–Down on Copperline, David Menconi
Good venues for jazz music aren’t easy to find, which makes news of the ambitious new “Jazz at RambleRill Farm” series welcome indeed. The initial 2022 series will run to three shows beginning in late August, and the schedule is as follows:
Saturday, Aug. 27 – Lenny Marcus Trio, jazz ensemble from Roanoke, Va., billed as “swinging elegant fun.”
Saturday, Oct. 1 – La Fiesta Jazz Quintet, featuring a performance of bandleader Gregg Gelb’s five-part “Latin Jazz Pandemic Suite” (which includes titles such as “Quarantine Dance,” “New Normal” and “The Sad Truth”).
Saturday, Oct. 29 – Second Line Stompers, a New Orleans-style jazz group also led by Gelb.
RambleRill Farm is at 913 Arthur Minnis Road, a few miles from the Interstate 40/85 split outside Hillsborough in Orange County. Named after a “rill” (an intermittent stream) that crisscrosses the property on its way to New Hope Creek, RambleRill Farm is a certified-organic small farm with two of its nine acres devoted to production of fruits, vegetables, chickens and goats.
Tickets for each show are $20 with a start time of 7 p.m. These won’t be the first shows ever hosted on the property.
“We’ve done some shows out here a little bit in the past, but not on a regular basis,” says co-owner Jane “Farmer J” Saiers. “We’re trying to get back in the swing after Covid, doing a diversity of styles of jazz. These are indoor concerts in our big ol’ barn, which is now climate-controlled. So we can do shows rain or shine now and have everyone be comfortable. We’re excited to open up this space.”
Saiers and her husband/co-owner Darrin “Farmer D” Knapp both had long careers in neuroscience before retiring to full-time farming in recent years. Knapp also plays saxophone with Gelb in another of his groups, the Heart of Carolina Jazz Orchestra, which helps account for the couple’s interest in turning RambleRill Farm into a jazz-friendly concert venue.
“We’re huge Gregg Gelb fans and love what he does in education for youth and adults to bring jazz to the community,” says Saiers. “We want to support the gems in our community – local jazz, local food, producers, makers – and this is an opportunity to bring folks out to the farm to enjoy that.”