"Hey, Fred!" 08/14-08/20/2024
Goings On in Columbus, OH: Beats & Samples returns to The Oracle | CBUS Soul Fest | Inaugural Columbus Comedy Festival | OTE Jazz Fest | October Ember Record Release
Comedy
08/14/2024
Columbus Comedy Festival
Various Venues
August 14-18: Schedule here.
Separately Ticketed Events; Tickets and More Info at: https://columbuscomedyfest.com/tickets/
Disclosure: I write about theater and other performance art for Columbus Underground, but they didn’t bring me in for anything on this first Columbus Comedy Festival. It felt a little disingenuous to both not say that and also to not draw attention to it because it’s exactly the kind of big, passionate swing I want to see more art forms get a chance for in this town.
The Columbus Comedy Festival covers 10 venues, from established comedy clubs like the Funny Bone and the Attic to up-and-comers like Hashtag Comedy and The Nest to theatre spaces like MadLab and nightclubs like The Kee. Over five days, it hosts dozens of entertainers and seems to hit a really nice cross-section of styles, backgrounds, and points of view. Belinda Paschal wrote a great feature on it for The Dispatch.
Music
08/16/2024
Beats & Samples Volume 6
The Oracle, 1159 Oak St
August 16: 9 pm show
Free
I’ve written up a lot of Soundclash Entertainment nights; DJ Trueskills has been as sure a thing as a DJ is in this town and one of my favorite, most creative nights of his returns to The Oracles for its sixth iteration: Beats & Samples, a showcase of some of our best producers and beatmakers, giving their freshest work some real-life dancefloor test drives.
Typically stacked lineup this time. Product is equally comfortable with atmospheres and motion, as seen in his terrific cinematic beat tape collaboration with Trueskills, The Beneathers. Tim2wice’s 2024 album Full Plate is full of jagged shadows and crunch; enough warmth to set a mood and keep your head bopping but without ever letting the listener get too comfortable. Dezoul1 is also the drummer for Columbus R&B institution the OG Players and a prolific maker of beat tapes, the piece of his remixed by BlaqueOpz I linked below is a favorite. Primitive Soundlab has transitioned from an award-winning DJ to an extremely sophisticated producer.
Illogic, who I still know best as a rapper, has risen by leaps and bounds as a producer, with stunning beats on his last record, The Transition, with a high bar set because before he was making his own, he had beaten by the best in the business.
And I suspect anyone reading this for more than a few weeks needs no introduction to the legend J Rawls, but if you do, my CU colleague Alex Lewis wrote an excellent feature on him earlier in the year. With a wide-ranging catalog from tracks for Black Star to leading our local standard-bearers for jazz-hip-hop fusion, Liquid Crystal Project, to collaborative records with some of our finest talent, including Dominique Larue and DJ Ginsu, to killing records under his own name, like this year’s thumping house-style Bump The Floor, he’s always worth checking.
Olde Towne East Jazz Fest
Blackburn Park, 263 E Carpenter St
August 16-18: Various Times
Free in general, pricing for certain events
Details at https://www.otejazz.com/
I love the idea of Olde Towne East Jazz Festival and even without having a full lineup posted at the time of writing - keep watching that website above - there’s enough to feel more than comfortable recommending this event in and around Blackburn Park. Local acts include Hosea’s State of Mind, which I caught at Comfest and had a cool post-Herbie Hancock Headhunters vibe on the instrumentals and great taste in rep on songs with vocals, including a stunning version of Sade’s “Smooth Operator.” Headliners include Atlanta-based keyboardist/singer/songwriter William Green on Saturday and Special EFX featuring guitarist Cheili Minucci, who’s graced records by Roberta Flack, Cheryl Lynn, Omar Hakim, Marc Antony, among many others.
October Ember Record Release
Natalie’s Grandview, 945 King Ave
August 16: 9 pm show
$18.75 Tickets available at Showclix
October Ember are a breath of fresh air in a Columbus music scene that often feels like it sends out slight variations on the same few rock tropes. Jennifer Dutel’s vocals, conjuring torch song legends, confessional singer-songwriters, and film noir fragments while always being herself, plus her sympathetic melodica playing, plays beautifully with Kevin Holland’s guitar, flute, and synth, and drummer Troy Kunkler, who I’ve written about here before is the perfect gas in the tank to keep anything from feeling too precious. After trying for a while, I finally caught them on a beautiful day in the graveyard I grew up visiting, Green Lawn, for the Dia de los Muertos celebration last fall, and they summarily blew me away.
08/17/2024
CBUS Soul Fest
Genoa Park, 303 W Broad St
August 17: 4 pm - 11 pm
Free, details at https://cbussoulfest.com/
Maybe the single thing I’m sorriest to miss seeing The Mavericks/Nicole Atkins in Indy (but I love that this town is hopping enough that any time you go out of town, you miss something great) is the second (I think) edition of CBUS Soul Fest. Some of the best food of any of our festivals - Fork in Nigeria, Bistro 91, and Zaki’s Mediterranean are all personal go to’s whenever I see them, and I’ve heard great things about half a dozen other trucks on the lineup - and a tight, excellent lineup.
I talked about J Rawls and Liquid Crystal Project above, must sees if you’re there in time. I’ve heard excellent things about Brianna O’Dell. Headliners are Philly neo-soul trailblazers Kindred The Family Soul and Tony! Toni! Toné! whose records meant the world to me in middle and High School, especially Sons of Soul. Anne and I saw D’Wayne Wiggins sit in with his brother and former bandmate Raphael Saadiq at a Lollapalooza aftershow in Chicago (Crowbar?) about a decade ago and it was breathtaking. If you’re in town, don’t miss this.