Akron Jazz Hero
Akron, Ohio may be well-known as the birthplace of National Basketball Association stars LeBron James and Steph Curry, but it has other hometown figures whose modesty and quiet dedication help to lift their community every day. Chris Anderson is one of those – rightly celebrated as a Jazz Hero.
Anderson is the founder and executive director of Open Tone Music, an Akron-based nonprofit that has provided access to free music education for young people throughout Northeast Ohio for 14 years. The organization also produces the Rubber City Jazz and Blues Festival, a three-day event in early September with the twin goals of presenting world-class musicians and celebrating Akron’s jazz legacy and its rich cultural history.
An in-demand trombonist for live performances and recordings for many years, Anderson has first-hand knowledge of the power music has to uplift and transform lives — he helps make that happen, as his admirers detail.. “We had a band that performed at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame [in Cleveland] and at Boys & Girls Clubs in Chicago and in Detroit,” said Kim Shemo, music program manager for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio for which Open Tone provides programming. “They were going really, really hard, and it was something to see.”
Anderson sees himself as an artist and an educator involved in the African diaspora that is global in scope. Through its Amistad Caribbean Arts Camp, Open Tone Music connects Northeast Ohio students in grades K-12, most of whom are Black and brown, with other youth and teaching artists from Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, Brazil and Colombia.
When Covid-19 pandemic restrictions made face-to-face instruction impossible, Anderson quickly assembled the capabilities to bring Open Tone’s programming online. In an interview on Ideastream, the NPR affiliate in Northeast Ohio, Anderson described Open Tone’s approach as “trying to bridge that gap between what happens in the classroom and elsewhere, intentionally trying to get towards the idea of the entire community becoming the institution as opposed to just being limited to four walls.”
Within his immediate community, Anderson is an institution. “He’s resilient and genuine,” Shemo said of Anderson. “Every last one of my communications with him and–we’ve had million–have been stellar and extremely professional. He really loves what he does.” Jazz Heroes such as Chris Anderson always do.
— John Chacona
Writer, Let’s Call This
