this unique and typically well attended music summit, as co-directed by Liz Brydge and Alexis Cole, who are both well-regarded jazz vocalists themselves, is targeting its most successful year thus far.
“Well five definitely does feel like a milestone,” says Liz, during a recent, late evening phone chat, after she’d secured dinner for her and the hubby. “When you first start a thing, you go and ‘where do we want to be in one year, and two years, and five years, and ten years…’ and how do we want it to grow? And we have hit most of those milestones, for ourselves,” adds Liz. This year she is especially excited about the partnerships that have developed. “We’ve been planting seeds for five years, and I feel like we are seeing the garden flourish for the first time.”…