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Hot Jazz, Cool Treats


Audience members clapped in time as the Buzz Jones Big Band rounded out its 30th-anniversary concert with a saucy swing version of a patriotic tune. Overcast skies had sent the under-the-stars event indoors, but the sunny strains of jump and swing kept listeners clapping and toe-tapping all evening long.

In fact, a few sang along with guest-vocalist Cathy Chemi, as she launched into a string of popular tunes from the '40s and '50s.  As in years past, some music fans announced requests and heaped praise on the band members during the intermission.

“We always get a nice crowd at Dickinson, and they give a lot of good feedback, every year,” said Ron Axsom, contributing faculty in music, who has played trombone in the 16-piece band since its founding by former Dickinson music instructor and bandleader Buzz Jones. [Story continues below.]  


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  • Buzz Jones (standing) speaks to the audience about the band, which performed its 30th concert at Dickinson this summer.
    Buzz Jones
  • Longtime band member Ron Axsom, contributing faculty in music (right), met Jones through a roommate in 1977. He has been playing in a band with Jones ever since.
    Ron Axsom
  • Steven Strawley, contributing faculty in music, takes a solo. Strawley is one of two current Dickinson music instructors in the band. Former Dickinson faculty members in the band include lead-alto saxophonist Doug Cook and Buzz Jones, who once directed Dickinson's jazz and symphonic bands.
    Steven Strawley
  • Cathy Chemi, a favorite singer at the Central Pennsylvania Jazz Festival and a frequent guest-artist with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, sang with the Harry James Orchestra in the 1960s. She also is a longtime vocalist for the Buzz Jones Big Band.
    Cathy Chemi
  • At first, the Buzz Jones Big Band was a rehearsal group—an informal assembly of music teachers and other accomplished musicians who were fans of the genre. Three decades later, it is a local institution.
    Long Tradition
  • Pianist Wayne Fox performs for the crowd. 
    Wayne Fox
  • Not all audience members were old enough to recall the days when swing was king. But music lovers of all ages enjoyed the event.
    Music Lovers
  • Lead alto saxophonist Doug Cook is a former member of the Dickinson community who, like Jones, directed the college's jazz band for many years.
    Doug Cook
  • Cook takes a solo.
    Flying Solo
  • Jones, a guitarist (right), smiles while accompanying Chemi.
    Chemi and Jones
Buzz Jones (standing) speaks to the audience about the band, which performed its 30th concert at Dickinson this summer.Prev ImageNext Image

A rehearsal band goes big time 

Jones was a young music instructor who had just moved to the area from Maryland when he assembled the band in 1979 as an outlet for fellow musicians who were big-band enthusiasts. The group presented its first Dickinson concert/ice-cream social two years later, at the invitation of Professor Emeritus Truman Bullard. The event was a big hit, and a three-decade tradition was born.

Over the years, the Buzz Jones Big Band completed multiple tours of Europe; performed with Tony Bennett, Bob Mintzer and the U.S. Navy Commodores; and appeared in the Montreaux and North Sea International Jazz Festivals. Members also have toured with the Buddy Rich and Glenn Miller orchestras and have played backup for The Temptations and The Four Tops.

 For the joy of it 

The musicians have come and gone in the years since, said Axsom, one of three original members who still plays in the band. But, he said, the spirit of camaraderie remains.

“I think the band has stayed together all this time because we all enjoy playing this kind of music, and we enjoy each other’s company,” said Axsom, who has just hired several fellow members as backup musicians for The Temptations at an upcoming gig at the Luhrs Performing Arts Center in nearby Shippensburg, Pa.

“It’s satisfying to play with good players who love what they’re doing. We have a good time.”

By MaryAlice Bitts Jackson
Photos by Carl Socolow ’77